KFC Germany encourages public to celebrate Kristallnacht with cheesy chicken

KFC sends message to customers on day of remembrance for German Jews killed in antisemitic rioting, encouraging the public to treat themselves to cheesy chicken.

By Adina Katz, World Israel News

The German branch of American fast food chain KFC shocked its customers on Wednesday by sending a push notification urging the public to “celebrate” Kristallnacht with a special promotional deal on fried chicken.

Kristallnacht, or the Night of the Broken Glass, was an antisemitic pogrom carried out by the Nazis across Germany on November 9-10, 1938, that saw the destruction of synagogues and homes and businesses belonging to Jews. An estimated 90 Jews were killed in two days of rioting, and the event is widely viewed as the beginning of the Holocaust.

The annual commemoration is a somber occasion in Germany, so KFC customers were startled on Wednesday after receiving the festive-sounding push notification from the fast food chain.

“Commemoration of the Reichspogromnacht [Kristallnacht] – Treat yourself to more tender cheese with the crispy chicken. Now at KFCheese!” read the message, according to a screenshot of the notification posted on Twitter by a German user.

“How wrong can you be? Shame on you KFC,” wrote Dalia Grinfeld, the ADL’s associate director of European affairs on Twitter, alongside a screenshot of the notification.

About an hour after the message was sent, KFC issued an additional notification apologizing for what they said was a mistake.

“Due to an error in our system, we sent an incorrect and inappropriate message through our app. We are very sorry about this. We will check our internal processes immediately so that this does not happen again. Please excuse this error,” KFC said in the statement.