Cambridge college ‘sorry’ for Auschwitz welcome slogan
A CAMBRIDGE college has apologised after handing students a “welcome pack” adorned with the Auschwitz “work brings freedom” slogan.
An image of the concentration camp gates bearing the slogan “arbeit macht frei” was printed on the front cover of a programme for a welcome service for new students at Emmanuel College.
The Rev Jeremy Caddick, the college dean, defended the pamphlet, rejecting the suggestion that the slogan was a “sick joke” about how hard students will have to work at university.
Rev Caddick said the image and slogan had been used to promote a sermon reflecting on the college choir’s visit to the Polish death camp last year.
“It is an iconic image of evil,” he said. “The first thing I’ll do in the service is explain why it is there. It is a sermon about our response to gross evil.”
However, the college later apologised for the use of the image.
A second-year student at the college said: “I just saw the programmes for the welcome service the dean is doing and they have put a big picture of the entrance to Auschwitz on the cover. The students who have seen that are understandably upset. There will be quite a lot of Jewish students seeing this.”
Rev Caddick said the sermon was inspired by Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish priest who took the place of another Auschwitz prisoner who was due to be killed. He refuted the idea they would ever make a joke about the Holocaust.
A spokesman said: “We understand that without context this image may have upset people and we apologise for its use in a way that has caused distress. ♦ Exeter University was last night investigating a freshers’ night out in which students wore jackets adorned with swastikas and slogans such as “I love rape” and “F--- the Syrians”.
A university spokesman said they “apologise unreservedly for the offence caused” adding that they have a “zero-tolerance policy towards racist, misogynist or similarly highly-offensive behaviour of any form”.