ARBEIT MAGA FREI

It seems like you are not very well informed about what is going on at the moment. They are flying people out of the country never to be seen again. To another country's notorious prison with the world's self-proclaimed "coolest dictator". And they claim they cannot get them back even though being ordered by courts to do so.

There is also satellite imagery of apparent blood and human remains in a large pit in the center of the detention center in El Salvador. It’s unclear whether the prisoners are being sent there to die or not, and the media is completely silent on this matter while Google works to scrub its images to block that portion.
So no, this comic is not a stretch at all, unfortunately.
I, as a german, agree with both of you. Yes what happens is bad, but still not as bad as doing "medical research" on kids, including amputation, putting nails into the brains of innocent and much much more horrible stuff. And I mean on a scale from 1 to the saw, we are at hellraiser.
So yes it is bad, but this meme is very very edgy. And for us Germans, thought about our history and that we have to prevent anything like this happening again, this is for sure far far far too relativizing.
Also, on a side note, ARBEIT MACHT FREI = WORK MAKES FREE. This is saying Work makes American great again free. This buggers me
- You're judging the end phase with the beginning phase. So of course it isn't going to be 1 to 1.
  
  I am not judging the end phase. Or the beginning. I am bringing a different perspective into the discussion.
  When we think about concentration camps, we think about 1.1 million murders. We think about horrific conditions. We don't talk about the earliest prison style camps.
  So, if a german tells you that is offensive to him, he has reasons for it. Pn the other side, in the context of the American population, it is edgy but not over the edge.
  Perspective is everything
  
  Perspective is that a Holocaust isn't 1.1 million deaths. Death camps aren't either. These places have existed throughout human history run by tyrants. Pol pot just killed them in the fields. You do not have the patent on it because you are German and have been made to understand and feel terrible about your history. A Holocaust is happening in Palestine right now. A Holocaust is beginning in America. Denying it because millions haven't died yet only allows it to continue and to perpetrate the belief that everything is ok. Waiting until they're all dead ensures yet another occurence.
  
  THE Holocaust is the name for the genocide on the Jewish population. Not a describtion.
  Please, read it up.
  
  That was THE Holocaust, yes. A holocaust is definition 3b.
  
  Holocaust, uppercase, as used here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust
  Or like definined here: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/holocaust?q=Holocaust
  The proper noun with upper H is used exclusively for one specific event since the 1970s. And the generic genocide meaning is no more.
  But of course in most parts of Europe, nazi symbols are prohibited. For example musks salute would be punishable with jail time here in Germany.
  So, again, the USA didn't get the memo. I did not even think for a second that in the USA this term is still used outside the context.
  That is shameful and part of the overall, basic issue in the USA regarding the current status. The neo nazi culture could thrive without interference, and the could arm themselves btw.
  
  Is your ego so fucking fragile you have to find something to argue and “be right” about? Who TF cares about the semantics of the definition of “Holocaust”, my God.
  
  Just because i found out about this today:
  Here is the list of removed books from the Nimitz Library (US Marine Academy as far as i know it): https://media.defense.gov/2025/Apr/04/2003683009/-1/-1/0/250404-LIST%20OF%20REMOVED%20BOOKS%20FROM%20NIMITZ%20LIBRARY.PDF
  Have a look what was removed: "Memorializing the Holocaust"
  What was not removed: "Mein Kampf".
  So, at least some commentors here have something in common with Trumps regime. "Who the fuck cares about what the Holocaust was"
  Yes, this is not what you said, but it is what a sentiment like this can lead to.
  
  https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/germanys-laws-antisemitic-hate-speech-nazi-propaganda-holocaust-denial/
  https://aktuell.uni-bielefeld.de/2022/10/21/comparing-with-the-holocaust-is-relativizing-history/?lang=en
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust_trivialization
  A damn lot of people.
- I, as a German myself, see the need to call out their obvious intentions as drastic and crystal clear as necessary. They are currently testing how far they can stretch the legal system as there seems to be nobody there able to stop them. Paraphrasing legal eagle a bit here.
  Nazis everywhere are doing the same thing. Look at the AfD streching everything that can be said or done by politics, slowly turning the weapons put in place to protect democracy against itself.
  Also, do you have any idea what is happening to those people that aren't guilty of anything in those prisons? And the reason why they are not returned is what exactly? The millions of dollars the dictator gets for taking "care" of them sure doesn't seem to be any leverage to making sure the innocent prisoners are kept alive and well. This is what they want, getting away with deporting people never to be seen again.
- RFK Jr (our Secretary of Health and Human Services, a cabinet position and #12 in presidential succession) tapped David Geier to lead a study links between vaccines and autism.
  https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/03/25/vaccine-skeptic-hhs-rfk-immunization-autism/
  Geier isn't a licensed physician, he barely passed a bachelor program. Didn't stop him his dad from experimenting on autistic children and adults with a variety of potential "cures", including puberty blockers and chemical castration.
  Sounds a little too Menegelesque for my liking.
  
