A UK model has lashed out at critics who say it was insensitive of her to take a selfie at the Holocaust Memorial and post it with a funny caption.
Rhian Sugden, a lingerie model, was on holiday in Berlin when she visited the famous Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.
The 32-year-old snapped a photo of herself wearing a scarf around her head as she stood within the memorial, and later posted the picture to Instagram where she has almost 300,000 followers.
"ET phone home," she wrote alongside the selfie, a reference to the famous scene in the 1982 film in which the eponymous alien rides a bike while wrapped in a blanket.
But social media users didn't think the joke was funny.
"Your caption is inappropriate considering your setting, it's weird you don't realise that," one wrote.
"Imagine having such little respect for the millions of people murdered during the Holocaust that you think this is appropriate," another said. "What an embarrassment of a human."
- Auschwitz survivors urge the world to not forget
- Sean Spicer apologises for 'inappropriate' Holocaust comments
- Protestors build Holocaust memorial outside far-right politician's home
Others took issue with the idea of taking a selfie at a monument to the victims of genocide, and criticised her for making a "duck face" into the camera.
Ms Sugden hasn't shied away from the criticism, although she did change the photo caption on Instagram.
She hit back in the comments, writing she had "no time for this moaning generation".
"I'm on holiday. Sightseeing and took a pic. Under no circumstances is this disrespectful."
She also took to Twitter to complain that "the abuse [she] got is mental".
"I'm actually gutted people are saying I am disrespectful - I'm really really not."
The Berlin memorial was opened in 2005 and attracts millions of international visitors every year. It consists of 2711 towering slabs of concrete arranged in an uneven grid-like pattern. An underground segment holds the names of about 3 million Jewish people who were killed in the Holocaust.
In 2016, an Israeli artist became so frustrated with people taking selfies at the memorial that he created an art project called 'Yolocaust', which superimposed tourist photos over horrific photos showing the corpses of Holocaust victims.
Newshub.
