The B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC) has condemned a Facebook post of the Homeless Persons Union of Victoria which compares Melbourne City council officers to Hitler and which features a photo of the entrance gates to Auschwitz that replaces the phrase “Arbeit macht frei” with “Lies make Money”. The post protests a proposed change to by laws concerning homelessness by the Melbourne City Council. The ADC has called on the Homeless Persons Union of Victoria to apologise for the offensive post.
Dr. Abramovich, Chairman of the ADC, issued the following statement:
“We have reached a new low in the exploitation of the Holocaust. While we understand that the topic of homelessness generates heated debate, it is deeply offensive and insulting that anyone would use an image from Europe’s largest death camp, where nearly 1.5 million people died in the gas chambers or from starvation and disease, to attack a policy. Drawing comparisons between council officers and Hitler, and falsely implying that the homeless in Victoria are being led to their extermination, as the prisoners in Auschwitz were, and that treatment of the homeless is akin to the cruel and inhuman treatment and experiments that were conducted inside Auschwitz, is outrageous. The altering of the duplicitous and vile phrase “Arbeit macht frei”—that greeted the more than one million prisoners as they were herded into the Auschwitz— with the cynical words “Lies make Money” is particularly chilling, and demonstrates that this was an intentional and malicious act. Every organisation bears a moral obligation to act responsibly and to not make light of the memory of those who perished at the hands of the Nazi death machine and those who survived. We call on the Homeless Persons Union of Victoria, which clearly has crossed a line, to apologise for their denigration of the victims and to ensure that such trivialization does not occur again.”
The B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission, founded in 1979, is Australia’s leading organization fighting racism through educational programs that combat bigotry, prejudice and all forms of hatred.
For further information please contact Dr Dvir Abramovich on 9272 5677.