Polish police find stolen Auschwitz gate sign

[Scurrilous]

Source: Associated Press

<snip>

"Police said early Monday that they have found the infamous "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign that was stolen on Friday from the gate of the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz.

Police spokeswoman Katarzyna Padlo said that the sign was found in northern Poland. She said police also detained five men aged between 25 and 39 who are being transported them to Krakow for questioning.

Padlo said the steel sign, which symbolizes to the world the atrocities and cruelty of Nazi Germany, has been cut into three pieces.

The sign that topped a main gate at the Auschwitz memorial site was stolen before dawn on Friday. State authorities made finding it a priority and appealed to all Poles for assistance."

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/world/AP/story/1391915.html

[virgogal]

1. I hope they throw the book at them.

[bookworm65t]

8. They should be Auschwitz tour guides as punishment

This is not meant to punish all of us, but rather, to educate them in the horrors of human cruelty. Otherwise, they will be hanging out with the other bigots in prisons

[Mira]

15. Great idea. Rotate them to be guides in all the camps. Keeping them

out of incarceration (free) would give a whole new meaning to "Arbeit macht Frei"
Work will set you free.

YES

[Aristus]

22. I was thinking incarceration at hard labor would get the point across just as well.

If they work hard enough, they can appeal to the judge for parole. Make the punishment fit the crime: Work will make them free...

[Marthian]

29. Cut into 3 pieces...

sounds like a metal theft, not a political statement. My friends in Poland have told me of theft of copper cable and wiring from remote electrical connections. Metal brings cash.

[emilyg]

21. Excellent idea.

[Brickbat]

2. I'm so glad they found this.

[rocktivity]

3. These college frat house initiation rites are getting out of hand!

:mad:
rocktivity

[saigon68]

13. Ages 25 through 39

On its face not likely a Frat Prank

Sounds like an Anti-Semitic hate crime to me

[pitchforksandtorches]

4. Was Geo. H.W. Bush involved?

[Posteritatis]

23. There are bad people in the world who aren't Republicans (nt)

[Irreverend IX]

5. Polish police find stolen Auschwitz gate sign

in staff lounge.

After sobering up, the officers were like "Shit, we gotta find someone to pin this on."

[proteus_lives]

6. They deserve an ass-kicking an a history lesson.

[TheCowsCameHome]

7. That's a good thing.

[dysfunctional press]

9. if you want to find a missing sign- appeal to the poles.

:evilgrin:

[Disorientedx3]

11. groan. nt

[stevedeshazer]

10. Are they tweekers?

It's a horrific act to steal that sign of all signs, but tweekers are everywhere stealing metal for scrap.

I'll be interested to know their motive. Nothing has been said about that yet.

[Quantess]

16. Since they cut it into 3 pieces, I also suspect they stole it for scrap metal.

Idiots.

[Posteritatis]

24. Might've been for transport - it's not a small sign (nt)

[Gregorian]

12. In Glenn Beck's living room?

Doh!

[alp227]

14. Congradulations! nt

[tabasco]

17. I knew that wouldn't take long.

Good work by the Polish authorities.

[MilesColtrane]

18. God, I hate nazis.

[TrogL]

19. God, I hate Illinois Nazis

[MilesColtrane]

20. .

:patriot:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhozx819izU

[moomin]

25. Polish police find stolen Auschwitz gate sign - Polish media info

Hey everyone - I'm a lurker here, but I figured I'd register to reply to this thread, since I can contribute a little on account of being a Polish speaker who has been following the story in the Polish media.

There are unconfirmed reports based on claimed leaks from the police that the sign was stolen purely for profit by a gang of thieves who were hoping to sell it to someone the article refers to as a "crazed collector" whose nationality and identity has not been mentioned in these stories, though they allege it was "ordered via the Internet." Supposedly, the person who "ordered" the sign wanted it in one piece, but it was cut into three by the thieves due to the difficulty of concealing and transporting something like this inconspicuously - any schoolchild in Poland would recognize this sign. It was found buried under snow and tree branches in the north of Poland. While the story is not officially confirmed, it's been in a few legitimate media outlets, so it will be interesting to see what comes to light.

The journalists who obtained this information also claim that the police acted on a phoned-in tip, one out of approximately 120 that came in, which was given by someone who was not interested in claiming the reward money offered (which, to put things into context, was in the neighborhood of 115,000 Polish zlotych, or around $42,500 US dollars - which is almost 3 years' salary for a Pole earning the national average according to the last set of official employment statistics.)

Finally, according to the "unofficial" info, there are no ties to neonazis or far-right groups, or any "ideological motivations" in the crime; it was purely for-profit, and well organized - not the work of tweakers trying to get scrap.

