Top Greek Jewish Group Denounces Newspaper Cartoon for ‘Trivialization’ of Holocaust

A top Jewish group in Greece has denounced a newspaper’s publication of a cartoon that was said to have belittled the Holocaust.

The drawing that appeared in Efimerida ton Syntakton last Saturday replaced the “Work makes you free” phrase on the gates of the Auschwitz death camp with “Studies make you free.”

The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece noted, “The notorious sign ‘Arbeit macht Frei,’ which was meant to deceive not only the victims but the whole world as well, is the symbol of the most hideous crime against humanity. Its trivialization and minimization means the legitimization of oblivion and Holocaust denial.”

The cartoon, the group charged, equalized “the gate of Auschwitz with the gates of the universities and the prisoners in this horrific extermination camp with the students.”

“It is a hideous and vulgar instrumentalization of the Holocaust for political purposes,” it added.