Arbeit Macht Frei sign stolen from Auschwitz

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BikerBabe

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Sign that spanned entrance to former Nazi death camp in Poland removed overnight

Arbeit Macht Frei sign stolen from Auschwitz | World news | guardian.co.uk

The-sign-at-the-Auschwitz-001.jpg


Thieves removed the "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign that spanned the entrance to
the former Auschwitz death camp. Photograph: Katarina Stolz/Reuters



The iron sign bearing the Nazi slogan "Arbeit Macht Frei" that spanned the main entrance to the former Auschwitz death camp was stolen before dawn today, Polish police said.

The sign with the German words for "Work Sets You Free" is believed to have been stolen from the gates of the Auschwitz memorial between 3.30am and 5am, when museum guards noticed it was missing and alerted authorities, a police spokeswoman, Katarzyna Padlo, said.

The wide iron sign across a gate at the main entrance to the former Nazi death camp in southern Poland, where more than 1 million people died during the second world war, was unscrewed on one side and pulled off on the other, Padlo said.

Criminal investigators and search dogs were sent to the grounds of the vast former death camp, where barracks, watchtowers and the ruins of gas chambers still stand as testament to the atrocities inflicted by Nazi Germany on Jews, Gypsies and others.

Padlo said there were no suspects but police were pursuing several theories.

Another police spokesman told TVP Info television: "The whole area is under surveillance. There are many cameras there. We are now analysing the film. I hope we will find the trail."

Jaroslaw Mensfelt, the museum's spokesman, told the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza the theft was "very saddening".

"The thieves either didn't know where they were or – what's even worse – they did know but that didn't prevent them from stealing," he said.

Gazeta Wyborcza reported that the museum authorities had already replaced the sign with a replica, which was used briefly a few years ago when the original was being repaired.

The slogan "Arbeit Macht Frei" was used at the entrances to other Nazi camps, including Dachau and Sachensenhausen, but the long curving sign at Auschwitz is perhaps the best known.

More than a million people visit the Auschwitz site every year, but the barracks and other structures are in a state of disrepair and Polish authorities have been struggling to find the funds to carry out conservation work. This week, Germany pledged €60m to an endowment that will fund long-term preservation work – half the amount that Auschwitz memorial museum officials say is needed.
 
Catch em and fry em. :evil:

If they're dumb enough to steal a sign and not know where its from or the significance behind it, give them some community service (oh, say, 40 years' worth) working AT Auschwitz.
 
I see that the B is upside down
 
I'm not buying the 'thieves didn't know where they were' story, it sounds pre-meditated and planned, given the time of night and the specific nature of the item.

Is it clear from the ground that it unscrews, if so, where, how many screws and how big? ... little bit of recon went into this job methinks...

I'll wager it's adorning the HQ of some neo-Nazi organisation who sees it as a rallying point for right-wing discontent.
 
I agree with Colin1.
The only other thing I could think of, was either a very drunk kind of "You don't dare to snatch that sign!" stunt, or something like that.
You'd be amazed at what gets delivered to the various police stations all over the world, with items coming from drunk stunts to outright theft and break-ins at various places.

I can understand that people forget or drop keys, cell phones, glasses - and that wallets, expensive electronics and other such things gets nicked - but dangit, I've seen wheelchairs, prosthetic legs and arms, kayaks, huge xerox machines, safes, enormous flat-screen tv sets, designed furniture (tables, chairs - sometimes 50-60 of them, usually that's an order from someone else), several huge lamps like the PH "pinecone" and what have you.

So why not a sign like that?
Drunk stunt or not, whoever did this definitely needs to get a few things set straight in their stupid little heads.
And I'd be more'n happy to help them...with a baseball bat or something like that! *growls*
 
Why bother? What the hell are you going to do with it? Not as though you can sell it on Ebay or something. And who the hell wants it hanging around the house?

If it is some right wing crank, he'll show it to the wrong person one of these days and that will be that. If it's a drunken prank, they'll find it in a field.

Bizzarre.
 
5 metres long and 40kg - not the easiest thing to carry off. The report said unscrewed on side then pulled (forced) off the other. Seems to be a callous bunch of sick opportunists.

Well maybe it will come back to haunt the theives.
 
I'll wager it's adorning the HQ of some neo-Nazi organisation who sees it as a rallying point for right-wing discontent.

I do not believe it was Neo Nazis that stole this. This actually goes against everything they believe in. If you ever read up on any of the organizations, all of them deny the holocaust ever happened.

I believe this was either one of two kinds of people:

1. A bunch of young punks who did it to just piss people off.

2. A collector of WW2/Third Reich memorabilia.
 

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