Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum has urged "disrespectful" visitors to stop photographing each other balancing on the railway line outside the historic Holocaust site.
In a social media post, the museum addressed the growing number of people posing on the tracks, where prisoners arrived at the concentration camp by train from 1940 to 1945.
The Museum tweeted: “When you come to Auschwitz Museum, remember you are at the site where over 1 million people were killed. Respect their memory.
“There are better places to learn how to walk on a balance beam than the site which symbolizes deportation of hundreds of thousands to their deaths."
The post was illustrated with four photographs of tourists standing on the railway line at the Auschwitz Memorial.
Of the estimated 1.3 million people sent to the camp in Poland, at least 1.1 million died as part of the Nazi regime's "final solution" policy during the Second World War.
Twitter users have flooded the post, which has racked up 40, 000 likes, with messages of support for the museum.
One commenter called Francesca said: “This is a very necessary post, our picture-taking habits are completely out of control.
“I may be visiting in summer, I will make sure I am aware of your photography policy.”
However, some defended the photo takers with one twitter user writing: “different people deal with uncomfortable emotions in different ways – such as laughing at a funeral. Instead of critizing – educate.”
One respondent said: “Let people smile. Remembrance does not mean being solemn all the time.”
The museum hit back at this comment saying: “Smiling is human. There are also human stories from #Auschwitz that can make people smile.
“You do not have to be solemn and stern all the time," they said
"Yet, there are some things which are disrespectful."
