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Polish Prosecutor Probes Dutch Film

A National Remembrance Institute (IPN) source has told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) that the Institute has lodged a complaint with the Warsaw-City Center prosecutor calling for an investigation into whether or not it was a crime to use photographs of Auschwitz victims in an advertisement for a techno party.

“We felt that, since the advertisement can be accessed in Poland, the Polish justice system should investigate,” said Antoni Kura, a prosecutor at the Main Commission for the Investigation of Crimes Against the Polish Nation.

He explained that Commission prosecutors have ruled that the contents and symbols used in the advertisement “insult the memory of the victims and the camp itself.” However, the IPN has no mandate to rule on the legality of the advertisement and has therefore lodged a complaint with the prosecutor.

The Warsaw-City Center prosecutor forwarded the complaint to the Warsaw-Wola prosecutor.

Protests against the use of Auschwitz symbols and photographs have also been made by the administration of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, the Polish Foreign Ministry, and the Union of Jewish Denominational Communities in Poland.

The advertisement features the name of the “Housewitz” party against a background photograph showing the gate of the Dachau German concentration camp with the added inscription "Tanzen Macht Frei" (Dancing will make you free), an allusion to Auschwitz and its gate with the inscription reading "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work will make you free).” The internet advertisement also features a collage of photographs of persons in SS uniforms, concentration camps, and human corpses.

A voice-over talks about free taxis for partygoers to the accompaniment of photos of murdered victims on a truck; free hot showers to the accompaniment of the Dachau gas chambers; a sex show to the accompaniment of a heap of corpses; and information on trains to the accompaniment of transports at the camp ramp.

Words about the dress code are illustrated by photos of naked, emaciated prisoners, with the caption “dressed like a skinny Jew.” The advertisement also features the voice of Adolph Hitler and photographs of Auschwitz II-Birkenau Concentration Camp.

May 25, 2006. EJP and AP

'Housewitz' director gets 40 hours labor Dutch court sentences 23-year-old student to community service for making video clip inviting people to Auschwitz-themed partA Dutch court sentenced a student to 40 hours community service Wednesday for making an anti-Jewish video called "Housewitz," that likened the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, Poland, to a dance party, a spokeswoman said.

The 23-year-old student, 23-year-old Dickie Thijssen by Dutch media, said he had made the video as a gag. He offered his excuses, saying it was tasteless and offensive. "He is incredibly sorry about it," his lawyer, R. Baumgardt, told Dutch daily Algemeen Dagblad. "He'd like to scream it from the rooftops."

[…] The film was met with outrage by the Dutch justice ministry, the Auschwitz museum and the Polish foreign ministry, and a spokesman said at the time that authorities would examine the film to “check if its content is discriminatory.” In August last year, the Dutch Internet-regulating body decided to bring charges against the site that was putting out the video. But the weblog geenstijl.nl refused to remove the clip with a so called ‘educational’ argument: “This clip shows how our educational system has failed.”