Sign with Nazi slogan at US coronavirus protest ‘painful,’ Auschwitz Museum says
A sign at an Illinois protest against state stay-home orders with a Nazi slogan taken from the gate of Auschwitz is a “painful” reminder, says the Auschwitz Museum
A nurse posted a photo to Twitter of a woman with a sign reading “Arbeit Mach Frei, JB” apparently referring to Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, at a Chicago rally Friday against state coronavirus lockdown orders, The Hill reported. Pritzker is Jewish.
The words, which translate to “work sets you free,” also appeared over a gate to Auschwitz, a Nazi concentration camp in Poland during World War II, where an estimated 1.1 million Jews, gays and others deemed undesiable died.
“‘Arbeit macht frei’ was a false, cynical illusion the SS gave to prisoners of Auschwitz,” reads a Twitter post Friday by the museum. “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.”
Protests against stay-home orders and business closures have taken place in several states across the U.S. in recent weeks.
In Michigan, armed protesters entered the state capitol on Thursday, NBC News reported. In California, 32 people were arrested Friday at a rally outside the capitol, The Sacramento Bee reported.
While some have speculated online that the “Arbeit Macht Frei” sign at the Chicago rally had been faked, two nurses at the rally confirmed it was real, The Hill reported.
Dennis Kosuth, who took the photo and posted it to Twitter, said he did not intend to confront protesters at the rally but spoke out after seeing the sign, according to the publication.
“I asked, ‘Do you know what that stands for? Are you a Nazi?’” Kosuth said, The Hill reported. The woman replied that she had Jewish friends, he said. Mary Bowman, a nurse practitioner, also reported seeing the sign at the rally.
Kosuth also confirmed the photo’s authenticity to BuzzFeed News, and provided the outlet with a video of the woman holding the sign.
“Shameful. Shocking. Sickening,” wrote David Harris, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, on Twitter about the sign.
Others on social media condemned the sign, along with similar signs spotted at other protests.
More than 3.4 million cases of the COVID-19 virus have been confirmed worldwide with more than 244,000 deaths as of May 3, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has more than 1.1 million confirmed cases with more than 66,000 deaths.
The World Health Organization declared coronavirus a global pandemic. In the United States, President Donald Trump has declared a national emergency.
This story was originally published May 3, 2020 at 11:36 AM with the headline "Sign with Nazi slogan at US coronavirus protest ‘painful,’ Auschwitz Museum says."