Rhode Island Restaurant Apologizes for Anne Frank Post Saying ‘It is Hotter Than an Oven Out There’
Source: Google Maps Screenshot
A Rhode Island restaurant has apologized for sharing an offensive meme featuring Holocaust victim Anne Frank in a Facebook post about the weather on Sunday.
Atlantic Sports Bar & Restaurant posted the meme on its official Facebook page, which was a photo of Anne Frank and the words “It’s hotter than an oven out there … and I should know.”
The post went viral on social media and was picked up on multiple websites. The Facebook post has since been removed.
The Stop Anti-Semitism website shared the story on their Twitter account.
A Rhode Island restaurant decided it was a good idea to post a meme referencing Anne Frank and it being “hotter than an oven out there”.
We have no words.https://t.co/nxIkaPqD71 pic.twitter.com/oKVZyvMgab
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) July 25, 2022
The restaurant apologized on Monday:
The team here at The Atlantic wants to issue it’s [sic] sincerest apologies for a deeply insensitive post shared by our account on 7/22. The post was poorly thought out and we realize that it was incredibly inappropriate and does not reflect our values as members of our community.
There is no excuse for the sharing of this post, and there is nothing we can do to rectify it, all we can do now is offer our deepest apology to those who were rightfully hurt by our actions.
The Atlantic Restaurant prides itself on being a tolerant, inclusive and safe space for all people. We love and respect all of our incredible customers and members of our larger community, irrespective of their religion, race, creed, sexuality or gender identity. Moving forward we will be vigilant in vetting all social media posts to ensure that nothing like the events of this past week ever happen again.
We appreciate the outpouring of support, as well as the outpouring of rightful criticism, this will certainly be a teachable moment for our team. Thank you again for allowing us to serve our community, doing what we love – we hope that with time we can regain the trust of those who we’ve hurt and move forward, as a better, stronger and more sensitive organization.
Frank hid with her family in Holland until they were caught by authorities. Frank died at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp due to illness. She was 15 years old.
