German politician sent to prison over Auschwitz tattoo

A German court sent politican Marcel Zech to prison for sporting a tattoo on his back that combined an image of the Auschwitz death camp with the slogan from the Buchenwald concentration camp’s gate, “Jedem das Seine” — “to each his own.”

Marcel Zech, a far-right German politician, on Monday was convicted of incitement and was sentenced to eight months in prison for displaying an offensive Nazi-inspired tattoo.

The court sided with the prosecutors and stiffened the suspended term he originally received.

Zech, 28, sported a tattoo on his back that combined an image of the Auschwitz death camp with the slogan from the Buchenwald concentration camp’s gate, “Jedem das Seine” — “to each his own.”

Zech, a member of the far-right National Democratic Party, admitted displaying the tattoo while visiting a swimming pool.

A district court in Oranienburg sentenced him a six-month suspended sentence in December, but prosecutors appealed the ruling, which was reversed and switched to an actual prison term.

Judge Joern Kalbow said the public might view a suspended sentence as “the state retreating in the face of right-wing radicalism,” while noting that Germany has seen an uptick in the rate of xenophobic crimes.

Zech will appeal again to a higher court.

Zech has since altered the offending tattoo as a result of the “exceptional denunciation” he has encountered and because he wants to be able to keep going to the pool with his children.

The image of Auschwitz has been replaced by Max and Moritz, figures from a German children’s tale, but the tattoo still includes the slogan “to each his own.”

By: World Israel News Staff
AP contributed to this report.

anti-SemitismAuschwitzFar rightGermany