Re: James May: Work sets you free.
PieceOfTat said:
"Remember, work sets you free." This is a direct reference to "Arbeit macht frei" the phrase which was on the gates of deathcamp Auschwitz.
I'm so tempted to point out that "Arbeit macht frei" didn't start out as a slogan above the entrance to Auschwitz [and Dachau and Sachsenhausen, and a few others], but started as a title for a book in the late 19th century, and May's statement could as easily have referred to this [or its later Weimar usage] as to the entrance of concentration camps, but obviously, you're correct, he was referring to concentration camps. I just have a kneejerk reaction to kneejerk reactionism.
Anyway, I was, in no way, offended. I think you're being irrational.
PieceOfTat said:
Referring to a war, I can live with that. Referring to the Holocaust is a different matter altogether.
The Second World War cost 50+ million lives. The Holocaust caused 12 million or so. Now, lives can't be tallied and summed, and this marginalizes the psychological effects on the survivors of both, as well as injuries and so on, but the fact is, there's no reason the Holocaust should somehow be
verboten, while the war is just fine to - as you say - make jokes about.
Personally, you were offended. Okay. Personally, I'm not. I'm more offended by the notion that joking about the War is okay, but referring to the Holocaust in any way is
right out. I have no difficulty believing more human anguish was caused in the Second World War than was in the Holocaust.
As a note, please make sure you never, ever, ever say, "To each his own." That was the slogan over Buchenwald, you know.