Auschwitz ‘Work Sets You Free’ sign stolen

Concord

Mr. Buckeye
Messages
12,825
Reaction score
119
Unbelievable.

Auschwitz ‘Work Sets You Free’ sign stolen

*****' cynical slogan disappeared overnight, Polish police say



a06a30d8-b603-40cb-80ce-7ae61e427d4c.hmedium.jpg



WARSAW, Poland - The infamous iron sign bearing the *****' cynical slogan "Arbeit Macht Frei" that spanned the main entrance to the former Auschwitz death camp was stolen before dawn Friday, Polish police said.

The wide iron sign — across a gate at the former **** death camp in southern Poland where more than 1 million people died during World War II — was removed by being unscrewed on one side and torn off on the other, police spokeswoman Katarzyna Padlo said.

She said the sign — bearing the German words for "Work Sets You Free" — disappeared from the Auschwitz memorial between 3:30 a.m. and 5 a.m.

Police have launched an intensive hunt, with criminal investigators and search dogs sent to the grounds of the vast former death camp, whose barracks, watchtowers and ruins of gas chambers still stand as testament to the atrocities inflicted by **** Germany on Jews, Gypsies, and others.

Museum spokesman Pawel Sawicki called the theft a "desecration" and said it was shocking that the tragic history of the site did not stop the thieves.

"We believe that the perpetrators will be found soon and the inscription will be returned to its place," Sawicki told The Associated Press.

Padlo said there are currently no suspects but police are pursuing several theories. A 5,000-zloty ($1,700) reward has been offered to anyone who can help track down the perpetrators.

An exact replica of the sign — made by the museum after World War II — was immediately hung in place of the missing original to fill in the empty space, but all visitors were being informed about the theft, Sawicki said. The museum had the replica made to hang when restoration work has been required on the original, Sawicki said.

The original sign was made in the summer of 1940 by non-Jewish Polish inmates of Auschwitz in an iron workshop at the camp, Sawicki said.

‘Physical reminder’
Poland's Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich said he had trouble imagining who would steal the sign and condemned the theft.

"If they are pranksters, they'd have to be sick pranksters, or someone with a political agenda. But whoever has done it has desecrated world memory," he told the AP.

"Auschwitz has to stand intact because without it, we are without the world's greatest reminder — physical reminder — of what we are capable of doing to each other," Schudrich said.

The slogan "Arbeit Macht Frei" was also used at the entrances to other **** camps, including Dachau and Sachsenhausen. The long curving sign at Auschwitz, is, however, perhaps the best known.

1 million deaths
Between 1940 and 1945, more than 1 million people, mostly Jews, were killed or died of starvation and disease while carrying out forced labor at the camp, which the ***** built in occupied Poland.

Today the site is one of the main draws in the region for visitors from abroad and Polish students, with more than 1 million visitors per year.

However, the barracks and other structures, which were not built to last many decades, are in a state of massive disrepair 65 years after the camp was liberated by the Soviet army, and Polish authorities have been struggling to find funds to carry out conservation work. This week, Germany pledged (EURO) 60 million ($87 million) to a new endowment that will fund long-term preservation work — half the estimated amount that officials with the Auschwitz memorial museum say is needed.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34475573/ns/world_news-europe
 

Cowboy Brian

@BrianLINY
Messages
15,864
Reaction score
5,053
ya cause always been the #1 thing I would steal... LMAO *** who in their right mind wants to steal that, or would steal it.
 

YosemiteSam

Unfriendly and Aloof!
Messages
45,858
Reaction score
22,189
CowboysZone LOYAL Fan
Romo 2 Austin;3152619 said:
ya cause always been the #1 thing I would steal... LMAO *** who in their right mind wants to steal that, or would steal it.

You would be surprised what stuff like that could bring on the black market. Especially from **** sympathizers.
 

Cowboy Brian

@BrianLINY
Messages
15,864
Reaction score
5,053
nyc;3152715 said:
You would be surprised what stuff like that could bring on the black market. Especially from **** sympathizers.

They don't seem like the kind of people that have plenty of money to spend.
 

YosemiteSam

Unfriendly and Aloof!
Messages
45,858
Reaction score
22,189
CowboysZone LOYAL Fan
Romo 2 Austin;3152726 said:
They don't seem like the kind of people that have plenty of money to spend.

LOL, you know not what you say! You think just because a person is prejudice can cannot be wealthy? :laugh2:

I guess George Preston Marshall was a very poor man even though he owned the Washington Commanders! (not saying he was a **** sympathizer or anything, but he WAS very prejudice)
 

Danny White

Winter is Coming
Messages
12,497
Reaction score
391
I visited Auschwitz earlier this year and had my picture taken beneath that sign.

I hope they find whoever stole it and are able to get it back.
 

Signals

Suspicious looking stranger
Messages
4,656
Reaction score
32
Danny White;3152806 said:
I visited Auschwitz earlier this year and had my picture taken beneath that sign.
Suspect. :laugh2:
 

Concord

Mr. Buckeye
Messages
12,825
Reaction score
119
Polish police find stolen Auschwitz gate sign

****’s ‘Work Sets You Free’ slogan disappeared three days earlier

79b9b71d-677b-4e9f-8b0f-db8a54812c3b.widec.jpg

This two-photo combination shows the entrance to the former **** death camp Auschwitz Birkenau with and without the infamous iron sign saying in German: "Work Sets You Free."



WARSAW, Poland - Polish police found the infamous "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign that was stolen from the gate of the former **** death camp of Auschwitz after an intensive three-day hunt and arrested five suspects, police said early Monday. The sign was found cut into three pieces.

Police spokeswoman Katarzyna Padlo said that the sign was found Sunday night in northern Poland, the other end of the country from the southern Polish town where the Auschwitz memorial museum is located and where it disappeared before dawn Friday.

Padlo said police detained five men between the ages of 25 and 39 and took them for questioning to Krakow, which is the regional command of the area that includes the Auschwitz museum.

Another police spokesman, Dariusz Nowak, said the 16-foot sign, made of hollow steel, was found cut into three pieces, each containing one of the words. The cruelly ironic phrase means "Work Sets You Free" and ran completely counter to the purpose of Auschwitz, which began as a concentration camp for political prisoners during the **** occupation of Poland and evolved into an extermination camp where Jews were gassed to death in factory-like fashion.

The police refused to divulge any details of the circumstances in which the sign was found or to speculate on the motive of the perpetrators. They were expected to disclose more at a news conference in Krakow planned for 0800 GMT (3 a.m. EST) Monday.

The sign, which topped the main gate at the Auschwitz memorial site, was stolen early Friday, setting off an international outcry at the disappearance of one of the most chilling and best known symbols of the Holocaust. State authorities made finding it a priority and appealed to all Poles for assistance.

Museum authorities welcomed the news with huge relief despite the damage done to the sign. Spokesman Pawel Sawicki said conservation experts will have to determine how best to repair it and that the museum authorities hope to restore it to its place as soon as possible.

Sawicki said the museum staff did not yet know who carried out the theft or why and were themselves waiting for more information from police.

More than 1 million people, mostly Jews, but also Gypsies, Poles and others, died in the gas chambers or from starvation and disease while performing forced labor at Auschwitz, which **** Germany built in occupied Poland during World War II. The camp was liberated by the Soviet army on Jan. 27, 1945.

Earlier on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Poland to act to find "these twisted criminals that desecrated the place where over a million Jews were murdered."

"The sign is of the deepest historical importance to the Jewish people and the whole world, and is a tombstone for more than a million Jews," Netanyahu said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34503643/ns/world_news-europe?GT1=43001
 
Top