The Auschwitz slogan 'Work sets you free' seen at the "Re-Open Illinois" protest aimed at the Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, who is of Jewish descent
- The official Twitter account of the Auschwitz memorial in Poland condemned a sign that bore a Nazi slogan at an anti-lockdown rally in Chicago on Friday.
- The sign, belonging to an unidentified woman, read: "Arbeit Macht Frei, JB," referring to the Illinois governor JB Pritzker who is of Jewish descent.
- The Auschwitz memorial responded to the picture, saying that it was "painful to see this symbol instrumentalized and used again to spread hate."
- Dennis Kosuth, a nurse attending the event as a counter-protester, posted the picture on Twitter, which has since garnered more than 50,000 likes.
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The Auschwitz Memorial in Poland has condemned a photo of a sign from an anti-lockdown protest in Chicago that bore the Nazi slogan: "Arbeit Macht Frei, JB."
The sign, which was held by an unidentified woman attending the "Re-Open Illinois" protest on May 1, is referring to Illinois governor JB Pritzker, who is of Jewish descent.
"Arbeit macht frei" is a German phrase which means "Work sets you free", and was placed above the gates of Auschwitz — the largest Nazi extermination camp during the Holocaust, where at least 1.1 million people died.
The font of the letter "B" used on the sign also bore a strong resemblance to that used in the sign above the gates of Auschwitz.
On Saturday, the organization that runs the Auschwitz Memorial responded on Twitter, saying it was "painful to see this symbol instrumentalized and used again to spread hate."
The full tweet read: "'Arbeit macht frei' was a false, cynical illusion the SS gave to prisoners of Auschwitz. Those words became one of the icons of human hatred. It's painful to see this symbol instrumentalized and used again to spread hate. It's a symptom of moral and intellectual degeneration."
The photo was shared on Twitter by a registered nurse, Dennis Kosuth, who attended the same event on Friday as a counter-protester. It has since garnered more than 50,000 likes.
Kosuth, who said he took the picture on his phone, told Buzzfeed that some protesters at the event were trying to provoke him by claiming he was an actor.
According to Kosuth, when he confronted the woman holding the sign, she defended herself by saying she had Jewish friends.
On April 30, hundreds of demonstrators, some armed, descended on Michigan's state capitol to protest Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's extension of the state's stay-at-home order.
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