  Yes i know this. Still, luckily, not Ausschwitz and 1940. Still 1935. But the clock is ticking
- As a Canadian just north of the border preparing for invasion that gets threatened weekly, I can assure you it is happening now. Do not kid yourself. Autism is preventable was today. Tomorrow will be worse just as each consecutive day has been worse under this regime.
  
  Did I question this in any way? No. Will there be over a million be killed in those camps? Hopefully not, we don't know yet. As I described in another comment: this is about perspective. And most Germans see 1.1 Million murders if they see concentration camp.
  I am as concerned as everybody here about what is happening, and I will call Trump and friends neo nazis every single day.
  But making a ln Holocaust comparison is something very tabu in Germany. For good reasons
  
  It's not a comparison. It's happening every day. Open your eyes please. It is as serious as you think it could be that is why we are using this language.
  
  I see how serious it is, as serious as around 1934, imprisoned without trial, forced to work. I get this.
  Using the term "Arbeit macht frei" in the unique style auf the front gate of Ausschwitz, a camp that just opened 1940 l, and the worst camp after all, run by criminals, literally criminals, with conviction and everything, that is simply offensive.
  Of course you most likely do not know those details.
  
  Auchwitz imagery was invoked to show how deathly serious the path we're going down is. This is not the time to be offended by comparisons to the Holocaust - this is the time to be outraged that our stupid country learned absolutely nothing and is heading in the same direction that yours did.
  
  Snd you and American people should be! This must be stopped.
  I just explained why dome Germans, including me, find this at least tasteless. As mentioned. Perspective. And from your there is nothing wrong, and that is fine. Just don't expect me (and I am sure neither the artist nor you to this) to applaud.
  
  The problem is you're saying that your discomfort at seeing Auschwitz invoked is more important than the very real suffering of the people being depicted in the comic. How bad Auschwitz was is very well known by more people than you seem to think. I guarantee the artist knew and specifically used it to make a point. There is nothing to applaud here.
  
  I am not saying this. I just explained a perspective. What is up with you folks?
  Really?
  Ok, let's be 100% clear here. I am offended. Yes. Maybe because my grand grand parents died in (grand grand dad) or afterwards due (grand grand mother) Ausschwitz. They where there as political prisoners because they didn't share the regimes opinion.
  And because this, I fully understand "your" side. I am not offended by the author or any individual.
  And I can overcome this feeling, knowing your perspective.
  But let's do a little game: i share an opinion. And opinion that is not yours. And what are you doing? Dismissal and "punishment". See any correlation? This is a risky game, that for sure must be played, with high stakes. You may feel the need for such edgy content. And you surely need provocative, over the top, content to raise awareness.
  Sure, it is offending me, and the initial commentor. But nobody is prohibited to like or share this, and I have no issues with the people they do.
  
  I am Canadian and I am educated. I do know those details quite well thank you. The dictator in the United States has 35ish felony convictions. That's not enough for you? You think he isn't surrounded by fellow criminals and is placing those like him in all the positions of power? Holy shit. This conversation blows my mind. A Holocaust requires so many rules. Holy fuck.
  
  It is THE Holocaust. There can be no other. It was a genocide of the Jewish people.
  And i see you don't know anything about Ausschwitz.
  Let me help out:
  Rapist, murders and other career criminals where assigned there as functionaries. They made also overseers (kapos).
  Prisoners who arrived there would either be send directly into the gas chamber, or shaved, tattooed with there serial number and had to work to death.
  Medical, horrific, experiments where done on the inmates. Who was not longer fit to work would be executed, and this was done from the beginning on.
  We are not there (yet). We are still in 1935. And Trump has to be stopped at any cost.
  But in my view, these meme is edgy at least, and from my point of view far over the edge.
  I have visited readings of Holocaust survivors, we had one coming to our school and telling us about what happened. And believe me, luckily there is time to stop this, before we reach the level of 1940. Not much though
  
  The fucking rules you have for mass murdering dictators. You are fucking nutso. I am proud to say my grandfather's died to help eliminate your Nazis. I'll probably do the same should this get much worse than it is.
  Your unyielding rules terrify me as much as Nazis, dictators and death camps do.
  
  What damn rules? What the hell are you talking about? I just shared a perspective! I explained why some may react in a negative way to this meme.
  Please, help me out here: what to you think I have "rules" for exactly?
  There are is one single rule, and that is neither by me nor is it relevant for the argument. And that is the the term Holocaust is the name for the exact event that startet 1940 with the mass execution of jews. There will be no "other" or "second" Holocaust. It is a proper noun.
  So comparing anything to the Holocaust must happen under this premises.
  And I just pointed out, that the meme itself does this comparison, most likely inadvertently. And some Germans may react offended.
  That's all. I don't day you should not upvote, share, or use this. I just shared a point of view.
  So, again, what rules?
  
