Berlin: AN IRON gate from the former Nazi concentration camp in Germany’s Dachau with the slogan “Arbeit macht frei” (“Work will set you free”) has been found two years after it was stolen, the police said yesterday.
“Due to an anonymous tip-off, police in Norway’s Bergen have secured an iron gate with well-known text,” said Bavaria state police.
“From the picture transmitted, police believe it is highly likely that this is the iron gate that was stolen from Dachau.”
The theft of the 100kg gate was reported on November 2, 2014, sparking an uproar, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel calling it “appalling”.
Located just a few kilometres from Munich, the Dachau camp opened in 1933, less than two months after Adolf Hitler became chancellor.
It was first used to incarcerate political prisoners but during World War II, it became a death camp where more than 41,000 Jews were slaughtered before US troops liberated it on April 29, 1945.
Another sign with same inscription at the former Nazi death camp Auschwitz was stolen in 2009. The mastermind of that theft, Swedish neo-Nazi Anders Hoegstroem, was caught and jailed for two and a half years.
The metal sign was eventually recovered cut up into three pieces.
