What is Auschwitz Selfie?

The Auschwitz Selfie is a smiling photo teenager Breanna Mitchell took of herself outside the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland and posted to Twitter under the handle @PrincessBMM[1].

Where did Auschwitz Selfie come from?

Mitchell tweeted the picture from her Twitter account on June 20, 2014, and it went viral about a month later on July 20, 2014, when a wider audience began sharing it as a trending topic[1].

What does Auschwitz Selfie mean?

It became shorthand for the clash between casual selfie culture and serious historical sites, and for arguments about online pile-ons directed at teenagers[1].

How do you use Auschwitz Selfie?

The Auschwitz Selfie is a specific 2014 news event rather than a template, and it typically comes up as a reference in discussions of Holocaust tourism, selfie etiquette, and social media shaming[2].

Is Auschwitz Selfie still popular?

The Auschwitz Selfie was a short July 2014 news cycle, and Mitchell stepped back from the mentions within days of the tweet going viral[1].

Auschwitz Selfie

2014viral photoclassic

Published August 15, 2026

The Auschwitz Selfie is a smiling self-portrait posted to Twitter in 2014 by American teenager Breanna Mitchell outside the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. When the picture went viral a month later, it drew heavy online backlash and days of news coverage before Mitchell stepped away from the tweet.

selfie memes moral panic memes backfire memes accidental fame memes celebrity backlash memes

Overview

The Auschwitz Selfie is a photo of American teenager Breanna Mitchell smiling outside the former Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, which she posted from her Twitter handle @PrincessBMM1. The image pairs a bright smile and a smiley-face emoticon caption with the site of a Nazi death camp, and that contrast drove the reaction once the tweet caught wider attention2.

When the photo was rediscovered a month after posting, Twitter split between people who called the pose offensive and others who felt the harassment aimed at a teenage girl had gone too far, and Mitchell said she took the picture in remembrance of her father1.

Origin & Background

Platform

Twitter

Creator

Breanna Mitchell

Date

2014

Breanna Mitchell tweeted the selfie from the handle @PrincessBMM on June 20, 2014, with the caption "Selfie in the Auschwitz Concentration Camp" followed by a smiley face1. The photo sat with little engagement for roughly a month before a wider audience surfaced it on Sunday, July 20, 2014, turning it into a Twitter trending topic2.

How It Spread

Once the tweet trended on July 20, 2014, angry replies flooded in alongside a growing group of defenders1. In less than 48 hours the original post gathered nearly 4,000 retweets and over 2,600 favorites, and Mitchell retweeted more than 150 messages from supporters1.

Same-day articles ran on Business Insider, Buzzfeed, and Newsday, with the New York Post and The Mirror in the UK covering the story the following day2. Mitchell briefly leaned into the attention, tweeting "I'm famous yall" after Business Insider wrote her up1. She soon asked people to stop retweeting the picture and stepped back from the mentions1.

Frequently Asked Questions

References (2)