  "The government does not intend to release the prisons inmates"
  Miguel Sarre, a former member of the United Nations Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture, described CECOT as a "concrete and steel pit" used to "dispose of people without formally applying the death penalty", citing that the government does not intend to release the prison's inmates.*
  *]Ventas, Leire (14 February 2024). "Coming Face to Face with Inmates in El Salvador's Mega-Jail". BBC News. Retrieved 31 January 2025.

As a fellow German I have to say this is how it started in Nazi Germany. First on the list were political opponents and the press, then minoritie like people with disabilities, Sinti, Roma and of course the jewish population. Many of them thought they'd be safe until they found themselves inside camps.

This is the Ausschwitz font. Opened 1940, worst camp ever. That may be why I and my pre commenter find this very edgy.
- would you say this is more like Nohra concentration camp?
  
  In all seriousness: any 1935 camp would be appropriate. The similarities are depressing.
  Nohra was maybe more humane then what those deported and in quantanamo are experiencing.
  I would keep the escalation to Ausschwitz until we reach the next stage at least.

It started like this in your country

People in Nazi concentration camps weren't gassed at first either; these things escalate. Also note that we hage absolutely no idea what actually happens in CECOT.

They are grabbing people off the street and sending them to a megaprison in El Salvador without charge or trial. One man they took was told to be returned by a US court and the government refused saying that the uncharged, untried man is a criminal who deserves it and nobody who gets sent there will ever return. How is this not quite literally what happened with Germany sending Jewish people to a megaprison in Poland without charge or trial never to return?

How is this not quite literally what happened with Germany sending Jewish people to a megaprison in Poland without charge or trial never to return?
Auschwitz, the concentration camp with the phrase "ARBEIT MACHT FREI" on its entrance, was not a simple 'prison'. It was an extermination camp, where people were sorted at the beginning on whether they were still able to work, or not, as e.g. children, elder or sick people. Members of the first group were to be exterminated by hard work. The latter were directly sent to the gas chambers.
That said, what happens now in US, is as for now, more similar to sending people into a 'simple' concentration camp, than into an extermination camp, particularly Auschwitz.

As a German, you really should know your history better. Everyone knows how it ended. Not nearly enough people seem to know how it started.

Yepyepyep
"Wehret den Anfängen"
"Defend against it in the beginnings"

By the time it reaches that point, it will be far, FAR too late.

Have you read They Thought They Were Free? It’s very interesting (and terrifying), and explains exactly how your line of reasoning is dangerous and flawed. Fascism is like a disease that is much easier to nip in the bud early on. You get the classic tell tale “symptoms”, but once it’s allowed to run rampant, the cost of stopping it will be drastic.

This line of reasoning is quite surprising coming from a German. I suggest you read more about what the rise of fascism looks like.

whereabouts in the Hitler timeline would you put the current administration then

Early 1930s.
The US has elections still, while Hitler abolished all democracy the moment he could.
As soon as Trump starts actually using his presidential power to the full extent, that's when you have entered 1933. He is still holding back at the moment - the US President is legally speaking nearly equivalent to an absolute monarch and can do far more than just signing executive orders, stopping federal money transfer and deporting non-citizens.
- He's gone beyond the full extent into illegality. And no we don't know if there are elections anymore, there were elections but if you don't need to with for at least another 3 years you wouldn't announce it early.
  
  Illegality has layers though. Right now they're merely probing the waters and seeing how much pushback there is from the judicative.
  That's rather tame compared to Hitler's first months, where the nazis centralized all power under them.
  The US has had multiple local elections as well, while all free elections vanished the moment Hitler had the power to do so.
  So I'd argue the US is somewhere around 1932. Not everything is lost just yet but you're moving ever closer to the point of no return.
- They brought an Enabling Act to vote in committee.

People were saying to calm down a bit every single step before now - where he just openly spoke of shipping "homegrown" [natural born citizens] to their offshore concentration camp they've already had masked agents abducting people off the streets to, and has directly defied multiple court orders, now ...if you can't see the neon lights pointing to where this is headed, that's on you

Nobody has any idea if they are forced to work to their death or not. You can't just claim they aren't.

Let's be fair about this - we're going to experience a new form of fascism. It won't 100% mirror what took place in Germany. Nor will it be exactly what happened in any other dictatorship where civilians were murdered to further support the regime.

But what I'm expecting is more like a Rwandan style civil war where MAGAs use their guns to slaughter their neighbors.

AsABlackMan