AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A Polish artist has sparked controversy in the Netherlands by selling "Auschwitz souvenirs" -- from crematorium fridge magnets to "Arbeit Macht Frei" key rings -- to remind people of the horrors of the Nazi death camp.
T-shirts with the menacing skull-and-crossbones symbol from the camp's electric fences and key rings bearing the camp gate's infamous German inscription "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Sets You Free) have been on sale at a Dutch art show since late July.
Agata Siwek, a 30-year-old fine arts graduate who grew up near Auschwitz, said Thursday the items she put on sale in the southern city of Den Bosch were intended to remind people of the Holocaust and the need to combat discrimination and war.
"Taking a souvenir and hanging it on your keys is a way to remember the evil inside all of us. It (Auschwitz) is the symbol of the ultimate evil," Siwek said.
The exhibition has polarized public opinion, with some condemning it as offensive to Holocaust survivors while others have hailed it as a way to highlight the Holocaust and provoke debate about conflicts and atrocities in the 21st century.
Six million Jews died in the Holocaust after Adolf Hitler's army swept across Europe during World War II. More than a million people, mostly Jews, died in the gas chambers or from disease and starvation in Auschwitz-Birkenau.
One Auschwitz survivor told Reuters Thursday that seeing people wearing "Auschwitz" T-shirts or sporting key rings could trigger painful memories.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A30741-
2003Aug22?language=printer
T-shirts with the menacing skull-and-crossbones symbol from the camp's electric fences and key rings bearing the camp gate's infamous German inscription "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Sets You Free) have been on sale at a Dutch art show since late July.
Agata Siwek, a 30-year-old fine arts graduate who grew up near Auschwitz, said Thursday the items she put on sale in the southern city of Den Bosch were intended to remind people of the Holocaust and the need to combat discrimination and war.
"Taking a souvenir and hanging it on your keys is a way to remember the evil inside all of us. It (Auschwitz) is the symbol of the ultimate evil," Siwek said.
The exhibition has polarized public opinion, with some condemning it as offensive to Holocaust survivors while others have hailed it as a way to highlight the Holocaust and provoke debate about conflicts and atrocities in the 21st century.
Six million Jews died in the Holocaust after Adolf Hitler's army swept across Europe during World War II. More than a million people, mostly Jews, died in the gas chambers or from disease and starvation in Auschwitz-Birkenau.
One Auschwitz survivor told Reuters Thursday that seeing people wearing "Auschwitz" T-shirts or sporting key rings could trigger painful memories.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A30741-
2003Aug22?language=printer