Tragedy exploited: Auschwitz Museum expresses outrage over political campaign video

POLAND’S Auschwitz Museum strongly condemned the country’s governing Law and Justice Party (PiS) for exploiting the concentration camp in a despicable political campaign in a statement made on Wednesday, May 31.

The right-wing ruling party shared a video on social media, aiming to discourage attendance at an opposition march by using Auschwitz imagery. The video contained a haunting image of Auschwitz’s infamous front gate, bearing the chilling phrase “Arbeit macht frei” (Work sets you free), alongside a tweet from a journalist supporting the opposition.

Expressing deep disappointment, the Auschwitz Museum released a statement, condemning the video as an insult to the memory of the camp’s victims. They denounced the exploitation of such a tragic event for political purposes, calling it morally and intellectually corrupt.

Criticism has also come from within the PiS party itself, and President Andrzej Duda, an ally of PiS, spoke out against using the Holocaust for political gain.

During World War II, the Nazis brutally murdered over 6 million Jewish people, with 1.4 million of them dying in the Auschwitz camps alone.