A PROMINENT social media commentator has defended invoking the Nazi concentration camps in a discussion on rising inequality in Australia.

Asher Wolf, founder of the Cryptoparty political group and freelance journalist with publications including The Guardian and Crikey, was commenting on a piece in The Australian Financial Review on Wednesday.

Sinclair Davidson, RMIT economist and senior research fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs think tank, argued that Australia is “not an unequal society” and that “the politics of envy hurt it”.

“In a country like Australia there is a clear relationship between work and reward,” he wrote. “Those individuals who study hard, work hard, save their money, avoid chemical dependency, don’t have more children than they can afford, tend to live happy and comfortable lives.

“Not always. To be sure there is bad luck and misfortune but then we have a generous and means-tested welfare system to provide a hand up. Welfare was never intended to subsidise the lifestyle choices of the idle.”

In response, Ms Wolf tweeted: “This article is nonsensical: also the image tagline ‘work equates to reward’ is awfully close to ‘arbeit macht frei’.”

This article is nonsensical: also the image tagline "work equates to reward" is awfully close to "arbeit macht frei" pic.twitter.com/sPVywcPddy — Asher Wolf (@Asher_Wolf) July 26, 2017

Arbeit macht frei, or “work sets you free”, was the slogan used by the Nazis at the entrance of Auschwitz and other concentration camps. Dr Dvir Abramovich, chairman of the Jewish group the Anti-Defamation Commission, described the comment as crossing a “red line”.

“Cynically exploiting and cheapening the Holocaust and making light of the memory of those who perished at the hands of the Nazi death machine is deeply hurtful and morally wrong,” he said.

“Yes, we should have a debate about inequality, and yes people are of course free to voice their opinions. But, it is profoundly disturbing that anyone would employ the phrase from Europe’s largest death camp, where the 1.5 million people who died in the gas chambers or from starvation and disease were greeted by this sign and message, in order to criticise an op-ed.”

Dr Abramovich said it was “insensitive and demonstrates a gross lack of historical understanding about the crimes that Hitler and his evil regime committed”. “Drawing such comparisons is outrageous and never acceptable, and we urge Asher Wolf to apologise and to refrain from such trivialisations in the future,” he said.

But Ms Wolf hit back at Dr Abramovich’s criticism. “I am the daughter and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors,” she said.

“Growing up I attended a religious Jewish high school and a Jewish youth group. I am well aware of ‘sensitivities’ concerning the Holocaust. I grew up surrounded by people traumatised by the horror of genocide.

“My comment on Sinclair Davidson’s article was an exploration of use of language. It did not ‘cheapen’ the Holocaust by pointing out the phrasing was similar.”

She said “tone policing” of language and “abominable institutional bullying” against individuals had a “chilling effect on freedom of expression”.

“I condemn Dvir Abramovich comments and suggest he is ill advised to make outrageous claims about the nature of my original comment,” she said. “In times when we face such serious threats to freedom from the Trump administration — and a rising tide of vile anti-Semitism online and offline — it is pathetic that some men feel fit to bounce grand-scale attacks in response to anyone who speaks up against inequality.”

frank.chung@news.com.au