Polish far-right MPs appear under Auschwitz-style sign at anti-vaccine protest

A group of five far-right MPs have drawn widespread condemnation for standing under a banner saying “Vaccination sets you free” modelled on the sign at Auschwitz and other Nazi German camps saying “Arbeit macht frei” (“Work sets you free”).

The five politicians – Janusz Korwin-Mikke, Grzegorz Braun, Artur Dziambor, Robert Winnicki and Konrad Berkowicz – were attending a protest against “forced vaccination and illegal restrictions” organised by their Confederation (Konfederacja) party outside parliament.

The incident was criticised across the political spectrum in Poland, as well as by the Auschwitz Museum, a Polish state institution.

“The inscription ‘Arbeit macht frei’ is an icon of human hatred,” tweeted the museum. “The instrumentalisation of the symbol of the suffering of the victims of Auschwitz – the largest cemetery in Poland and the world – is a scandalous manifestation of moral corruption. It is especially embarrassing when Polish MPs do it.”

During the Second World War, over one million people were killed at Auschwitz. While the vast majority (around 90%) were Jews, the second largest group of victims of the camp were ethnic Poles. Around 140,000 Poles were deported to the camp and around half of them were killed there.

The “Arbeit macht frei” sign at Auschwitz (Dnalor 01/Wikimedia Commons, under BY SA 3.0 AT)

Former prime minister Beata Szydło, who is now an MEP for the ruling national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party as well as a member of the Auschwitz museum’s advisory council, tweeted that the MPs had committed a “shameful act” and shown “complete disrespect for the victims of German crimes in Auschwitz and all death camps”.

Tomasz Lis, editor-in-chief of the liberal Newsweek Polska, called the actions of the Confederation MPs beyond “the limits of stupidity”.

Throughout the pandemic, Confederation and other far-right groups have been prominent at protests against restrictions and vaccines. One of the MPs at yesterday’s protest, Braun, has likened the compulsory wearing of masks to how the Nazis forced Jews to wear armbands as a first step on the way to ghettoisation and then death.

The party has not commented on last night’s controversy. But Korwin-Mikke tweeted that “the number of innocent people killed by the actions of governments exceeded the number of victims of KL Auschwitz a long time ago”.

Another of the MPs who appeared beneath the sign, Dziambor, tweeted in response to criticism that they asked for the banner to be removed. It did later disappear, though video also appears to show Braun and Berkowicz laughing when they first saw the banner.

Speaking to the Rzeczpospolita newspaper this morning, Dziambor said that he had nothing to apologise for and claimed that it was only “the left-wing side of the internet” that had got angry over the issue.

Main image credit: gromotapl/Twitter (screenshot)

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.