Spanish performance artist turns a synagogue into a gas chamber and invites Germans in.

Maybe you've forgotten to think very much about performance art lately. Along comes Santiago Sierra to help you get excited about that moribund art form all over again:

Sierra, known internationally for his controversial work, led hoses from the exhaust pipes of six parked cars into the building in the town of Pulheim-Stommeln near Cologne to create lethal levels of carbon monoxide there.

Around 200 visitors who lined up for the first gassing session on Sunday had to sign a declaration that they were aware of the risks before being allowed in wearing a breathing apparatus and accompanied by a fireman....

Sierra, 39, who lives in Mexico, was not present at the start and could not be reached for comment. He said in a statement distributed outside the synagogue that he was trying to counter the "trivialization of our memory of the Holocaust."

He was trying to counter the trivialization of our memory of the Holocaust. Don't you get it? Oh, sure, we get it. The artist is not hard to understand. What's hard to understand is the 200 Germans who were all where do I line up for the gas chamber.