The Auschwitz Museum has issued a scathing attack on the use of a notorious Nazi slogan on a sign at a US anti-lockdown protest.

The German phrase on the protest sign, “Arbeit Macht Frei,” was written on the gates at Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps.

It means “work sets you free,” darkly referring to starving Jews at the camp who were forced to work until they dropped dead — or were killed. The sign at the Re-Open Illinois protest Friday in Chicago also included the initials “JB,” referring to Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker, who is Jewish.

″‘Arbeit macht frei’ was a false, cynical illusion the SS gave to prisoners of Auschwitz,” said a statement from the museum, located at the death camp site in Poland. “Those words became one of the icons of human hatred. It’s painful to see this symbol instrumentalised and used again to spread hate.

“It’s a symptom of moral & intellectual degeneration.”