oedipus' online complexes

the U.S. is abuzz with the news of the arrest of the alleged terrorist cell in new jersey, whose members apparently -- amongst other insidious aspirations -- were plotting an attack upon new jersy's own fort dix...

ever since i was a young jerseyman, i have felt an involuntary shudder whenever i passed fort dix, as the motto of the fort, which plays a prominent part in the design of the main gate of the walled compound -- Work Makes You Free -- is the same motto (albeit in english), which, most famously, was (and still is) emblazoned over the entrance to the first incarnation of the concentration camp at auschwitz: Arbeit macht frei

i checked with the wikipedia article on the phrase, Arbeit macht frei, but it didn't explain why it should have been used as a motto for fort dix -- at least, not to me... even more surprising, the article didn't contain a reference to fort dix... so how -- and why -- did the same motto come to be so prominently displayed at two such divergent places?

construction of fort dix began in the summer of 1917, but i don't think the motto-emblazoned gate dates from the fort's founding; in 1939, "Camp Dix" became "Fort Dix", a permenant army post, which meant construction of more permenant structures at the site, as well as the site's expansion... other opportunities for the erection of the motto-emblazoned gate came in 1947, when the fort was designated a basic training center, as well as during the 1950s and 1960s, when the fort further expanded to accomodate a simulated vietnamese village... i checked fort dix's official base site, and found the official fort dix history, but nothing there helped me pin down the date of construction of the gate, which is clearly visible from the turnpike (hey, it's new jersey, after all), although it was a handy source for much of the detailed information contained in this paragraph....

i thought that i might find that Work Makes You Free was a particular army company, corps or division's motto, or even that it was derived from a classical work of antiquity, and -- as so much else -- revived and misused by the nazis... but no; nothing...

i suppose that's it -- nothing profound -- i just wonder how the hell the same slogan came to adorn the entrance to one of the twentieth century's major training centers for american soldiers fighting (ostensively) in the name of freedom and several centers dedicated to one of the twentieth century's most inexplicable (and despicable) endeavors?

i wonder if there's anyone who knows... i wonder if there's anyone else who cares...