The banner featured the words "Vaccination Sets You Free" on an arch shaped to invoke the "Work Sets You Free" sign at the entrance to the former Auschwitz death camp.
It appeared at a demonstration in Warsaw on Tuesday organised by lawmakers from Poland's far-right Confederation party against what it says is Poland's "programme of forced vaccinations."
Entrance to the former Auschwitz death camp with the infamous "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Sets You Free) sign. Photo: PAP/Andrzej Grygiel
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has described the banner, which was meant to be a mockery of the millions of victims of German concentration camps, as "dramatic evidence of how one can harm the memory of those who perished as a result of monstrous German crimes."
Meanwhile, the Auschwitz State Museum wrote on Twitter that the "inscription Arbeit macht frei is an icon of human hatred."
It added that "the instrumentalisation of the symbol of the suffering of the victims of Auschwitz – the largest cemetery in Poland and worldwide – is a scandalous manifestation of moral corruption. It is especially shameful when Polish MPs do it.”
Israel's chargés d'affaires in Warsaw, Tal Ben Ari Yaalon, tweeted that the banner was disrespectful to the memory of more than a million victims of the Nazi German concentration camp, who included most of her father's family.
“I find it unbelievable that such Holocaust distortion can happen 300 km from where the original sign stands,” she added.
(mk/gs)
Source: PAP, Reuters