I studied the photograph with great curiosity.
“Why is this photo different than all those other anti-Semitic Auschwitz pictures?” I asked.
There was the wrought iron gate, topped with the words “Arbeit Macht Frie.”
Arguably, the most infamous gate in the world;
Arguably, the three blackest words in the German language;
Literally, Earth’s “Gate to Hell.”
And I thought, “A more appropriate sign would read, “You’ve Just Passed through the Gates to Hades.”
A gate, I photographed ten years ago.
A gate, I walked under and through as a tourist ten years ago.
A gate my parents marched through as slaves in the 1940’s.
How many times did my mom or dad see that gate?
How many times did they walk under those three words?
Since my mom did not speak German, did she even know or learn the meaning of those three words?
“Work Shall Set You Free”
Only G-d knows.
I never asked her.
But I bet you, she knew those three words were a cruel, sarcastic Nazi joke.
Of course, those two scumbags holding up anti-Semitic signs at the gate to Auschwitz was different.
But what was really different were the words on their signs:
SHOAH THE ADL;
GREENBLATT SUCK [sic} 6 Million Dicks.
These two American neo-Nazis dickheads were attacking the Anti Defamation League (ADL) and its leader.
Voila, I figured it out.
I had never seen neo-Nazis attacking a specific Jewish Organization and its CEO before,
And then it hit me, the ADL had destroyed these to guys lives and they wanted revenge.
Had they lost their jobs, when the ADL exposed them as Neo-Nazis?
Had they been driven paranoid thinking ADL agents were constantly doing surveillance on them?
Well, whatever or who ever caused these clowns to write and color those signs and to be photographed holding those signs up in front of those gates deserves kudos.
I often wondered, “By sending a check to the ADL, am I making a wise investment in the fight against Jew hatred?”
And now I got my answer.
Thanks JDL and Greenblatt, for making a difference.
