Auschwitz Museum Condemns Use Of Nazi Slogan At Illinois COVID-19 Protest

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Huffington Post

05/02/2020 09:08 pm ET Updated 3 hours ago

The “work sets you free” sign singled out Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who is Jewish.
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By Mary Papenfuss

he Auschwitz Museum issued a scathing attack on the use of a notorious Nazi slogan on a sign at an Illinois protest against COVID-19 safety measures.

The German phrase on the protest sign, “Arbeit Macht Frei,” was written in the gates at Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps.

It means “work sets you free,” darkly referring to starving Jews at the camp who were forced to work until they dropped dead — or were killed. The sign at the Re-Open Illinois protest Friday in Chicago also included the initials “JB,” referring to Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who is Jewish.

?‘Arbeit macht frei’ was a false, cynical illusion the SS gave to prisoners of Auschwitz,” said a statement from the museum, located at the death camp site in Poland. “Those words became one of the icons of human hatred. It’s painful to see this symbol instrumentalized & used again to spread hate. It’s a symptom of moral & intellectual degeneration.”

Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/arbeit-macht-frei-re-open-illisnoi-auschwitz_n_5eae03ecc5b639d6e5776b0b

[yuiyoshida]

1. I am beginning to believe all Republicans are

Assholes...how else does one explain this kind of behavior??

[denem]

2. In Berlin, by the Wall (Lou Reed)

The flames are all long gone,
but the pain lingers on (Pink Floyd)

[Behind the Aegis]

3. It is a symptom of the rot in this country and this world.

It is also a sign of things to come.

[sakabatou]

4. So, can we call these protestors, that want to re-open the US, Nazis?

Or is that going overboard?

[sop]

5. If the jackboot fits, wear it.

[rickyhall]

7. Exactly

[agingdem]

6. is there any doubt?

I'm the child of Holocaust survivors..Auschwitz..this is what that sign means to me: my mother's screaming night terrors, a kitchen counter ablaze with memorial candles on Yom Kippur each one representing a mother, father, sister, brother, grandmother, grandfather, aunt, uncle, cousin...a mother paralyzed with fear at the sight of a train, learning to "count" on the numbers tattooed on my parents forearms...a mother in and out of psychiatric hospitals (survivors's guilt attempted suicides), parents glued to a tv during holocaust documentaries in hopes that they could recognize a family member...this is the Republican Party, hate for the "other" out of the shadows and into the White House...

[democrank]

8. I read your words three times.

Any words I chose in response would be inadequate, but I wanted you to know you’ve been heard.
I wish you peace.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

14. My wife and I went to Auschwitz, where my mother's parents were killed.

She said to me, "Dante got it wrong. What is written over the gates of Hell is not, 'Abandon all hope, you who enter here', but rather 'Arbeit Macht Frei'."

[agingdem]

16. Arbeit Macht Frei..

vicious inhumane irony...I remember my father pointing to a picture of Joseph McCarthy and in yiddish saying "this should never happen in America".. the Republican Party then the Republican Party now...

[llashram]

18. and to think

trump says these are "good people".

[Progressive Jones]

20. I call them nazi trash. nt

[lostinhere]

9. Those who cannot...

remember the past are condemned to repeat it. - George Santayana

I think we have a large percentage of humanity, regardless of politics, religion, gender, etc., who don't care if it does not affect them or their immediate families personally. Events like this make me glad I'm in my twilight years and hopefully won't see our extinction.

[pazzyanne]

10. The sad thing is that when they need support...

there maybe no one left to support them.

[Pause]

11. Monsters

I suppose that the fundies are going to "pack the pews"
Nothing like a revival for packing the pews & pocketbooks.

They will never know what hit them.






They still think "Sky Daddy" will snatch them up in the "Rapture" apparently not knowing that it is not scriptural, nor that it was dreamed up in the 1800's.

[Ford_Prefect]

12. Americans need to learn why such hate speech is illegal elsewhere.

It is not a question of self-expression versus state control. It is that those particular expressions represent a will to exterminate those we do not agree with, as the Confederate battle flag does. Witness the gun waving crowd inside the Michigan Capitol proclaiming: "The people's house is OUR house!" Ask yourself why they needed to threaten anyone who would dispute that point with immediate death?

[dware]

19. Sorry, but hate speech should not be illegal here as it is in Europe and other places,

hate speech should be met with counter speech, not laws making it illegal.

Would you want the Mango Menace and his DOJ to have that kind of power?

[reACTIONary]

24. +100 ! Those who want to control speech...

.... always imagine they will be the ones in control. That isn't necessarily true. In fact, it isn't even likely.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

15. Boils down to rich white people want poor & people of colour to serve them. Slavery is not freeedom

They want to force people back to work and force them off unemployment benefits so that the 1% can save taxes and people who can afford it can play golf and get roots done.

[GusBob]

17. Who is the person holding the sign?

One cannot issue a scathing condemnation without knowing who she is

[malthaussen]

21. It sounded better in the original German.

Fascism. Loved by the unempowered.

-- Mal

[Mc Mike]

22. There was a Chris Hayes quote about these dirtbag nazi protestors, last week.

Paraphrased, "they believe not being allowed to go to the hair salon is 'tyranny', and forcing people to work in a meat packing plant with a covid outbreak is 'freedom'."

[Hekate]

23. People who would carry such signs are Monsters. They walk among us.

[riversedge]

25. Trump-approved protests. yes. they. are.