Auschwitz Gas Chamber Video Earns Rebuke For Louisiana Lawmaker

By Daniel J. Solomon July 5, 2017

Image by youtube

A Louisiana congressman is under fire after filming a five-minute video in and around a gas chamber at Auschwitz in he which he discussed the Holocaust and the need for America to maintain a strong national defense.

“The world’s a smaller place now than it was in World War II. The United States is more accessible to terror like this, horror like this,” said Clay Higgins, a Republican who represents a district stretching along the state’s southern coast, in the video. He cited the Holocaust as evidence that “homeland security must be squared away, why our military must be invincible.”

His video earned condemnation on the Web and from the authorities who operate the Auschwitz site.

“Everyone has the right to personal reflections. However, inside a former gas chamber, there should be mournful silence. It’s not a stage,” wrote the Auschwitz Memorial and Museum on Twitter. It also pointed that a sign near the gas chamber encourages visitors to remain silent.

Posting selfies and videos from Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps has become increasingly common in recent years — and has provoked strong reaction from Jewish and other groups.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at solomon@forward.com or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO