Auschwitz Slave Labor Inspired Republican Candidate for California Governor

On July 25, Kyle Langford, a 24-year-old Republican candidate for governor in California, made a social media post that some believe indicated his plan to use slave labor. Langford posted a photo of himself on X, formerly Twitter, in front of the infamous gate to Auschwitz, the Nazi labor and death camp, with the words “Arbeit Macht Frei,” German for “work makes one free.” The caption for the photo was “My 0% Unemployment Plan.”

 The official Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum condemned the post the next day, calling it insensitive. Using a Nazi death camp as a prop for his political platform is a “profound moral failure” and “an affront to the dignity of the victims.”

Langford was unyielding in the face of criticism. He thanked the Auschwitz Museum for a “massive shoutout,” even saying that “my German ancestors smile upon me.”

Fascist rhetoric is abundant, resounding, and it encourages other extremists to voice their opinions. People fear that fascism is becoming normalized in the United States. But death camps are nothing to joke about, and certainly nothing to emulate.

Instead of apologizing for his insensitivity to the victims of Nazi extermination, he reaffirmed his position, stating that he wasn’t joking, he thinks “it is exactly what is needed to stabilize California and keep people safe.”

What is “it”?

He was vague, but the photo and his words indicate that he intends to construct slave labor camps in California to ensure a “0% unemployment” rate.

Who will be used for slave labor? Who is he trying to “keep safe”?

The political climate and anti-immigrant rhetoric, primarily from Republicans, may indicate that immigrants would be used as slave labor to keep Americans safe. Although Langford has opposed having ICE raids in schools because he believes “children should feel no fear of going to school under any circumstances,” he has also said that immigrant women should marry an incel (a person, often a man, who is involuntarily celibate) or else they should be deported.

Few of his opinions are in public discourse because Langford is a young, new candidate for governor of California (for an election in November 2026), but his public opinions seem to waver.