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Symbolic Auschwitz sign stolen in Poland
Source: Agencies |
December 19, 2009, Saturday
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THE notorious metal sign hanging at the entrance of the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz, in Poland, that reads "Arbeit macht frei" ("Work makes you free") was stolen yesterday, officials said.
Yad Vashem, the Holocaust remembrance center in Jerusalem, called the theft "an attack on the memory of the Holocaust."
Some 1.5 million people, mostly Jews, perished in the Nazi death camp in southern Poland during World War II. Prisoners arriving at the camp used to enter via a relatively small iron gate topped by the German-language motto.
More than 200 hectares of the former death camp became a museum after the war ended.
"Early this morning the guards patrolling the site noticed the sign was not in its place," said Jaroslaw Mensfelt, the museum's spokesman. "We immediately notified the police."
Mensfelt said numerous cameras were installed at the site and local police were now analyzing the film. He said no further details regarding the theft were available.
"We have already installed a replica sign over the gate. It has been used in the past when the original was being repaired. I hope the original will quickly be retrieved and the thieves caught," Mensfelt said.
"This is not only a theft but a horrible profanation in a place where more than a million people were murdered, in the biggest such site in this part of the world. This really is a disgraceful act."
The wording of the sign became a symbol of the Nazis' efforts to deceive their victims into a false sense of security before murdering them.
Some Jews and other groups arriving at the camp would have thought they were coming to do forced labor, not to be killed as part of a policy of genocide.
"I was shocked to learn this morning of the theft of the sign, which has come to symbolize the murder of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust," said Avner Shalev, Chairman of Yad Vashem.
Yad Vashem, the Holocaust remembrance center in Jerusalem, called the theft "an attack on the memory of the Holocaust."
Some 1.5 million people, mostly Jews, perished in the Nazi death camp in southern Poland during World War II. Prisoners arriving at the camp used to enter via a relatively small iron gate topped by the German-language motto.
More than 200 hectares of the former death camp became a museum after the war ended.
"Early this morning the guards patrolling the site noticed the sign was not in its place," said Jaroslaw Mensfelt, the museum's spokesman. "We immediately notified the police."
Mensfelt said numerous cameras were installed at the site and local police were now analyzing the film. He said no further details regarding the theft were available.
"We have already installed a replica sign over the gate. It has been used in the past when the original was being repaired. I hope the original will quickly be retrieved and the thieves caught," Mensfelt said.
"This is not only a theft but a horrible profanation in a place where more than a million people were murdered, in the biggest such site in this part of the world. This really is a disgraceful act."
The wording of the sign became a symbol of the Nazis' efforts to deceive their victims into a false sense of security before murdering them.
Some Jews and other groups arriving at the camp would have thought they were coming to do forced labor, not to be killed as part of a policy of genocide.
"I was shocked to learn this morning of the theft of the sign, which has come to symbolize the murder of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust," said Avner Shalev, Chairman of Yad Vashem.
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