KFC sent an offer on its app for Germans to celebrate what is widely considered the trigger of the Holocaust to its users this week. Kristallnacht was a 1938 organized attack by the Nazis of Germany against Jews.
“It’s memorial day for Kristallnacht! Treat yourself with more tender cheese on your crispy chicken. Now at KFCheese!,” the company said in a message to its German app users.
KFC sent a second message an hour later, “SORRY, WE MADE A MISTAKE.”
“Because of a system error, we sent an incorrect and inappropriate alert on our app,” that second message read. “We are very sorry, we will check our internal processes immediately so that this does not happen again. Please excuse this error.”
According to the U.S. Holocaust Museum, “On November 9–10, 1938, Nazi leaders unleashed a series of pogroms against the Jewish population in Germany and recently incorporated territories. This event came to be called Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) because of the shattered glass that littered the streets after the vandalism and destruction of Jewish-owned businesses, synagogues, and homes. “