Police in Poland have recovered the infamous Nazi sign “Arbeit Macht Frei” stolen last week from the infamous death camp museum. The sign was broken into 3 pieces and it appears that the criminals wanted to sell the sign for profit. This predawn theft last Friday outraged many people across the globe.
The men’s arrest came as a result of hundreds of tips said chief police investigator Andrzej Rokita. Police still do not understand why the sign was stolen but believe that it may be part of the Nazi memorabilia market. The suspects are said to be ordinary criminals with no ties to any international gangs.
Said Rokita, “It seems they cut the sign up already in Oswiecim, to make transport easier,” Rokita said at a news conference in Krakow. It was “hidden in the woods near the home of one of them.”
Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center was thankful for the sign’s prompt recovery.
“Whatever the motivation, it takes warped minds to steal the defining symbol of the Holocaust from the world’s most renowned killing field,” he said.
At Auschwitz, more than1 million individuals including Jews, gypsies and poles were exterminated using nerve gases, starvation and experimental surgeries. The people of Auschwitz were liberated from the Nazis by the Russian army on Jan 27, 1945.