Trump Supporter Totes Nazi Death Camp Slogan At Protest

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Across the U.S., right-wing demonstrators have turned out in droves against the stay-at-home orders that have been instituted amidst the Coronavirus pandemic in an attempt to stem the spread of the disease. At a recent rally against the state’s stay-at-home order in Illinois, one demonstrator was photographed toting a sign that sported the Nazi slogan “Arbeit Macht Frei,” which roughly translates as “work makes you free” and was emblazoned across the entrance to the Auschwitz concentration camp. The Auschwitz Museum and Memorial publicly condemned the anti-lockdown demonstrator with the Nazi slogan, which seemed meant to support the idea that “work” should be prioritized rather than social distancing measures.

In a post on their Twitter account, the organization wrote:

”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 & used again to spread hate. It’s a symptom of moral & intellectual degeneration.’

The governor of Illinois, it’s worth noting, is Jewish. Illinois’s Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker has been on the front lines of the nation’s fight against the Coronavirus as his state has ended up among the hardest hit in the country. The Nazi slogan sign at the recent rally against Illinois’s stay-at-home order was written to address Pritzker directly, as if the person with the sign was imagining drafting the governor into Nazi-style service.

The photograph of the woman with the Nazi slogan sign was snapped by local nurse Dennis Kosuth, who said that he asked the sign-holder if she was a Nazi. The sign-holder replied that was not, noting that she supposedly has Jewish friends — but none of that absolves her of responsibility for her decision to resort to Nazi rhetoric in her mad dash to shame authorities into reopening the economy via lifting social distancing measures, no matter how many people may die.

Those at the rally, some of whom besides the above-quoted sign-holder also held Nazi imagery, faced condemnation. Anne Caprara, Governor Pritzker’s chief of staff, commented:

‘Don’t want to hear about “liberty” when these signs along with the ones portraying Illinois’ Jewish Gov, whose family came to Chicago fleeing pogroms, as Hitler seem to be a staple at today’s protests. You can protest a policy you don’t like without being ragingly bigoted.’

Check out more Twitter reactions below…

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