Stolen gate returns home
22 February: the gate that was stolen two years ago, has been returned to the memorial site in Dachau.
The gate, bearing the slogan "Arbeit macht frei," ( "Work sets you free,") was located in the Bergen area of Norway after authorities received an anonymous tip last year.
The gate will not be returned to its original position at the entrance, where a copy now stands, but will become part of the permanent exhibition and it will be kept inside a transparent cabinet equipped with an alarm system.
Return of the Dachau gate, which was stolen in 2014 and rediscovered in Norway.
Message from the International Dachau Committee (CID).
22 February 2017.
The International Dachau Committee CID, which represents the survivors and their descendants, continues to be extremely dismayed at the desecration of this tomb. This place serves the memory of all victims of the Dachau concentration camp.In respect of the more than 41,000 prisoners who died there. The International Dachau Committee, of course, welcomes the return of the historic camp gate, but urges the investigation to continue.
Bildquelle ,Stiftung Bayerische Gedenkstätten'
The burglaries in the former extermination camp Auschwitz 2009 and then in 2014 in the former Dachau concentration camp are abominable attacks on the places of remembrance of the victims of national socialism. These attacks were received with unanimous indignation all over the world.
There is no doubt that the desire was to remove the symbol which is marked with the inscription "Arbeit macht frei" ,and through which ran more than 200,000 prisoners, between 1933 and 1945.
The answer to such attempts to deny the history of National Socialism and its atrocities is to visit such a memorial. One must know the past in order to understand the present better. It is the concern of the survivors of Dachau to convey the "Never Again", which is also engraved here on this monument, and keep it alive.
General Jean-Michel THOMAS, President.
Bildquelle ,Stiftung Bayerische Gedenkstätten'
