Walmart has publicly apologized for including a poster in its online inventory depicting the gates of the Dachau concentration camp and its infamous slogan "Arbeit Macht Frei," translated as "Work Makes You Free." The Nazi prison camp was the site of ghoulish conditions and thousands of executions before Allied liberation in 1945, and the grim implications of the phrase still resonate for many. The company was quick to explain that a third-party retailer had been selling the poster and that the product will no longer be listed. ABC reports the Walmart statement:
"We have shared our disappointment with them and have learned they are removing the publisher of this item entirely from inventory," Walmart said, though the name of the seller was not disclosed.
Sears and Amazon also pulled the product from their digital stores.
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Dan Staggs is an intern at In These Times.
