Auschwitz Memorial condemns congressman’s gas chamber video

NEW ORLEANS – Officials at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum have criticized a Louisiana congressman for narrating part of a five-minute video from inside a former gas chamber at the Nazi concentration camp in Poland.

Louisiana news outlets report that U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins posted the video Saturday. In it, the Republican says the gas chamber killings took only about 20 minutes and show why the U.S. military “must be invincible.”

A post on the Auschwitz Memorial’s official Twitter account said Tuesday that a former gas chamber is not a stage but a place where there should be respectful silence. Later Tuesday, it posted a photo of the entrance sign to that building, asking visitors to “maintain silence here.”

Higgins’ offices were closed Tuesday for the July Fourth holiday and he could not immediately be reached for comment.