Upset after Hyde Park Holocaust Memorial turned into impromptu Queen memorial

Hyde Park’s Holocaust Memorial Garden became an impromptu “Queen Memorial Garden” over the weekend as the nation paused to mark the monarch’s funeral.

Grace Dean, a reporter for Business Insider in London, tweeted on Sunday that the site, not far from Buckingham Palace, had turned into “a makeshift Queen Memorial Garden.” She posted pictures showing bouquets, letters and even pictures of Queen Elizabeth II strewn across the boulders that make up the heart of the Holocaust garden, which was dedicated with fanfare in 1983.

The post quickly elicited expressions of distress that mourning for the Queen, who died last week at 96, would usurp mourning for the six million Jewish victims of the Nazi genocide during the Holocaust. Some

Twitter users called the display a “desecration.”

Yesterday, as London prepared for Queen Elizabeth’s funeral, the official account of the Royal Parks, the charity that manages eight parks on royal grounds, tweeted that the items were being removed.

“Good morning Grace,” the account wrote. “The team are carefully removing the tributes from the Holocaust Memorial and laying them with the others in the official floral tribute area.”

It added, “There is also a steward placed there permanently to direct people paying their respects to the floral tribute area.”