--- title: Auschwitz Exhibit With Barbie at Burning Man Slammed description: A Burning Man art installation is being criticized for trivializing the Holocaust with a portrayal of Barbie dolls in a concentration camp. canonical: https://time.com/5670842/barbie-auschwitz-burning-man-controversy/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-09-06T16:00:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:00:11.774Z og:title: Auschwitz Art Exhibit Featuring Barbies at Burning Man Slammed og:description: Who would have thought? og:url: https://time.com/5670842/barbie-auschwitz-burning-man-controversy/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc33eba74d356d766/698a0279011682f78e97e28d/barbie-auschwitz-burning-man-controversy.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Barbie Approaches Her 50th Birthday og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Auschwitz Art Exhibit Featuring Barbies at Burning Man Slammed twitter:description: Who would have thought? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc33eba74d356d766/698a0279011682f78e97e28d/barbie-auschwitz-burning-man-controversy.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Holocaust Exhibit Featuring Barbie Dolls at Burning Man Draws Criticism  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Sep 6, 2019 4:00 PM UTC  SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - MAY 18: The toy doll Barbie appears in her various incarnations at Leuralla NSW toy and railway museum, as the iconic doll approaches her 50th birthhday May 18, 2007 in Sydney, Australia. First launched at the New York Toy Show in 1959, Barbie has now become the largest selling toy ever produced. Barbie has worn the outfits of the great designers such as Dior, Ralph Lauren, Armani, Versace and many others, and has seen a career of almost 50 years of dramatic social, cultural and political changes. (Photo by Ian Waldie/Getty Images) SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - MAY 18: The toy doll Barbie appears in her various incarnations at Leuralla NSW toy and railway museum, as the iconic doll approaches her 50th birthhday May 18, 2007 in Sydney, Australia. First launched at the New York Toy Show in 1959, Barbie has now become the largest selling toy ever produced. Barbie has worn the outfits of the great designers such as Dior, Ralph Lauren, Armani, Versace and many others, and has seen a career of almost 50 years of dramatic social, cultural and political changes. (Photo by Ian Waldie/Getty Images)Ian Waldie—Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Sep 6, 2019 4:00 PM UTC An art exhibit at [Burning Man](https://time.com/5663633/burning-man-festival-space/) that featured [Barbie dolls](https://time.com/barbie-new-body-cover-story/) in a representation of a [concentration camp](http://concentration camp time.com) has incited outrage, with many criticizing the art for trivializing the Holocaust. The exhibit, titled “Barbie Death Camp and Wine Bistro,” features hundreds of naked Barbies that are being led to ovens, crucified on pink crosses, or taken apart and scattered around the ovens, according to the [_The Times of Israel_](https://www.timesofisrael.com/burning-man-festival-site-features-holocaust-camp-themed-barbie-exhibit/). The exhibit also features toy soldiers who are holding guns and a sign that reads, “arbeit macht plastik frei,” a seeming reference to the sign above the gate at [Auschwitz, the Nazi concentration camp](https://time.com/5577552/holocaust-remembrance-auschwitz/), that read “work makes you free.” The sign also stated that the camp was presented by “Auschwitz Inc.” Backlash against the exhibit was so great that the Anti-Defamation League has opened an investigation about it. According to [_J. TheJewish News of Northern California,_](https://www.jweekly.com/2019/09/04/auschwitz-themed-barbie-death-camp-at-burning-man-catches-adls-eye/) the exhibit was created by 65-year-old Jewish artist James Jacoby, who’s staged the camp at Burning Man for the past 20 years and is well-aware of how it could offend viewers, but denies that he was minimizing violence against Jews. “We certainly don’t want to trigger anybody,” Jacoby said. “But Burning Man is not a safe space. It’s not Yale University. You don’t get to run and hide from something you don’t like. There’s 1,100 theme camps. If you don’t like ours, go to another one.” Burning Man, which began on San Francisco’s Baker Beach in 1986, is known for its embrace of the counterculture. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5670842/barbie-auschwitz-burning-man-controversy/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5670842/barbie-auschwitz-burning-man-controversy/"},"headline":"The Holocaust Exhibit Featuring Barbie Dolls at Burning Man Draws Criticism","datePublished":"2019-09-06T16:00:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:00:11.774Z","description":"A Burning Man art installation is being criticized for trivializing the Holocaust with a portrayal of Barbie dolls in a concentration camp.","url":"https://time.com/5670842/barbie-auschwitz-burning-man-controversy/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc33eba74d356d766/698a0279011682f78e97e28d/barbie-auschwitz-burning-man-controversy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc33eba74d356d766/698a0279011682f78e97e28d/barbie-auschwitz-burning-man-controversy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Barbie Approaches Her 50th Birthday","caption":"Barbie Approaches Her 50th Birthday","creditText":"Ian Waldie—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5670842/barbie-auschwitz-burning-man-controversy/","name":"The Holocaust Exhibit Featuring Barbie Dolls at Burning Man Draws Criticism"}}]}] ```