Of course, it's still early, and this information is most likely from informants and not yet confirmed.

Here is the article in Polish that I tried to distill the new information from.

http://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/Wiadomosci/1,80269,7385774,Kradziez_w_Auschwitz_byla_przeprowadzona_na_zamowienie.html

It will be interesting to see what is revealed in the press conference - which is set to take place in approximately 17 minutes!

Hope this is helpful.

[Behind the Aegis]

26. Very helpful! It is appreciated.

I hope this is correct: Witaj (welcome)!

Or is it Witać?

[moomin]

28. Thanks! Not much more info yet...

Thanks! "Witaj" is correct; though it is actually a conjugated verb and "witać" is simply its infinitive form.

I'll try and revisit this thread and see if anything else pops up in the Polish media, though I reckon anything "official" will get picked up by the news wires and make it to the networks here.

I bet Lemmy's too much of a gentleman to initiate something like this; it's pretty sociopathic behaviour. I'm SO curious to know more, though. I was just there in June, for the first time. It's the sort of place you need to be ready to visit, so I hadn't worked up to it during previous visits to the area. Though I remember hearing a while back about a couple of thieves in Poland that stole some church door dating back hundreds of years and when they were apprehended, they had already melted the metal down to sell. Strange things happen on the eastern fringes of Europe sometimes.

I've been checking out Polish media pages for any updates, but nothing yet. I did find an interesting tidbit on a page run by RFM, the radio station who broke the unofficial info I translated earlier. Apparently, there is a story told by the locals that after the camp was liberated, a Soviet Red Army soldier was about to take the sign himself. A survivor found out about the plan and "bought" the sign back from the solder for a bottle of vodka and brought it back. This could be folklore though, as there is no proof for the story aside from the testimony of the survivor himself... the article's also really vague, I just about squeezed all I could from what is written there.

The title: "Auschwitz, this wasn't the first theft of the sign"

http://www.rmf.fm/fakty,166817,Auschwitz,To,nie,byla,pierwsza,kradziez,napisu.html

[psychopomp]

27. That was an insightful report

Thank you!

A crazed collector? Lemmy from Motorhead perhaps? I hear he's a collector of Nazi paraphanelia...

[bemildred]

30. Stolen Auschwitz sign recovered

Source: UPI

KRAKOW, Poland, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- Police in Poland recovered the "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign made by Auschwitz death camp prisoners and stolen from the Auschwitz Museum, officials said Monday.

Five suspects were arrested, the Krakow (Poland) Post reported.

Officials said the sign, "Arbeit Macht Frei," or "Work Makes You Free," made by Auschwitz prisoners, was discovered missing Friday by an Auschwitz Museum security guard. The sign, which hung over the camp's gates, was seen as a symbol of the extermination camps, the newspaper said.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/International/2009/12/21/Stolen-Auschwitz-sign-recovered/UPI-82201261400356/?pvn=1

[Cirque du So-What]

31. Still nothing about the identity of the thieves or their motives, I see

It would be good to know whether these suspects were neo-nazis or drunken frat-boys (or both).

[steaa]

34. Auschwitz sign thieves detained, not neo-Nazis

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BK01920091221

"None of the five suspects is a member of a neo-Nazi group," said Andrzej Rokita, district police chief in the southern Polish city of Krakow, which is near the site of Auschwitz.

"Their motive was undoubtedly theft. We'll be able to say later whether the crime was ordered or they acted on their own initiative," he told a news conference.

Police said the suspects, aged between 20 and 39, had previous convictions for various crimes including robbery and physical assault. One of them ran his own construction firm.

Authorities had made recovering the sign a national priority and the museum that runs Auschwitz offered a reward worth nearly $40,000. Police said they had received more than 100 calls offering information.

[Cirque du So-What]

36. It appears they were motivated by greed - not ideology

Although a case could be made that greed is an ideology. After all, it's at the foundation of the modern repug party.

[ima_sinnic]

39. see post 25---good info there (nt)

[rocktivity]

32. Have the suspects revealed which frat house they were pledging for?

:eyes:
rocktivity

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

33. The first Motivational Poster. -nt

[RFKHumphreyObama]

35. Good news!

I didn't expect it to be recovered. I'm so glad it was, even though I am enraged that it was cut into three pieces

I hope they throw the book at all the people who did this and that they will have to pay for their actions for a long time to come

[superconnected]

37. I'm surpised they didn't find it at a Walmart supplier's factory in China.

[jmowreader]

38. I wonder WHERE in northern Poland they found it...

Remember a few days ago when we were discussing this, and I said I thought whoever had it would cut it up?