One of the more disturbing news stories last month was the theft and later recovery of the famous Auschwitz ‘Arbeit macht frei‘ sign.
The sign reads ‘work liberates’ or ‘work makes you free’ and was infamously positioned at many of the World War II-era concentration camps. On 18 December 2009 a few bumbling criminals stole the 90 lb. sign during the dead of night–after returning home at one point to get better tools.
A New York Times article explains:
They then discovered the sign would not fit into their car, according to Artur Wrona, the prosecutor and lead investigator in the case. So they had to saw it in three pieces, but dropped the “i’ in Frei and left it behind.
“They were so unprofessional,” said Jaroslaw Mensfelt, spokesman for the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, a vast, eerie complex that covers nearly 500 acres and commemorates the slaughter of 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, but also thousands of Roma, homosexuals, conscientious objectors, and Soviet and German political prisoners. “They clearly did not do their homework,” he said.
A ‘sniffer dog’ was used in searching for the criminals. A forensics expert was consulted to examine the sign and the tools used. Five suspects have been apprehended but their motives are still unclear. Earlier today Poland asked Sweden for assistance in investigating the possibility that a wealthy Nazi-sympathizer may have been involved in the plot.
