Historic gate at Dachau concentration camp stolen

A wrought-iron gate bearing the Nazis’ cynical slogan “Arbeit macht frei,” or “Work sets you free,” has been stolen from the former Dachau concentration camp, police said Sunday. Security officials noticed Sunday morning that the gate measuring 75-by-37 inches— set into a larger iron gate—was missing, police said in a statement. Whoever stole it during the night would have had to climb over another gate to reach it. Memorial director Gabriele Hammermann condemned the theft of the gate, which she described as “the central symbol for the prisoners’ ordeal,” news agency dpa reported.

The memory of the fate [of these victims] fills me with deep sorrow and shame.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel when she visited Dachau last year

Dachau, near Munich in Germany, was the first concentration camp set up by the Nazis in 1933. More than 40,000 prisoners died there before it was liberated by US forces on April 29, 1945. Angela Merkel became the first German chancellor to visit the former concentration camp in August last year, where she expressed “shame” at the crimes of the Nazi regime. It was liberated by U.S. forces on April 29, 1945.

Europe Holocaust