WWE Apologises For Using Controversial Footage In WrestleMania 39 Video Package

WWE have apologised for using footage of the Auschwitz concentration camp in a video package to promote the WrestleMania 39 match between Dominik and Rey Mysterio. 

The footage of Auschwitz aired during a video package on the WrestleMania 39 night one kickoff show. After fans questioned if the images were indeed from the former concentration camp, the footage was removed, being replaced with stock images of barbed wire. 

The use of the former concentration and extermination camp in a WrestleMania video package was condemned by the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, which tweeted: "The fact that Auschwitz image was used to promote a WWE match is hard to call 'an editing mistake'. Exploiting the site that became a symbol of enormous human tragedy is shameless and insults the memory of all victims of Auschwitz."

WWE have now released a statement to The Washington Post, apologising for the use of the footage. 

"We had no knowledge of what was depicted. As soon as we learned, it was removed immediately," WWE stated.

The Auschwitz concentration camp was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps in Nazi Germany-occupied Poland during World War Two. Over 1.1 million people, including 960,000 Jews, died at the camps. 

Following the end of WW2, the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum was established in 1947. The museum is composed of the main concentration camp at Auschwitz I and the remains of Auschwitz II-Birkenau.