Holocaust trivialized?

Schellhorn sells shares in Pilz medium again

The NEOS politician only joined the left-wing medium in March.(Bild: APA, Screenshot/Zackzack, Krone KREATIV)

NEOS politician Josef "Sepp" Schellhorn caused a stir when he announced that he was taking a stake in the online medium "Zackzack", founded by former politician Peter Pilz. Now he is selling his shares again - because of a "trivialization of the Holocaust", as Schellhorn explained.

This was triggered by a caricature by "Zackzack" cartoonist Othmar Wicke, which shows Chancellor Nehammer saying "Work brings freedom". The shape of the speech bubble and the font are a clear allusion to the infamous slogan "Work makes you free" above the camp gate of the Auschwitz concentration camp, which the National Socialists built in occupied Poland, one of the centers of Nazi extermination policy.

Schellhorn: "I distance myself completely"
The cartoon was originally published on "Zackzack" in October 2023. Due to the renewed debate about working hours, it was shared again on Platform X on Thursday. Schellhorn responded to this. "I hereby inform you that I have already initiated the unconditional transfer of my shares in Zack Media GmbH and that the transfer will be implemented immediately. I fully distance myself from today's trivialization of the Holocaust," he wrote on X.

In a reply to Schellhorn's post, cartoonist Wicke stated: "And I expressly distance myself from any trivialization of the Holocaust." Shortly afterwards, he wrote that he had deleted the caricature in question in order to avoid "even more misunderstandings".

The NEOS politician had only joined the left-wing medium in March.(Bild: APA, Screenshot/Zackzack, Krone KREATIV)

Nehammer slogan made waves
Although the direct link to the cartoon now leads nowhere, hours later on Thursday evening the drawing could still be found in the caricature gallery on "Zackzack" (see screenshot below) and on Wicke's "Bluesky" profile. The background to the cartoon: "Work brings freedom" said Nehammer on October 13, 2023 at an event in Vienna under the motto "Ask the Chancellor". The aim was to reconcile with the aid organizations after the ÖVP leader came under heavy criticism for the infamous Burger video.

The drawing can still be found on zackzack.at.(Bild: Screenshot/zackzack.at)

Nehammer was then criticized again by some for the statement on work that brings freedom, because it was linked to the inscription above the camp gate of the Auschwitz concentration camp. On the same day, a caricature by cartoonist Othmar Wicke appeared under the title "Wiedergutmachung auf nehammerisch".

Even then, the cartoonist was clearly criticized for trivializing the symbols of Auschwitz. However, other users on X did not understand Schellhorn's outrage on Thursday evening. They defended the drawing by saying that the Chancellor had made this statement - without taking into account the way it was depicted in the cartoon.

Saying much older than the Nazis
Incidentally, the statement that work makes you free is much older than the Nazi regime, which - like many other things - misused and cynically distorted it. The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard wrote in 1843: "It is precisely through work that man makes himself free." The saying was gradually detached from its original philosophical-religious context until it became a slogan that mocked the victims of forced labor, torture and murder.