NEWS

Independent Greeks distances itself from MP over Auschwitz photo

Coalition partner Independent Greeks distanced itself on Wednesday from one of its own MPs, Dimitris Kammenos (no relation to party leader and Defense Minister Panos Kammenos), who posted on his Facebook page a doctored photograph of the entrance to the Auschwitz concentration camp.

The photograph showed the sign over the entrance reading “We’re staying in Europe” rather than “Arbeit macht frei.”

“We’re staying in Europe” was the slogan used for the two recent pro-euro rallies in central Athens.

Independent Greeks spokeswoman Marina Chrysoveloni said that the lawmakers’ post was an “utterly personal action.”

Kammenos was criticized by the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS), which called his post “shameful” as it “trivializes in the most hideous way the sign over the gate of Auschwitz.”

After this complaint, Kammenos apologized and claimed there had been a “misunderstanding.”

“Maybe the comparison was unfortunate but my country is experiencing an economic holocaust,” he wrote on Facebook.

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