[Riodacat]

also called attention to the place where those words first hung at a place of detention

I doubt the Ruskies ever hung a German sign "Arbeit Macht Frei" on their Gulags..

[TigerLikesRooster]

I suspect he is talking about a Russian slogan with the same meaning.

[elcid1970]

It was the slogan the NKVD originated, not which language it was in.

In my very bad Russian, the sign at Solovki could have read,

“TRUD DYELAYET ZA SVOBODAM”.

BTW, `slon’ is also the Russian word for elephant. The SLON organization adopted that logo for their HQ.