Infamous sign stolen from Auschwitz 1 camp museum
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'Work Sets You Free' sign wrenched off in early hours of morning
Exact replica immediately hung in place of original as police hunt thieves
The sign from the gates of the Auschwitz death camp has been stolen.
Poland yesterday vowed to recover 'at all costs' the 15ft metal inscription Arbeit Macht Frei - Work Sets You Free.
The deceitful Nazi slogan was meant to convey to the prisoners who passed under it that they could attain 'spiritual' freedom through hard work for the Fatherland. But for most, it was the inscription on a gateway to a living hell.
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The entrance to Auschwitz in a picture taken last night after the sign above this gate was stolen
Mystery shrouded the motivation for the theft, which took place in the early hours of yesterday. But police fear it was more sinister than a drunken prank.
Some believe the shadowy Nazi memorabilia network, where a piece such as the 90lb sign could be sold for a small fortune, could be behind the theft.
It could never be displayed, but there are known to be many relics of the Nazi era in private collections, owned by wealthy individuals with an obsession of history's most evil regime.
Poland's ambassador to Israel, Agnieszka Magdziak-Miszewska, said police information indicated the robbery was 'meticulously planned'.
She said the thieves skilfully avoided CCTV cameras monitoring the entrance to the camp that was opened by the Nazis in 1940 initially to incarcerate Polish political prisoners.
Tourists walk underneath the replacement of the 'Arbeit macht frei' (work will set you free) sign in Auschwitz
A hole cut in the Auschwitz fence believed to have been made by the thieves
'Everyone is doing everything they can to catch those who did this,' she said, adding that the governor of the region has declared a state of emergency.
Whoever took the sign was armed with a screwdriver with which they loosened one side before wrenching it from its mountings.
Auschwitz museum official Pawel Sawicki said: 'It's a symbol of what Auschwitz stands for. But a place where hundreds of thousands died obviously doesn't mean anything to the thieves.'
Noach Flug, chairman of the Centre of Organisations of Holocaust Survivors, called on the Polish government 'to exert an especially concentrated effort' into catching the thieves and bringing them to justice.
The missing sign, which is occasionally removed for conservation work, has been replaced by a replica while the hunt goes on.
A former Polish army barracks, the Nazis converted the site into what became known to Holocaust planners as Auschwitz 1. While thousands were murdered in its buildings, the far larger complex at Birkenau several miles away - with railway lines that transported the Jews of Europe virtually to the doors of the gas chambers - was chiefly responsible for the deaths of 1.1million. -
The Arbeit Macht Frei sign?
I hope the thieves get caught and rot in jail for a long time.
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goodness
It's meant as a stark reminder of the barbaric Nazi era
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Originally posted by fudgester:
The Arbeit Macht Frei sign?
I hope the thieves get caught and rot in jail for a long time.
I hope that the thieves don't get caught by legal law enforcers but by a sadist vigilante who will perform ice-pick lobotomy without painkillers on the thieves. -
Originally posted by fudgester:
The Arbeit Macht Frei sign?
I hope the thieves get caught and rot in jail for a long time.
I have a feeling that it might be too late, that the old sign has been broken up and melted down. The thieves were so efficient in breaking in and making off with it, who's to say that they haven't destroyed it already?
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Originally posted by Herzog_Zwei:
I hope that the thieves don't get caught by legal law enforcers but by a sadist vigilante who will perform ice-pick lobotomy without painkillers on the thieves.I prefer poetic justice.
Say, 20 years hard labour in a penal colony.
Let those jackasses learn what Arbeit Macht Frei really means.
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The sign photographed last summer:
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I just wonder who would want to steal it.
The thieves had to pull off a sophisticated heist to make away with it. They can't exactly sell it off without raising suspicion. And melting it down for scrap is pointless - they might as well just steal a few manhole covers or something.
I'm thinking that they'll be putting the sign up for ransom. Expect to see a news article on a ransom demand for the sign in the next few days.
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Originally posted by fudgester:
I just wonder who would want to steal it.
The thieves had to pull off a sophisticated heist to make away with it. They can't exactly sell it off without raising suspicion. And melting it down for scrap is pointless - they might as well just steal a few manhole covers or something.
I'm thinking that they'll be putting the sign up for ransom. Expect to see a news article on a ransom demand for the sign in the next few days.
I think it was a deliberate attempt to insult the memory of the former inmates and the significance of the camp.
Besides, what would anyone want in exchange for the sign? Something that involves Jews or Israel (as some people speculated in comment sections)? It's highly unlikely since the vandals knew where the security cameras and alarms were.
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It's sad that the hardline feelings of the Nazi era controvesy still can't die down. Yeah, it could be done for some meaning
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Originally posted by fudgester:
I prefer poetic justice.
Say, 20 years hard labour in a penal colony.
Let those jackasses learn what Arbeit Macht Frei really means.
Talking about poetic justice:Isn't be a brainless vegetable the correct punishment for brainless action?
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5 arrested as Auschwitz sign recovered
December 21, 2009 -- Updated 1302 GMT (2102 HKT)
(CNN) -- Police in Poland have recovered the infamous sign stolen from the front gate of the Auschwitz concentration camp and arrested five men, they announced Monday.
The "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign, which means "Work Sets You Free" in German and is synonymous with the Nazi camps of World War II, was stolen late last week from Auschwitz in Poland, police said Friday.
