Austerity Macht Frei
As Europe continues to unravel, David Pryce-Jones:
It is a strange freak of history that Greece was the staunch ally of Britain from the first days of the war onwards, and resisted the German occupation with courage, only to find itself under the German cosh at a moment when Britain has rejected the euro zone and cannot be a meaningful ally. A debate has taken place in the House of Lords, in which Lord Lamont, a former Chancellor of the Exchequer, pointed out that Greece is being forced to choose between the “utterly impossible and utterly incredible.” A friend of mine, Lord Willoughby de Broke, went further. German policy, he said, was down to “austerity macht frei,” an echo of the slogan “work makes you free” set over the entrance to Auschwitz. The past is catching up with the present and the European Union autodestructs.