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News & ArtsFriday, December 18, 2009
News / History There's a Special Place In Hell...
Posted by Dan Savage on Fri, Dec 18, 2009 at 7:07 AM
...for whoever did this.
The Polish police said Friday that the iron sign over the gate to the Auschwitz memorial with the infamous phrase “arbeit macht frei” — “work sets you free” — has been stolen. Katarzyna Padlo, a police spokeswoman, said the police believe it was taken between 3:30 a.m. and 5 a.m. Friday.Ms. Padlo, who was quoted by The Associated Press, said the sign over the main entrance to Auschwitz, the former Nazi death camp in southern Poland, near Krakow, was removed by being unscrewed on one side and pulled off on the other. She said the authorities immediately launched an intensive search.
2
Bah...they'll have it back in a week. Anyone stupid enough to steal a cultural artifact of this magnitude won't be smart enough to keep their mouth shut.
3
I know we can't lock down everything that's significant in a vault, but having it secured with a couple of screws? Might as well have the Mona Lisa tied down with a double knot or rare, expensive Christmas trees just sitting out in the arboretum.
4
@3 I also thought immediately of that tree. I imagine there is a sorcerer building some sort of new apocalypse-golem out of these artifacts, in a cave in the Andes.
5
@ 3, I'd bet that was to preserve historic conditions. What I'm wondering is why there weren't security guards and cameras around?
8
@7: Trust in Allah but tie your camel. And faith in humanity is what got all those people in trouble in the first place; many (in the beginning) walked voluntarily into the ghettos.
9
Of course I'm useless with specifics as always, but there's some deeply creepy writing out there from people who've visited with locals about what it's like having been born and raised next to the camp. So my hope is that local teens put it in some empty barn where It'll be found soon.
10
Hell is a place on earth where people are imprisoned and gassed and murdered for who they are. No other hell exists.
12
I realize that this reaction is normal and understandable. But my first thought was of descendants of prisoners who were tired of the lie hanging over their town...
13
@8 I would argue it wasn't faith in humanity that made people walk into the ghettos on their own two feet, or show up on the loading platforms at the correct time, but rather fear, panic, internalized prejudice, and the heart-breakingly human, desperate hope that things would be ok if only they could buy a little more time.
14
@12 Every survivor and descendant I know is all about accurate memorials and evidence. They would want the lie to stand as proof of what happened, so that younger generations could come and see what the world looked like when it went insane. I would be very surprised if the thief turned out to be a descendant.
17
@12, I don't think there are any descendants of prisoners living in Auschwitz. Germany got rid of all their Jews. 90% of them died in the Holocaust, and the rest lost little time in getting out after liberation.
21
For the Queen's sake I really hope that this isn't Prince Harry up to his old Nazi shennanigans. I guess it's more likely that it will turn up as decor in a Berlin disco.
24
Well, after it was sold to an advertising concern I'm not surprised they took it down.
http://tinyurl.com/yhe6lej
http://tinyurl.com/yhe6lej
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