'Arbeit macht Frei' Auschwitz sign stolen

The sign over the entrance to the Nazi death camp, Auschwitz, has been stolen.

The sign which reads 'Arbeis macht Frei', made in 1940 by Polish prisoners at the camp, was stolen in the earlier hours of Friday morning. Israel's Holocaust Museum branded the theft an 'act of war' and the Muzeum Auschwitz Memorial called it a 'desecration'.

The 5 metre long, 40kg sign reads 'Work will set you free' in English and police say it was removed between 3:30 and 5:00am on Friday morning.

It is not yet known why the sign was stolen, but police say that selling such a well known item would be very difficult. Avner Shalev, director of Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial has speculated that the crime had been committed by Neo-Nazis.

A replica of the sign has been erected while the search continues and a 5,000-zloty ($1,700; £1,050) reward has been offered for information which leads to the arrest of the thieves.

The phrase was also used outside other Nazi concentration camps including Dachau and Sachsenhausen, although the sign at Auschwitz is the most well known. Hundreds of thousands of prisoners passed under the sign on entering the camp, most of whom were killed or worked to death. Over a million inmates were murdered at the camp, 90% of whom were Jewish.