Arbeit macht frei: - Fredrick Töben

Border patrol police were told to be on the lookout for the 5m-long heavy
cast-iron plaque that had spanned the entrance gate, over fears that there
might have been plans to take it out of the country.
The news of the sign’s disappearance triggered impassioned calls for its
return.
Shimon Peres, president of Israel, discussed the theft with Poland’s prime
minister, Donald Tusk, in Copenhagen today. ‘The state of Israel and the
Jewish people in their entirety ask that you take the necessary steps to
catch the criminals and return the sign to its place,’ he told Tusk. ‘The
sign is of profound historical significance both for the Jewish people and
the entire world.’
Avner Shalev, president of Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Israel,
said: ‘This is an attack on the remembrance of the Holocaust,’ referring to
those responsible as ‘certain elements who want to take us back to the
dark days’.
Jaroslaw Mensfeld, a historian and spokesman for Auschwitz, called the
incident ‘shameful’ and said it amounted to the ‘desecration of a place in
which more than a million people were murdered’.
Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust in the
UK, said she was disgusted by the robbery, which she called an ‘appalling
act of vandalism [that showed] gross disregard to all Holocaust survivors
and the families of those who lost loved ones there.
‘The Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau stands as a universal symbol of
the Holocaust and for millions of victims the sign represented the cynical
cruelty of Nazi rule.’
Poland’s parliament said the recovery of the sign was being treated as a
matter of urgency. ‘This is regretful and embarrassing,’ said Bogdan
Borusewicz, chairman of the second parliamentary chamber of the Polish
senate. ‘I just hope they don’t destroy the plaque.’
Andrzej Przewoznik, minister with responsibility for the protection of
historical monuments, said: ‘This is an act of vandalism that knows no
equal.’
There was widespread speculation over who might have been behind the
robbery, with investigators looking into suggestions that it could have been
anyone from scrap metal dealers to Holocaust deniers, from rightwing
collectors of Nazi memorabilia to pre-Christmas pranksters.
Tonight they were still no closer to solving the mystery.
Police believe a gang was responsible for the robbery because it had
apparently been carefully carried out with the perpetrators avoiding
attracting the attention of nightwatchmen or being caught on CCTV
cameras.
They confirmed that the sign had been unscrewed on one side and pulled
off with some force on the other. Sniffer dogs brought to the scene have
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