Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party has compared the upcoming opposition protests to the Auschwitz concentration camp. in its newest video.
The aim of the video was to discourage people from attending an opposition rally on Sunday.
The museum at Auschwitz concentration camp has condemned it.
It was posted in response to an opposition-leaning journalist who tweeted that the president and the leader of Law and Justice (PiS) belonged in a “chamber”.
Tomasz Lis, the author of that tweet, insists that he was referring to a prison cell.
PiS claims, that what he really meant was that President Andrzej Duda and their leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski should be sent to a gas chamber.
The “instrumentalization of the tragedy” where 1.1 million people died at the location during World War II was denounced by the state-run museum as an insult to their memory.
“It is a sad, painful, and unacceptable manifestation of the moral and intellectual corruption of the public debate,” the state museum said.
The video begins with a background image of the Auschwitz camp’s infamous “Arbeit macht frei” (Work sets you free) front gate and one of Mr. Lis’ tweets, followed by the question, “Do you really want to march under this slogan?”
It’s been criticised even by President Andrzej Duda, who was elected with PiS’ support.
He tweeted that the victims of the Holocaust cannot be used in political fighting.
Pamięć o Ofiarach niemieckich zbrodni w Auschwitz jest święta i nietykalna. Tragedia milionów Ofiar nie może być wykorzystywana w walce politycznej. To działanie niegodne i nie ma dla niego usprawiedliwienia.
— Andrzej Duda (@AndrzejDuda) May 31, 2023
“The memory of the victims of German crimes in Auschwitz is sacred and inviolable. The tragedy of the millions of victims cannot be used in political struggle. This is an unworthy activity and there is no excuse for it,” Mr Duda wrote.
1.4 million people died at the Auschwitz camp in occupied by the German Nazis Poland.
The video was released in the midst of a heated debate over a newly signed law establishing a commission on Russian influence, which critics see as a tool to target opposition leaders and deprive them of political rights. The law has been condemned as anti-democratic by the United States, the European Union, and many Polish experts.
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