(CelebrityAccess) — German industrial band Rammstein sparked controversy when they released a new music video that shows the members of the band dressed as Nazi concentration camp prisoners.
The nine-minute-long video for the track Deutschland includes iconic scenes from Germany’s history, including sequences where the band appear to be prisoners of Nazis SS guards during a V2 rocket launch.
In one of the prisoner sequences, a member of the band, dressed explicitly as a Jewish concentration camp prisoner, is executed.
Rammstein was subjected to a firestorm of criticism on social media after the video debuted, with some critics suggesting the band courted controversy as a marketing ploy.
Emmanuel Nahshon, a spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry, tweeted:
This “ Rammstein “ clip , using the Holocaust for advertisement purposes, is shameful and uncalled for . We join the many voices calling for its immediate removal . @IsraelinGermany @GermanyDiplo pic.twitter.com/ZytGEPYi7T
— Emmanuel Nahshon (@EmmanuelNahshon) March 28, 2019
Others have voiced support for Rammstein, noting that the video merely depicted German history, even its worst moments.
“Deutschland” isn’t Rammstein’s first brush with Nazi iconography. In 1998, Rammstein used footage from Leni Riefenstahl’s 1936 Nazi propaganda movie Olympia for their music video for their hit “Stripped.”
