The Jewish community is horrified by a new trend merging on TikTok where young people pretend to be victims of the Holocaust speaking from heaven.
In the videos the teens wear stage makeup to look like bruises while explaining to the viewer how they died in concentration camps.
According to US Holocaust Museum between 1941 and 1945 it's estimated around six million Jews were murdered by Nazis - two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population.
The videos have been condemned by the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand with chief executive telling Newshub he feels "disgusted" by the content.
"I am totally disgusted that on two levels that TikTok could allow this to happen and secondly that young people are lacking some major education around the Holocaust and the impact that it has had on the world," said Chris Harris on Tuesday.
Harris says TikTok must remove the content from it's platform immediately as it glorifies what the Nazis did to the Jews.
"For young people to think that dressing up and applying make-up gives them an understanding of what happened is totally unacceptable - these were real victims - people who suffered the worst that humanity could throw at them," he continued.
One 17-year-old girl who had dressed up as a holocaust victim told Insider anonymously she did it because she wanted to "educate people".
"I've always been interested in the history of the Holocaust and just wanted to make a creative video informing people about it on TikTok," she said.
"It was never intended to be offensive." She has since removed the video.
A comment from another TikTok user taking part in the trend shared on social media shows her dismissing concerns over the video.
"Trying to find where I asked" the girl replies to a commenter telling her the video was offensive to the real victims of the Holocaust.
Harris told Newshub the disturbing trend highlights how important it is that people are educated about the atrocities of the Holocaust.
"As much as TikTok was trying to create an awareness of the Holocaust, I think that this has not worked, it is insensitive and makes fun of the Holocaust, he said,
The Holocaust Centre of New Zealand has multiple initiatives aimed at educating people about the genocide, including treaching resources for schools and online lessons and webinars.
