Auschwitz death camp sign stolen

Hundreds of thousands of people passed under the sign to their deaths

The infamous Arbeit Macht Frei sign at the entrance to the Auschwitz Nazi death camp in Poland has been stolen.

The wrought iron sign, whose words mean "Work Sets You Free", was unscrewed and pulled down from its position above the gate in the early hours of Friday.

Polish authorities denounced the theft, while Israel's Holocaust museum branded it an "act of war".

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

Investigators say at least two people would have been needed to steal the five-metre-long (16ft), 40kg (90lb) sign.

The theft occurred between 0330 and 0500 local time on Friday, police spokeswoman Katarzyna Padlo told AP news agency.

HISTORY OF AUSCHWITZ SIGN Made by Polish political prisoners in 1940 Letter 'B' thought to have been reversed as act of defiance - making it appear upside-down Locals say Red Army soldiers were bribed to leave it in Poland after camp was liberated Occasionally replaced by replica while conservation work is done Symbol of death and defiance Auschwitz: Past and present Audio-slideshow: Auschwitz decay

Jarek Mensfelt, from the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, told the BBC: "It is more than just stealing something. It is a desecration.

"Somebody who did this must have been a person who had a knowledge of our security system because all the area is closed at night and patrolled and there is a system of cameras," he added.

"This was not an incident - this was a deliberate and organised action."

Avner Shalev, director of Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, said the theft "constitutes a true declaration of war".

He added: "We don't know the identity of the perpetrators but I assume they are neo-Nazis."

Polish ex-President Lech Walesa described the theft as "unthinkable", while Poland's chief rabbi said he could not imagine who would do such a thing.

"If they are pranksters, they'd have to be sick," said Michael Schudrich.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski called on the public to help recover the sign, which he described as a "worldwide symbol of the cynicism of Hitler's executioners and the martyrdom of their victims".

Israeli President Shimon Peres also condemned the theft during a special meeting with Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

In a statement, his office said Mr Peres "expressed the deepest shock of Israel's citizens and the Jewish community across the world", and urged Poland to "make every effort" it could to find the criminals and return the sign.

The BBC's Adam Easton in Warsaw says police are interviewing security guards and viewing closed circuit television footage.

It is not clear why it was stolen but museum officials say the widely recognised sign would be difficult to sell.

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Oswiecim Police spokeswoman Malgorzata Jurecka told AFP: "All leads are being considered, but we are focusing on a theft ordered by a private collector or a group of individuals."

It is the first time the sign, made by Polish prisoners, has been stolen since it was erected in 1940.

It has now been replaced with a replica while the hunt continues.

A 5,000-zloty ($1,700; £1,050) reward has been offered for information leading to the capture of the thieves, reports AP.

The cynical slogan "Arbeit Macht Frei" was also used at the entrances to other Nazi camps, including Dachau and Sachsenhausen, although the one at Auschwitz is perhaps the best known.

Hundreds of thousands of prisoners passed under the sign into the camp during the Holocaust, but the majority were murdered or worked to death.

The theft comes just days after the German government pledged 60m euros ($86m) to an endowment fund to help preserve the camp.

Auschwitz, which receives more than a million visitors a year, has been run as a state museum since 1947.

 
The controversy over Hitler’s remains kicked up (again) last fall when American DNA analysis revealed a sliver of skull fragment to be actually that of a woman’s.  Yesterday, though, Russia’s chief archivist of the Federal Security Service (FSB) dismissed such a claim.  Along with the skull fragment, the fragment of jaw preserved in the Lubyanka—Russia’s secret police HQ—is all that truly remains of the Führer because:

the KGB destroyed almost all traces of the dictator’s corpse.  Lieutenant-General Vasily Khristoforov said that the remains had been incinerated in 1970 and the ashes thrown into a river in East Germany.

Agents under orders from the head of the KGB, Yuri Andropov, had dug up a grave containing Hitler, his wife Eva Braun and the family of his henchman Joseph Goebbels.  The officers had removed the remains from a burial ground in a Soviet base at Magdeburg, Andropov having written to Soviet party chiefs recommending that the bodies be destroyed after it was decided to pass the base to East Germany.

In April 1970, Andropov compiled a report declaring that “the remains were burnt on a vacant area outside Schönebeck, 11 kilometres from Magdeburg, ground into ashes, gathered and thrown into the Biederitz river” — either the Ehle river near Biederitz suburb or the Biederitzer See.

General Khristoforov told the Interfax news agency that Hitler’s remains had been destroyed out of concern that his grave could become a Nazi shrine.  “It was not worth leaving any grounds for the rise of a cult of worship…there are people who profess the fascist ideology, regrettably even in Russia.”

