Neo-Nazis suspected of raid on Auschwitz ‘to rewrite history’

Polish police suspect that the culprits were either neo-Nazis or acting on behalf of collectors or a group of individuals.

The slogan wrought in iron, Arbeit Macht Frei (“Work sets you free”), was the cynical welcome to those entering the camp in the 1940s. One million of the 1.1 million people who died at Auschwitz were Jewish.

The theft in the early hours of yesterday was seen as an attempt by right-wing extremists to muddy the narrative of the Holocaust.

“This act constitutes a true declaration of war,” said Avner Shalev, the head of the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial institute in Jerusalem. “We don’t know the identity of the perpetrators but I assume they are neo-Nazis.”

Poland is treating the recovery of the sign from the site, near Cracow, as a matter of national honour. President Kaczynski said: “I appeal to all countrymen to help the police to track down the sign. A worldwide symbol of the cynicism of Hitler’s executioners and the martyrdom of their victims has been stolen. This act deserves the strongest possible condemnation.”

President Peres of Israel held an emergency meeting with Donald Tusk, the Polish Prime Minister, on the sidelines of the UN climate summit in Copenhagen to express “the deepest shock”. Mr Tusk promised to make the hunting down of the thieves “an absolute priority”.

Mr Peres said: “The sign holds deep historical meaning for both Jews and non-Jews alike as a symbol of the lives that perished at Auschwitz.”

The sign, five metres long and weighing 40kg, was erected by the Nazis soon after the old Auschwitz barracks was converted into a labour and extermination centre in 1940. It was supposed to suggest that hard work could allow inmates to walk free, but as Auschwitz was turned into a hub for the Holocaust, it became a mocking commentary.

“It seems that a gang of perhaps three people unscrewed the sign between three o’clock and five o’clock on Friday morning,” said Dariusz Nowak, a police spokesman. “They must have used a ladder and had a car waiting for them.”

Police said that they were reviewing footage from a surveillance camera that overlooks the entrance gate and the road beyond, but declined to say whether the crime was recorded. The sign appears to have been dismantled in six minutes flat — corresponding to the time it takes for the museum guards to change their shifts.

The museum has offered a £23,000 reward for information.