A Republican congressman made an astonishingly tone-deaf video from inside an Auschwitz gas chamber

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/NOLA.com)

published 5 July 2017

Concentration camp selfies are never a good idea, but Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) apparently didn't get the memo. The Louisiana lawmaker uploaded an ill-advised hand-held video of his visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in Poland, in which he used the horrors of the Holocaust as a segue to promoting homeland security — all over a clichéd, mournful-sounding violin soundtrack.

Over the course of the five-minute video, Higgins attempts to express his "great sense of dread," apparently oblivious to the wildly inappropriate nature of his video. At one point, speaking from a gas chamber, Higgins details the way cyanide pellets were used to murder thousands of people, concluding, "This is why homeland security must be squared away, why our military must be invincible."

The Auschwitz Memorial responded to Higgins' video on Twitter:

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"I note the two final words in Hebrew — 'al sheket,'" one Twitter user responded, "which means 'in silence.'"

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.