Battle of Hitler’s Skull Prompts Russia To Reveal All

Five-hour disappearance of Auschwitz museum and memorial's new Facebook page was 'due to a technical problem'

The Facebook page of the Memorial and Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau, launched on Tuesday, can now be reached again. The page has gained a lot of media attention over the past few days; but from 3.30pm yetserday, those who tried to visit it were redirected to the Facebook start page. It took hours until the page came back up.

"The site was offline due to a technical problem.", explains museum official Pawel Sawicki this morning. "We wanted to add a new box and were not able to. Therefore the side was broken for about five hours. But with the help of Facebook technicians the problem was fixed around 9pm." Since the page came back it has already gained another 1,000 "fans". The museum has also added photos and an interview with Marian Kołodziej, a Polish scenographer and former prisoner of Auschwitz; it is aiming to constantly develop the page.

Although the Auschwitz memorial is not the first Holocaust-related organisation to appear on Facebook, most of the Facebook groups dedicated to Auschwitz are started by individuals. One exception is the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, which opened a fan page on Facebook with about 2,250 followers. The centre, which is dedicated to teaching lessons of the Holocaust for future generations, also started to use Twitter @simonwiesenthal. The use of the social networks seems logical, since the idea of organisations dedicated to memorialisting the Holocaust is to reach out to as many people as possible. Indeed the arrival of Holocaust organisations on social networks comes rather late compared with that of groups that promote race hate.

In May a report found that militants and hate groups were increasingly using social networking sites as propaganda tools to recruit new members. The social network came under heavy fire for hosting pages promoting hatred against Jews. The Simon Wiesenthal Centre reported back then a 25% rise in "problematic" social networking groups within a year. Facebook and experts from the Simon Wiesenthal Centre met to focus on the problem. The centre launched its own Facebook page a few months later.

Artist Ottmar Hörl says his 1,250 gnomes making Nazi salutes in Straubing are a satirical comment on the rise of fascism

In pictures: Ottmar Hörl's Nazi gnomes

• Kate Connolly in Berlin
• guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 14 October 2009 18.33 BST
• Article history

Ottmar Hörl's Nazi gnomes in Straubling, Germany. Photograph: Armin Weigel/EPA

Pint-sized, plastic and the height of kitsch they may be, but no one in Germany would usually think twice about seeing a garden gnome, given there are 25 million of them across the country.

But a battery of 1,250 of them that appeared on a square in a Bavarian town has caused an outcry, not least because their arms are in a Nazi salute.

The artist Ottmar Hörl placed the gnomes in the town of Straubing, close to Munich, in an installation called Dance With the Devil.

It follows controversy sparked by a single, golden Hitler-saluting gnome crafted by Hörl that prosecutors tried to remove from an art gallery in the summer on the grounds that Nazi symbols were prohibited in public.

They later dropped the case, recognising that the piece was satirical, and the artist has since seen a run on requests for his creations.

Hörl, 59, who has made other mass reproductions, including a group of praying dwarfs made in the image of Pope Benedict that provoked a similar row, said his gnomes were meant to highlight the rise of fascism in Germany and were a "historical social gesture".

"I want to show that there is far-right thought in the heads of all of us," he said, adding that gnomes were a particularly fitting method for conveying his message "in a lighter and unpatronising way, at the same time as being strong enough to provoke a reaction.

"As long as I manage to polarise, I'm on the right track," he added.

Hörl's 39cm plastic gnomes, which went on display today for five days, were financed by the local wing of the Social Democratic party (SPD).

Hans Lohmeier, of the SPD, said the party agreed to cover the €20,000 cost of the installation after the town's cultural committee twice refused to do so. Summing up the local reaction, he said: "There are some who say 'what do we want with this tripe?', others who say it's endangering their kids, but many others have understood what this is all about."

By Raffi Berg BBC News

Auschwitz's Facebook page follows the launch of its channel on YouTube

The Polish authorities in charge of Auschwitz have launched an official site for the former Nazi death camp on the social networking website Facebook.

A spokesman said the move was aimed at reaching the younger generation and educating them about the Holocaust.

It follows the launch by Auschwitz - now a state museum - of a YouTube channel earlier this year.

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

"We're always trying for new ways of reaching people, and in today's world one of the most popular tools is the internet, and on the internet millions of people use Facebook," said Auschwitz Museum official Pawel Sawicki.

More than a million people have visited Auschwitz so far this year, the majority of them young people.

"If our mission is to educate the younger generation to be responsible in the contemporary world, what better tool can we use to reach them than the tools they use themselves?" said Mr Sawicki.

The Facebook page contains news and information about the museum, links to its YouTube channel and official website, and a discussion board. The first topic is about whether Auschwitz should have a presence on Facebook.

"The Facebook page will provide a place for discussion which is not available on the official website," said Mr Sawicki.

"We want it to be a place of discourse but of course we won't let anyone do anything that may abuse the memory of the victims and this place.

"So far, it's just an experiment. We'll see how people react," he said.