Arbeit macht frei
Arbeit macht frei ([ˈaʁbaɪt ˈmaxt ˈfʁaɪ] ⓘ) is a German phrase translated as "Work makes one free" or more idiomatically "Work sets you free" or "work liberates".
The phrase originates from the 1873 novel Die Wahrheit macht frei ("The truth sets free") by
Origin
The expression comes from the title of an 1873 novel by the German
The phrase was also used in French (le travail rend libre!) by Auguste Forel, a Swiss entomologist, neuroanatomist and psychiatrist, in his Fourmis de la Suisse (English: Ants of Switzerland) (1920).[5] In 1922, the Deutsche Schulverein of Vienna, an ethnic nationalist "protective" organization of Germans within Austria, printed membership stamps with the phrase Arbeit macht frei.[citation needed]
The phrase is also evocative of the medieval German principle of
Use by the Nazis
In 1933, the first communist prisoners were being rounded up for an indefinite period without charges. They were held in a number of places in Germany. The slogan Arbeit macht frei was first used over the gate of a "wild camp" in the city of
The slogan was placed at the entrances to a number of
From Dachau, it was copied by the Nazi officer Rudolf Höss, who had previously worked there. Höss was appointed to create the original camp at Auschwitz, which became known as Auschwitz (or Camp) 1 and whose intended purpose was to incarcerate Polish political detainees.[9][10]
The Auschwitz I sign was made by prisoner-laborers including master blacksmith Jan Liwacz, and features an upside-down 'B', which has been interpreted as an act of defiance by the prisoners who made it.[11][12][13]
In The Kingdom of Auschwitz, Otto Friedrich wrote about Rudolf Höss, regarding his decision to display the motto so prominently at Auschwitz:
He seems not to have intended it as a mockery, nor even to have intended it literally, as a false promise that those who worked to exhaustion would eventually be released, but rather as a kind of mystical declaration that self-sacrifice in the form of endless labor does in itself bring a kind of spiritual freedom.[14]
In 1938, the Austrian political
An example of
Arbeit macht frei |
Work makes you free |
It can also be seen at the
The signs are prominently displayed, and were seen by all prisoners and staff— all of whom knew, suspected, or quickly learned that prisoners confined there would likely only be freed by death. The signs' psychological impact was tremendous.[14]
Thefts of Arbeit macht frei signs
The Arbeit macht frei sign over the Auschwitz I gate was stolen in December 2009 and later recovered by authorities in three pieces. Anders Högström, a Swedish
On 2 November 2014, the sign over the Dachau gate was stolen.[22] It was found on 28 November 2016 under a tarp at a parking lot in Ytre Arna, a settlement north of Bergen, Norway's second-largest city.[23]
See also
- Extermination through labour
- Jedem das Seine (idiomatically, "everyone gets what he deserves"), a motto used at the Buchenwald concentration camp.
References
- ^ "Arbeit macht frei". auschwitz.org. Retrieved 24 March 2024.
- ^ Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, Yad Vashem, 1990, vol. 4, p. 1751.
- ^ Connolly, Kate (18 December 2009). "Poland declares state of emergency after 'Arbeit Macht Frei' stolen from Auschwitz". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
- ^ Diefenbach, Lorenz (1873). Arbeit macht frei: Erzählung von Lorenz Diefenbach (in German). J. Kühtmann's Buchhandlung.
diefenbach arbeit macht frei.
- ^ Forel, Auguste (1920). "Les fourmis de la Suisse (2nd Ed.)" (in French). La Chaux-de-Fonds: Imprimarie cooperative. Retrieved 22 November 2010.
- ^ ""Stadtluft macht frei": Minister bedauert Irritationen" (in German). 26 March 2019. Archived from the original on 31 October 2019. Retrieved 8 August 2019.
- ^ "The Holocaust the essential reference guide | WorldCat.org". search.worldcat.org. Retrieved 18 January 2024.
- ISBN 9780521552042.
- ^ "Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State . Auschwitz 1940-1945 . Surprising Beginnings | PBS". www.pbs.org. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
- ^ Laurence Rees, Auschwitz: a New History
- ^ "Auschwitz's sign of death and defiance". BBC News. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
- ^ "B - the sculpture". International Auschwitz Committee. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
- ^ a b "Arbeit macht frei - facts about Auschwitz gate". Krakow Direct. 5 July 2019. Retrieved 18 July 2019.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-06-097640-8.
- S2CID 164058102. Retrieved 8 August 2022.
- ^ Denis Avey with Rob Broomby The Man who Broke into Auschwitz, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 2011 p.236
- ISBN 978-184-358028-7p.158
- ^ Levi, Primo, trans. Stuart Woolf, If This Is a Man. Abacus, London, 2004, p. 28.
- ^ KZ-Gedenkstaette Flossenbuerg
- ^ "Former neo-Nazi jailed for Auschwitz sign theft". The Independent. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
- ^ "Auschwitz sign theft: Swedish man jailed". BBC News. 30 December 2010.
- ^ "Dachau infamous Nazi concentration camp gate stolen". BBC News. 3 November 2014.
- ^ "'No usable evidence' in investigation into stolen Dachau sign". Israel National News. 4 December 2016. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
External links
- Media related to Arbeit Macht Frei at Wikimedia Commons
- The dictionary definition of Arbeit macht frei at Wiktionary