US Army commander suspended after using phrase 'Arbeit Macht Frie' in memo

[Behind the Aegis]

A U.S. Army commander of a recruiting company in Houston was suspended after he distributed a memo in which he used the phrase “Arbeit Macht Frie.”

The phrase, which means “Work Will Set You Free,” was displayed on the gate of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz.

The commander, whose name and unit have not been released, used the phrase to headline a section of the memo that explains incentives, including time off, available to recruiters depending on the number of contracts that they are able to complete, the U.S. military newspaper the Stars and Stripes reported Friday.

The memo first came to light in a tweet from “Truth of Army Recruiting.” The post includes a photo of the infamous Auschwitz entrance gate, though the memo, which was distributed electronically, reportedly did not include such a photo.


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[Kurt V.]

1. how is this even possible. Reading some really good stuff on this lately. we must understand.

[brush]

2. And there was the government agency sending links to white supremacist sites to workers.

trump and his racists are trying to infest the government with this crap.

[Behind the Aegis]

3. Some things from the past never really die.

They just go quiet for awhile. Anti-Semitism is like that.

[canetoad]

4. People forget

Not everyone, but in general history is a forgotten land to most folk.

I was born in Scotland in 1954; my parents were children during WW2, born in 1932 and 34. They went through rationing, blackouts and carrying a gas mask to school. They also saw, as very young people, the contemporary accounts of the liberation of the camps, especially Belsen because British troops were involved. The images stayed with them.

I grew up with the horror of those images and stories burned into my brain. Today, kids would be 'protected' from such imagery; I wasn't because the experiences were too real, too recent, too close to home.

I can't imagine the mindset that uses the words and imagery from that dreadful time to emphasise any trivial point. They should know better.