No selfie with Hitler, please

– A Dutch museum has banned visitors from taking photos at a controversial exhibition of designs from Hitler’s Nazi regime to stop them being “interpreted the wrong way”.

The crowds at the Design Museum in Den Bosch – which has been sold out since Design in the Third Reich opened earlier this month – look like those at any other museum, but with two important exceptions.

First, there is the extraordinary backdrop – 277 articles ranging from a ’40s Volkswagen Beetle to statues of Hitler’s favourite sculptor, Arno Breker, propaganda posters and films by Nazi director Leni Riefenstahl.

And second, the tell-tale lack of the smartphones that are normally ubiquitous at any tourist attraction or place of interest anywhere in the world.

The exhibition’s opening prompted protest from left-wing and antifascist groups, who said they feared it could serve as a Nazi shrine.

Museum spokesperson Maan Leo said extraordinary measures had been taken, including banning photography inside, posting extra staff and only allowing 50 visitors entry at a time.

Tickets can only be purchased online.

The reason no pictures are allowed “is that we place every single object within the exhibition in a historical context that highlights the horrible endgame of the Nazi regime”, Leo said.

“If you take one of these objects out of context, it might be interpreted the wrong way,” she said.

Museum visitors have been flocking to see the expo, with about 10 000 online tickets ordered.

But what happens, for instance, if somebody tries to take a selfie with a Hitler poster?

“We can ban people from the museum or remove people from the museum based on their actions. So, if people behave badly we ask them to go,” said Leo. “But neo-Nazis don’t usually wear a big swastika on their forehead.

“We believe you have to be a very sick person to come away from this exhibition and think. ‘yeah, that’s a good idea’,” she said.

It is, of course, a very touchy subject.