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Ear to the Ground

Stolen Auschwitz Sign Found in Pieces

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Posted on Dec 20, 2009
Flickr / liz_com1981

“Arbeit macht frei.” Work makes you free. Those three German words sat over the entrance to the Auschwitz concentration camp in southern Poland for the better part of a century until the 16-foot, 90-pound sign went missing Friday. Police found it in northern Poland on Sunday, cut into three pieces. Five men were arrested.

Why take it? Was it to become a morbid souvenir? Perhaps it was meant to be destroyed. Authorities have announced no motive, reports the BBC.

BBC:

Its theft, the motive for which was not being reported, caused outrage in Israel and among Polish politicians.

Five men in their 20s or 30s were detained and were being taken to Krakow for questioning, a police spokeswoman said.

More than a million people - 90% of them Jews - were murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz during World War II.

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Blackspeare's avatar

By Blackspeare, December 22, 2009 at 2:22 pm Link to this comment

radson…you must learn the difference between “your” and “you’re”.

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By radson, December 21, 2009 at 6:27 pm Link to this comment

Howie

Your an idiot

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By montanawildhack, December 21, 2009 at 1:59 pm Link to this comment

“Work makes you free.”  Makes total sense to me…

I’ve pretty much resigned myself to the fact that

I’ll be working until I’m dead….  Social Security

looted to pay for the war machine, all disposable in-

come going to pay for medical bills…  It’s enough

for me to know that by working until death I am able

to support gov’t workers retiring with full benefits

and cherry health insurance after 20 years…

Work makes you free…  No problem…...

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By Howie Bledsoe, December 21, 2009 at 12:53 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

“Arbeit macht frei” was a slogan by Hitler, so I find it a pretty crass thing to leave there in the forst place, but that´s just me….
These dumb ass Polish skinheads wouldnt know that, though….
Anti-semitism only worked so well over there because the Poles were (and to a good extent still are) rampant anti semites.

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Blackspeare's avatar

By Blackspeare, December 21, 2009 at 8:13 am Link to this comment

Unbeknown to most, the Auschwitz prisoners who made that sign included a warning to others that the message was false.  That warning was the upside down “B”.  The Nazis who ran the camp were not very literate or observant.

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