"Arbeit macht frei" sign disappears from Auschwitz memorial

Sometime last night or early this morning, unknown perpetrators removed the metal sign bearing the legend “Arbeit macht frei” (“Work will set you free”) from the gate of the former Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz in southern Poland. Police have announced a reward of 5 000 zloty (EUR 1 200) for information leading to the capture of the thieves.

Kraków police spokesperson Dariusz Nowak told television station TVN24 this morning that someone unscrewed the sign on one side and pulled it out of the wall on the other. Police officers have interrogated employees of the museum at Auschwitz-Birkenau, which is located at the site of the former Nazi death factory. The museum is guarded at night by four watchmen. Cameras also monitor the space 24 hours a day.

Police brought dogs to the scene, who found the thieves’ trail only to lose it again. Officers estimate two or three perpetrators left the museum with the sign by car.

The museum has since replaced the stolen sign with a copy.

“This is just inconceivable,” said Auschwitz Museum spokesperson Jarek Mensfelt. “This was done by someone who knew what he was doing. He must have known how to get onto the museum grounds, how to take down the sign, and how the security guards perform their rounds. The thief must have been well-prepared.”

“This is not a random theft,” said Andrzej Przewoźnik of the Council for the Protection of the Remembrance of Struggle and Marytyrdom. Thefts of this nature have been occurring more and more frequently in Poland, he says.

The sign “Arbeit macht frei” was created in the locksmith workshop of the concentration camp. The letters were welded by prisoner Jan Liwacz. The letter “B” in the word “Arbeit” was welded on upside-down, which many have interpreted as a hidden expression of the prisoners’ resistance to the Nazis, but was more likely a mistake. Soviet soldiers wanted to take the sign home after the camp was liberated in January 1945, but the man guarding the sign gave it to one of the former prisoners in exchange for a bottle of homemade alcohol.

To this day, the phrase “Arbeit macht frei” reminds us of the suffering of millions of people in Nazi concentration camps. The slogan was placed over the entrances to other concentration camps, including Terezín (Theresienstadt).

During the Second World War, historians say 1.1 million Jews, 140 000 political prisoners from Poland, 20 000 Roma, 10 000 prisoners of war from the Soviet Union and thousands of other prisoners of various nationalities passed through the concentration camp at Auschwitz. The total number of victims to have perished there is estimated at 1.1 – 1.5 million, most of them Jews. The camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau is a symbol of the Nazi atrocities, and the museum there is visited annually by more than one million people. Personal items belonging to the prisoners and more than 150 buildings, including the gas chambers, have been preserved at the site of the former extermination camp.

Poland does not have enough money to maintain the memorial and called on other countries for assistance earlier this year. This week, Germany announced it is giving EUR 60 million for repairs to the camp, which is half of the amount the museum administration estimates is needed for its preservation. This past April the Czech government decided to contribute 2 million crowns (EUR 76 000) to the preservation fund.

In April 2008, thieves carried off 824 bronze name plaques from the graves of the National Cemetery at the former concentration camp at Terezín in the Czech Republic. The plaques ended up in the possession of a scrap dealer. Police eventually tracked down the three men responsible, who were from the Most region.