Yolocaust: What happens when you do yoga on top of a Holocaust memorial?

"No historical event compares to the Holocaust. It's up to you how to behave at a memorial site that marks the death of 6 million people."

By LAURA SIGAL
Updated: JANUARY 24, 2017 17:51
People jump from concrete elements of the Holocaust memorial in Berlin (photo credit: REUTERS)
People jump from concrete elements of the Holocaust memorial in Berlin
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Warning: Contains Graphic Images
Hundreds of thousands of selfies featuring smiling, yoga-posing, laughing people, all while visiting the 2,711 concrete slabs at the Holocaust Denkmal Berlin memorial have recently surfaced on multiple social media platforms.
The pictures in question are part of Yolocuast, an artistic initiative led by Shahak Shapira, an Israeli satirist and author who takes the images, all publicly posted on social media such as Facebook and Instagram, and edits the back drop to Nazi extermination camps. 
Shapira's project serves as an artistic critique of individuals who visit sites commemorating the genocide of six millions Jews during World War II and then proceed to post pictures of themselves smiling and appearing to have a good time.

The artist named his project "Yolocaust" in an ironic word play on the word Holocaust and the term YOLO, short for "you only live once," a popular, life-affirming message people often add to their social media posts in the form of a hashtag.

The Yolocaust site describes the project as exploring "commemorative culture by combining selfies from the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin with footage from Nazi extermination camps."
The powerful images have recently gained steam on social media, since Shapira posted the website on his Facebook page just this past Wednesday.

That same day Shapira faced server problems, he credited the problems to receiving too many viewers.
So should you take a picture at the Holocaust memorial?

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In a frequently asked question portion of the site the Shapira explains, "No historical event compares to the Holocaust. It's up to you how to behave at a memorial site that marks the death of 6 million people."