Warsaw, Poland – Foreign Collector May be Responsible for Theft of Auschwitz Sign

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    Polish police unload the infamous Arbeit Macht Frei sign, which was stolen from the gate of the death campWarsaw, Poland – Polish police are interrogating a gang of five professional thieves to find out whether a foreign collector commissioned them to steal the “Arbeit Macht Frei” sign from the entrance to Auschwitz concentration camp.

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    The wrought iron sign — which means “Work sets you free” — was recovered 72 hours after being stolen from the camp where more than a million Jews were killed by the Nazis during the Second World War.

    Its cynical wording raised the possibility that it had been taken for ideological reasons or at the behest of a far-right mastermind.

    Five men, aged between 20 and 39, from the Torun area of northern Poland, have been arrested for the theft. Andrzej Rokita, the deputy commander of Cracow police, described them as nonpolitical. All had previous convictions for theft or assault.

    “We can say that none of the five are members of a neo-Nazi group,” Mr Rokita said. One suspect owns a construction company; the others are unemployed.

    They are being interrogated in Cracow, the city responsible for the nearby Auschwitz camp museum. If charges are pressed, they could face up to ten years in jail for the “theft of a cultural treasure of particular significance”.

    The slogan was split into three by the thieves, wrapped in cloth and initially hidden in woodland before being transferred to a builder’s yard owned by the oldest gang member.

    Museum authorities are urging the police to release the three words so that they can re-erect the sign before the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the death camp next month. In the meantime, a replica has been placed over the entrance.

    “Robbery and material gain are being considered as one of the main possible motives,” Marek Wozniczka,the deputy state prosecutor, said.

    However, the apparent financial motivation has raised the critical question that has been dogging the investigation since the sign disappeared in the early hours of Friday: who would have bought it?

    Police believe that it was destined to be smuggled out of the country. Two of the gang were captured in Gdynia, a busy container port on the Baltic Sea from where ships leave for US ports such as Savannah, Houston, Baltimore and Charleston. Most Third Reich memorabilia internet sites are run out of the US and it is possible that the sign was destined to be sold there.

    Splitting the 5m (16ft), 40kg (88lb) sign into three parts made it not only easier to hide, but also to smuggle abroad. The freight schedules out of Gydnia harbour show that vessels also head to the English ports of Felixstowe and Hull, as well as to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, the Middle East and China.

    The Polish RMF radio station quoted a police source as saying that a “mad collector” could have been behind the crime.

    “No neo-fascist organisation appears to have been involved but it was a very well-planned operation, which bears the hallmarks of a commissioned theft,” the source said.

    The decisive tip-off came in one of 120 calls to a police hotline over the weekend. The museum had offered a £23,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of the sign. The caller gave enough information for all five suspects to be rounded up within three hours.


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    3 Comments
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    Idf tank driver
    Idf tank driver
    14 years ago

    The polish people should hang the perpetraters in the town square to deter others from abominable acts like thus

    moshe
    moshe
    14 years ago

    i say execute