“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.