'Barbie Death Camp' exhibit at Burning Man features dolls led into ovens

July 2024 · 4 minute read

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An art exhibit at a festival in Nevada has sparked outrage for featuring hundreds of naked Barbie dolls being led into ovens in a simulated death camp, according to reports.

The shocking “Barbie Death Camp and Wine Bistro” exhibit at the Burning Man festival is the brainchild of Jewish artist James Jacoby, 65, according to J. The Jewish News of Northern California.

“We certainly don’t want to trigger anybody,” Jacoby told the news outlet, adding that he’s staged the same camp at the event for the past 20 years.

“But Burning Man is not a safe space. It’s not Yale University. You don’t get to run and hide from something you don’t like. There’s 1,100 theme camps. If you don’t like ours, go to another one,” he added.

The tone-deaf artist, a retired financial manager who goes by the name “Doc Pyro,” said he started the macabre show with the help of a wine merchant pal who was in the Jewish fraternity ZBT at UC Santa Barbara.

“We started off small,” he told the Jewish news outlet. “Just 11 miserable Barbies stuffed into an Easy-Bake Oven.”

He said that part of the reason he’d kept it up over the years was “because it just worked,” adding that it has proven to be a sort of aphrodisiac — or at least a twisted ice-breaker.

“It’s a chance to meet people and have a friendly conversation,” he said of the ghoulish display, to which attendees often bring their own Barbies. “A couple of guys have gotten laid because women come and stop.”

“It’s a rather sexually charged atmosphere,” he added. “You get a chance to engage people.”

Tickets to stay at the “Barbie Death Village” cost between $100 and $200, on top of the $425 entry fee to Burning Man itself. Some 220 people camped there this year, Jacoby said.

An image from 2009 shows almost the identical scene as the one portrayed this year — with hundreds of Barbie dolls being led to ovens by soldiers and a banner reading “Arbeit macht plastic frei” — a variation of the German slogan at Auschwitz meaning “work sets you free.”

Other dolls this year were shown crucified on pink crosses or dismembered and placed near the ovens, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported.

An electronic screen accompanying the display carried a message declaring it “The friendliest concentration camp” at the Burning Man festival.

The Anti-Defamation League’s San Francisco office said it had received numerous complaints about the exhibit.

Regional Director Seth Brysk said that while people have the right to free expression, “using that free expression to trivialize the Holocaust for the sake of political, social or artistic ends is still deeply offensive and inappropriate. And we would ask people not to do so.”

He added: “It tarnishes the memories of those who died, including the 6 million Jews and 5 million others. Particularly in the current environment, where we have a confluence of survivors no longer around to tell their stories, and increased extremism and hatred, we think it’s more important than ever to preserve and respect the memory of the Holocaust.”

Jacoby said that some protesters “began to smash our property” on Aug. 31 and threatened him.

He admitted that during the fracas, someone with the Barbie Death Camp who smashed one of the protesters’ car taillights was charged with assault with a deadly weapon.

“These people were violent beyond imagination,” Jacoby said about the protesters.

But others had no problem with the exhibit, particularly since Burning Man bills itself as a “laboratory” for pushing the limits of social acceptability.

“There are a lot of potentially offensive things at Burning Man,” said Ron Feldman of Berkeley, Calif., a longtime Burning Man attendee. “It’s not as if somebody had put this out in their front yard. Given the context [of Burning Man], this may not be so outlandish.”

Burning Man, which began in 1986 as a small gathering on Baker Beach in San Francisco, has since exploded into a global attraction, attracting about 70,000 people, dubbed “Burners,” who erect a “temporary city” in the Nevada desert in late summer.

Organizers did not immediately respond to a request for comment by The Post.

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