Arbeit macht frei, a German phrase meaning "work makes (you) free", known for being placed over Nazi concentration camps entrances
The expression comes from the title of a novel by German philologist Lorenz Diefenbach, Arbeit macht frei: Erzählung von Lorenz Diefenbach (1873), in which gamblers and fraudsters find the path to virtue through labour.
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The slogan can still be seen at several sites, including over the entrance to Auschwitz I where, according to BBC historian Laurence Rees in his "Auschwitz: a New History", the sign was erected by order of commandant Rudolf Höss.
In July 2005 he said that the only thing that came to his mind in relation to the CDU/CSU's slogan during the election campaign Sozial ist, was Arbeit schafft! ("Social is that which creates work") was the line at the door to Nazi Germany's death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau: "Arbeit macht frei" ("Work makes free").
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The phrase "Arbeit macht frei" ("work shall set you free"), which could be found in various places in some Nazi concentration camps, e.g. on the entrance gates, seems particularly cynical in this context (the Buchenwald concentration camp was the only concentration camp with the motto "Jedem das Seine" ("To each his own") on the entrance gate).