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Greek MP angers Jewish group by posting altered Auschwitz photo

In the image the infamous sign above the concentration camp had been altered to read 'We're staying in Europe'

Alexander Sehmer
Thursday 25 June 2015 12:41 EDT
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The altered image is no longer publically available on Kammenos's Facebook page
The altered image is no longer publically available on Kammenos's Facebook page

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A Greek politician prompted outrage after he posted an image online of the entrance to the Auschwitz concentration camp with its infamous sign altered to read "We're staying in Europe".

Dimitris Kammenos posted the image on his Facebook page.

The sign above the Nazi concentration camp entrance reads, in reality, "Arbeit macht frei". The slogan "We're staying in Europe" was used at recent pro-euro rallies in Athens.

Kammenos is an MP with the Independent Greeks party, a coalition partner in the Greek government. He is no relation of the party's founder and president, Panos Kammenos.

The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece called the photograph "shameful" and a "malevolent trivialisation" of the Holocaust.

Marina Chrysoveloni, an Independent Greeks spokeswoman, said Kammenos's move had been an "utterly personal action" and had nothing to do with the party.

Kammenos apologised for posting the photograph and the image was not publicly available on his Facebook page on Thursday, but he appeared not entirely to back down.

"Maybe the comparison was unfortunate but my country is experiencing an economic holocaust," he wrote on Facebook, according to ekathimerini.com, which is linked to the New York Times.

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