"Work Makes You Free"

Arbeit Macht Frei. These are the words millions of Jews looked upon as they were marched into Auschwitz and Dachau, most to never leave the concentration camps, never to be allowed to go home, never to touch a loved one, never to know there were people coming for them. 

Arbeit Macht Frei was also used recently on a float sponsored by a Catholic church in Hanover, Pennsylvania. For many people who stood on the sidelines they realized with shock and anger where they had seen those words- at the entrance gates to the death camps during the rule of a mad man who planned the annihilation of Jews, Romanis, the elderly, disabled and anyone who didn't agree with his ideology.

Bishop Senior, condemns the action and claims the sign was never shown in the design for approval. No names are given regarding who was responsible for making the sign. I'm sure they will claim ignorance. How is that possible? Anyone who is familiar with these words knows exactly where they came from. This seems to be the new world order where people are emboldened to make known their hatred for another culture, religion or color of one's skin. Protecting anyone who chooses to mock, deny, inflict pain and feel they are so very clever by trying to sneak in a horrific symbol of history condones their behavior. 

A meeting with parents, teachers, psychologists and the creator of the sign, to talk it out, is not an acceptable solution. To stand before the people they demeaned and be shamed is a good start. Names and numbers will be written down. They then will be made to sit in front of a screen and watch as thousands of emaciated bodies are shoveled into mass graves. They will be forced to listen to survivors of the Holocaust tell their stories of how they were tattooed, starved, beaten, raped, humiliated and used in scientific experiments. The builder of the sign will see how they were housed in barracks which stank of the unwashed and sick. The imprisoned were cold, hungry and covered in lice. Most of all, they were terrified. A human being did this to another human. They witnessed and participated in the unforgivable cruelty of millions of people, and now an angry, soulless, spineless wreck of of a human, building a float for a festival found this abomination acceptable and something to emulate. 

Stop protecting these vile, ignorant monsters. I do not advocate in any way the use of violence to be used as a form of punishment. I'd be a hypocrite and no better than the slime that dares find enjoyment in the suffering of anyone. Shame is a powerful tool. Knowledge is what actually makes you free. Hate and ignorance are the chains that bind you.

*Update: The creator of the float claims he's innocent of knowing the sign was a Nazi slogan. He said he needed a sign after his first plan fell through so he looked online to find something else. Yes, I too looked online and every single image connected the sign to Nazi Germany. I find his defense sad at best. Take a history lesson, dude.