The theft prompted outrage around the world.
Five men in their 20s and 30s have been arrested, journalist Tomas Machala of CNN affiliate Polsat in the Polish capital Warsaw said Monday.
They were not neo-Nazis, he said, in response to speculation at the time of the theft that the far right was responsible.
"They have some criminal background," he said, noting they had been arrested for robbery and brawling in the past. He did not give their names.
"They wanted to sell the sign and earn some money," he said. Police said it was too early to say if they acted on their own or were hired to commit the robbery. They face up to 10 years in prison if they are convicted, Machala said.
It is not clear how they managed to steal the sign, which was cut into three pieces into order to fit it into a car, he said.
They were arrested hundreds of miles north of the concentration camp memorial, near the city of Gdansk. The sign had been hidden in a forest, Machala said.
Police were "alerted at 5 a.m. local time on Friday by museum guards" that the sign, was stolen, according to police spokeswoman Agnieszka Szczygiel.
The heavy iron sign "was removed by being unscrewed on one side and pulled off on the other," Szczygiel said.
The police investigation is ongoing.
The chairman of Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust museum, called the theft shocking.
"The theft of such a symbolic object is an attack on the memory of the Holocaust, and an escalation from those elements that would like to return us to darker days," Avner Shalev said Friday.
"I call on all enlightened forces in the world -- who fight against anti-semitism, racism, xenophobia and the hatred of the other -- to join together to combat these trends," he said.
More than 1 million people died in gas chambers or were starved to death in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp complex; about 90 percent of the victims were Jews.
Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, called the sign "the defining symbol of the Holocaust.
"Everyone knew that this was not a place where work makes you free, but it was the place where millions of men, women, and children were brought for one purpose only -- to be murdered," Hier said. "The audacity and boldness of this crime deserves the full attention of the Polish government."
The center calls itself one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations.
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The sign got cut up?
Bloody b*stards. Ten years hard labour would be too good for them.
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Originally posted by fudgester:
The sign got cut up?
Bloody b*stards. Ten years hard labour would be too good for them.
I guess it's best to leave it as it is instead of attempting to join it together. Display it inside the museum entrance building and leave the replica where it is..
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it has been said that the one behind it wasnt a neo-nazi. Just a crazy collector.
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Poland seeks Swedish help in Auschwitz theft probe
(AFP) – 5 hours ago
WARSAW — Poland said Thursday it had formally asked Sweden for help in its probe of the theft of the infamous Nazi German "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign from the former Auschwitz death camp.
"We sent the Swedish justice ministry a request for judicial assistance by mail and fax," prosecutor's office spokeswoman Boguslawa Marcinkowska told AFP.
She declined to elaborate.
Last week, Polish investigators said the mastermind of the theft -- which sent shockwaves around the world -- lived abroad.
But they have consistently refused to confirm reports that the individual is in Sweden and that his or her name is known to Polish investigators.
The theft was discovered on December 18 at the former World War II death camp in southern Poland, which is now a state-run museum and memorial.
Police recovered the five-metre (16-foot) metal sign -- which means "Work Will Set You Free" in German -- two days later in northern Poland, arresting five Polish men.
The sign had been cut into three pieces, with the letter "i" from "Frei" abandoned at the camp.
Charged with theft and damage, the men face up to 10 years in prison.
Aged 20 to 39, they have criminal records for theft or violence, but none appeared to be neo-Nazis although they may have been working for neo-Nazis, police have said.
Swedish media have claimed the mastermind of the theft planned to sell the sign to finance far-right terrorist attacks against Sweden's parliament and the home of its prime minister. On December 24, Swedish intelligence announced it was probing a plot to attack both targets.
The sign above Auschwitz's gateway has long symbolised the horror of the camp, created by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland in 1940 and in operation until Soviet troops liberated it in 1945.
This was where 1.1 million mainly Jewish prisoners from across Europe died during World War II: some from overwork and starvation, but mostly in the camp's notorious gas chambers. Among the other victims were non-Jewish Poles, Roma and captured Soviet soldiers.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. -
Fifth member of "Arbeit macht frei" gang charged
23.12.2009 17:27
As a fifth member of the gang who stole the "Arbeit macht frei" sign from the Auschwitz gate is formally been charged with theft, three guards on duty at the time have been suspended from duty.
Martin A., thought to be the “brain” behind the theft, has been detained for three months while prosecutors compile the case against him and four other members of the gang, who were charged yesterday.
The ring leader was thought to be in contact with a buyer for the stolen gate, who is probably someone who lives in Sweden, reports the PAP news agency.
Meanwhile, unofficial reports say that three guards on duty last Friday morning when the gate was unscrewed from gate 1 at the former Auschwitz Nazi death camp have been suspended from duty, although the museum’s press officer, Bartosz Bartyzel, at the site has not confirmed this. “Any announcement on personnel matters will be made when the prosecutor’s investigation and an internal audit has been completed,” was all he would say.
Yesterday, prosecutors in Krakow criticised the museum’s security system. They said that four of the men originally entered the site at around 21.00 CET, Thursday. But after they discovered that they hadn’t the necessary tools to make the theft, they left through a hole in the parameter fence, obtained the right equipment and re-entered the site. The security guards and surveillance systems failed to pick up the activity both times.- thenews.pl
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*Plays Slayer's Angel of Death...*