Auschwitz Death Camp Sign Stolen, Then Recovered

When I first learned of this story, I was absolutely stunned.



My first thought -- after the shock wore off, and the fury set in -- was WHO in the world would do such a ghastly thing? The Polish authorities initially feared that someone with neo-Nazi links were going to use the sign for their own nefarious reasons. The theft was condemned by many governments, and by survivors of The Shoah themselves. The Auschwitz site is now a museum, visited by over a million people every year, and a UNESCO World Heritage site.



"Work Brings Freedom": the Nazis' cynical slogan, used to deceive the millions of doomed souls who had the misfortune to pass through its gates. First established in 1940 as a labor camp for Polish prisoners, it became the site of over a million Jewish murders from 1942 until January 1945, when it was liberated by the Red Army. Auschwitz (its formal name is Auschwitz-Birkenau) not only contained the gas chambers and crematoria, but it was part of an extensive complex of German companies using slave labor -- both Jewish and non-Jewish, including British prisoners-of-war.



Thanks to the diligent work of the Polish police, and over 100 tips called in, five suspects were apprehended a few days later, along with the sign itself -- which was cut into three pieces for easier transport. The suspects even did a re-enactment of the crime for the Polish police, showing them how they cut a hole in the barbed wire fencing surrounding the camp, and dragged it through the snow. Little damage was done, except for the missing "i" in "Frei". Museum staff, on discovering the theft, quickly put a replica of the sign in its place. The damaged sign is now part of a criminal investigation, but it is hoped it will be repaired and put back in place in time for the 65th anniversary of the camp's liberation, to be held in January 2010.

My question is: WHY was this sign stolen in the first place? Was it so that some sick collector of this sort of 'memorabilia' could get a thrill? Was it going to be used eventually by neo-Nazis somewhere in Europe, for their own nefarious purposes? Or was it to be sold simply for scrap metal? I do hope the Polish police and legal system will be able to find this out.



And the larger question remains: as the survivors slowly die, who will be here to tell their story? Today, over sixty years after Auschwitz, and the other Nazi death camps, were thrown open to the horrified eyes of civilized people everywhere, there are those in Europe and elsewhere who deny that this crime ever took place. Even with all the written, oral and photographic evidence (much of it given by the Nazi war criminals themselves) that is available, only the very blind and deaf can say it 'never happened'.

Why did it happen? I would never presume to have 'easy answers' to that. For one thing, it would be an insult to those who perished at Auschwitz, and the few who survived. But what I can say is that, from my own study and personal visit to Dachau in May 1990, is that there are probably a few reasons. For one, the centuries-long persecution of the Jewish people by the organized church, and by those who presume to call themselves 'christians'. And I purposely use the small 'c', to differentiate from Christians with a capital 'C', who do NOT hate the Jewish people. There is also the infamous 'blood libel', which describes the alleged use of a 'christian' child's blood by the Jews to make their Pesach matzoh. This lie was used especially during the Pesach-Easter season in Europe, and it was the cause of millions of Jewish deaths.

In the end, I think the overall reason is this: the unregenerate human heart, sadly, is capable of great evil. And the evil is compounded, when the same lies are told over and over and over again, to those who are willingly ignorant. And this Nazi ideology is the 'fruit of the poisonous tree'.

When the Allied armies came upon the various death camps, they could not believe their eyes. It is said that battle-hardened men, who had seen their friends and comrades die before them in battle for years, wept and were sickened by the sights of people who were little more than walking emaciated skeletons. Some, I've heard, would never speak to their families about what they saw. When General Dwight D. Eisenhower visited one of these camps in Germany, he ordered that the press see this, and film it; he knew, somehow, that there would come a day when there would be those who would deny these atrocities never took place. I would almost venture to say he was prophetic.