Dachau’s “Arbeit Macht Frei” gate stolen
The Associated Press reports that the gate welcoming folks with the “Work will make you free” greeting at Dachau has been stolen for some stupid reason;
Security officials noticed early Sunday morning that the gate measuring 190 by 95 centimeters (75 by 37 inches) — set into a larger iron gate — was missing, police said in a statement. Whoever stole it during the night would have had to climb over another gate to reach it, they added.
Police said they found nothing in the immediate vicinity of the camp and appealed for anyone who noticed any suspicious people or vehicles to come forward.
Dachau, near Munich, was the first concentration camp set up by the Nazis in 1933. More than 200,000 people from across Europe were held there and over 40,000 prisoners died before it was liberated by U.S. forces on April 29, 1945. The camp is now a memorial.
I went there with my family in the mid-80s and we passed through that gate. The AP also says that a similar gate at Auschwitz was stolen a few years back;
In December 2009, the infamous “Arbeit macht frei” sign that spanned the main gate of the Auschwitz death camp, built by the Nazis in occupied Poland, was stolen. Police found it three days later cut into pieces in a forest on the other side of Poland.
A Swedish man who had a neo-Nazi past was found guilty of instigating that theft and jailed in his homeland. Five Poles also were convicted of involvement and imprisoned.
Category: Historical
Either the neo-Nazi types again or…it’s now adorning the bedroom wall of some teenage ass hole. Much like “Stop”, “Yield” and “Men At Work” signs in my area.
Also visited during the 70’s. A somber visit on the way back to base after a tour of Munich.
Visited in the ’90s. An amazing place. What hit me most was the silence: Not a single person spoke out aloud the entire time from the moment they stepped through that gate, until they stepped back out again.
Stealing that gate is exactly like defacing a war memorial. Fuckbags.
Just blown away someone would want to steal that…do the Nazi douche think it will diminish what happened there? Some sort of trophy for a holocaust denier…sick fucking scumbags.
I had similar thoughts. The sign itself is just so much metal, easily replaced. What the thief accomplished was antithetical to what he likely hoped to accomplish.
Someone find the motherfucker that stole the sign and charge him as high as the legal system will allow.
That sign is history. It mocked tens of thousands who were executed in the most brutal, inhumane ways possible by an evil regime, and the only reason why it has been left standing instead of being slagged along with every other remnant of that horrific evil was because it was a reminder of what evil can do if good men do nothing to stop it.
Find the sign, return it to its rightful place, or else someone’s going to Twilight Zone on that guy’s ass (does anyone remember the episode I’m referring to?).
I remember the episode, classic Rod Serling. Another of my favorites is one from season 4 starring a young Dennis Hopper entitled “He Lives”. That one is one of the 1 hour episodes that really allowed for a little more character and plot development. Now THAT’s some good TV watchin’.
This type of vandalism could only be accomplished by a special breed of assdouche.
Wow. Take a memorial to the worst act of genocide in European history and deface it. What kind of a-hole does this?
I don’t wanna know; please don’t tell me.