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"''Arbeit macht frei''" is a , "the truth shall make you free" and from there, via the Protestant Work Ethic , developed into a German and Swiss-German Peasant saying. In 1872, the German-nationalist author Lorenz Diefenbach used it as a title for a novel, which caused it to become well-known in nationalist circles. It was adopted by the Weimar Government in 1928 as a slogan describing the effects of their desired policy of large-scale public work programmes to end unemployment. It was continued in this usage by the NSDAP when it came into power in 1933. As either a sign of contempt for Judaic culture or as an ironic joke or satire, or a way of instilling false hope, this slogan was placed at the entrances of a number of , Gross-Rosen , Sachsenhausen , and the Theresienstadt Ghetto-Camp (at Buchenwald , however, "'' Jedem Das Seine ''" was used instead; which translates to "To each his own"). in the Czech Republic.]] As a consequence, this saying has acquired very negative and sinister undertones in much of the western world. In 1938 , the Austria n political cabaret writer Jura Soyfer and the composer Herbert Zipper , then both prisoners at Dachau Concentration Camp , wrote the ''Dachaulied'', the Dachau song. They had spent weeks marching in and out of the gates of the camp to forced work every day, and considered the motto "Arbeit macht frei" above the gates as an insult. The song repeats the phrase cynically as a "lesson" taught by Dachau. The first verse is translated in the article on Jura Soyfer. In 2004, The Libertines album of the same name was released with a track called Arbeit Macht Frei. The song explored the contradiction of the words 'arbeit macht frei' and the reality for concentration camp members.Also showing peoples contradictions at the time of release about the Nazi's and behaviour. |