Final answer:
The greeting above the gate at the second camp at Auschwitz was "Arbeit macht frei," meaning "Work Sets You Free." This phrase was emblematic of the cruelty and deception practiced by the Nazis in their concentration camps.
Step-by-step explanation:
The infamous greeting that stood above the gate at the second camp at Auschwitz is "Arbeit macht frei," which translates to "Work Sets You Free." This phrase was a cruel irony as the Nazi concentration camps were places of brutal forced labor and mass murder, with very few prisoners actually finding freedom through work. Auschwitz II-Birkenau, the largest of the more than 40 camps and subcamps that made up the Auschwitz complex, was primarily an extermination camp where approximately 80% of new arrivals were sent directly to their deaths. The remaining 20% were used for slave labor, often until they were no longer able to work and were then killed. Auschwitz is particularly notorious because it was not only an extermination camp but also housed Jewish prisoners for forced labor, albeit temporarily. This meant that a relatively large number of its victims, though still less than 1% of those who were sent there, survived to tell the world about the horrors they experienced, contributing greatly to the historical record of the Holocaust.