BERLIN (CNS) — The International Auschwitz Committee welcomed the arrest of a man who was wearing a shirt emblazoned with the words “Camp Auschwitz” during the storming of the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6.
The German Catholic news agency KNA reported Jan. 14 that Christoph Heubner, committee vice president, said it was equally disturbing that “Nazis all over the world have moved from the denial of Auschwitz to glorifying this murder factory.”
U.S. media reported that police arrested Robert Keith Packer in Virginia Jan. 13 after a federal court issued an arrest warrant for him. He was charged with illegal entry in a restricted building and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
Many images taken during the storming showed Packer wearing the black “Camp Auschwitz” shirt with a skull and the words “Work Brings Freedom,” a translation of the German inscription “Arbeit macht frei” on the gate of the Auschwitz concentration camp. The sight caused international outrage.
Auschwitz was the biggest Nazi death camp; approximately 1.1 million people, most of them Jews, were murdered there.
The International Auschwitz Committee, based in Berlin, is an association of Auschwitz survivors and their organizations from 19 countries.