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Dachau World War II Nazi Concentration Camp Memorial Site. Hugh Rooney

Arbeit Macht Frei gate stolen from Dachau concentration camp

The theft of the historic wrought iron gate happened during the night.

AN IRON GATE with the infamous sign “Arbeit macht frei” (“Work will set you free”) at the former Nazi concentration camp at Dachau in southern Germany has been stolen.

The theft of the historic wrought iron gate apparently happened overnight, police said in a statement.

The site has no surveillance system, but is monitored by security guards and the theft apparently took place between their rounds of the camp, said police, who have appealed for any possible witnesses.

‘Ignoble act’

The head of the foundation of memorial sites in the Bavaria region and an elected official, Karl Freller, called the theft an “ignoble act”.

The Dachau camp, located a few kilometres from Munich, opened in 1933, less than two months after Adolf Hitler became German chancellor. It was initially set up as a place to incarcerate political prisoners before becoming a death camp during World War II killing more than 41,000 Jews.

The camp was liberated by US troops on 29 April 1945. Today some 800,000 visitors from around the world visit the camp each year.

The same “Work will set you free” sign at the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp in Poland was stolen in 2009, sparking a global outcry.

The mastermind of that theft, Swedish neo-Nazi Anders Hoegstroem, was jailed for two-and-a-half years.

The metal sign was eventually recovered cut up into three pieces, leading museum officials to display a replica above the entrance until it was restored in 2011.

© – AFP 2014

Opinion: On what would have been Anne Frank’s 85th birthday, let’s remember our shared history>

Read: 89-year-old man arrested in the US for alleged war crimes as a teenage guard at Auschwitz>

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    Mute Dave Smith
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    Jul 1st 2016, 11:48 AM

    so the Irish people that were trafficked weren’t trafficked…gotcha , I was beginning to wonder had that well known Leitrim to Donegal route kicked off again….

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    Mute conri
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    Jul 1st 2016, 1:52 PM

    Keep allowing them in and soon enough it will be your daughters and granddaughters that Thell be grooming for sex. Not just yet, it’ll take more of them to live here before they get the courage, but it’s on its way, keep watching.

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    Mute Fjordie
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    Jul 1st 2016, 12:00 PM

    The people involved in this should be locked up for life ie 30 years plus

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    Mute conri
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    Jul 1st 2016, 2:05 PM

    @Fjordie, the people involved in this will be out as soon as possible, this allows the legal industry to make more money off them the next time their caught, when again, they will be promptly released, and the legal industry continues to rake in the money, look at what happening now, people with up to 100 prior convictions being given suspended sentences, why, so the legal industry can make money from having their product in circulation.

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    Mute Max Power
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    Jul 1st 2016, 1:09 PM

    Suspended sentences all round

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    Mute Cosaint
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    Jul 1st 2016, 5:48 PM

    change the record

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    Mute Nyantoon Chol
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    Jul 1st 2016, 11:41 AM

    Must have heard about the gravy train the you can go on after exploitation. #inbeforetheracists.

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    Mute Lily Martin
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    Jul 1st 2016, 11:44 AM

    And the prize for most obnoxious troll goes to…

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    Mute Joe Phillips
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    Jul 1st 2016, 11:47 AM

    not to mention incoherent

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    Mute Joe Burns
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    Jul 1st 2016, 4:03 PM

    What is conspicuously missing from this story is a very important question;

    “How many of these children were in State “Care” when they were trafficked?”

    We’ve had this conversation before, when it emerged that 500 went “Missing” from “Care”, but when the truth emerged it was found that the entire thing had been covered up by Gardai, the HSE and the government. The truth was that that we only found out because Wikileaks released diplomatic documents from the American Embassy in Dublin. While the government said they were “Missing”, the US State Dept. showed that most had been accounted for and were trafficked. Many of the children were found in brothels or enforced slavery.

    You’ll have to pardon me for using quotation marks on the word “Care”. I wonder will Wikileaks have to step in again to find out how many of these children were in State “Care”?

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    Mute Catherine Mill
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    Jul 1st 2016, 10:13 PM

    So true.

    Ireland is not known as the Hub of child trafficking for nothing.

    Yes children in care are prostituted out- but the state never prosecutes itself.

    No one in power wants to know and use excuses like – secret court rules, blahhhhhh,blahhhhh

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    Mute David On Tour
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    Jul 1st 2016, 9:07 PM

    The Immigrant Council yet again calling for ”the criminalisation of the purchase of sex”, completely ignoring the fact that coercive trafficking and commercial sex work are entirely different things. Amnesty, UNAIDS, The World Health Org and as of today the UK Home Office Select Committee all advocate decriminalisation but apparently the ‘experts’ of TORL, ICI & Ruhama know better.

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    Mute Nyantoon Chol
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    Jul 1st 2016, 11:51 AM

    Thanks lily ☺

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    Mute Lily Martin
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    Jul 1st 2016, 12:02 PM

    Not a bother. Negative attention is still attention right? Lap it up pet.

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    Mute Nyantoon Chol
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    Jul 1st 2016, 12:31 PM

    your talking to me aren’t you? you realize you don’t have to? lol

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    Mute conri
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    Jul 1st 2016, 1:58 PM

    @Lily, their beliefs and culture are not compatible. What would you say to anyone of the women who were abused/raped in Europe, or to the countless children, what you say to the mother of the young boy who was raped in a public swimming pool in Europe only to be told that the reason was the immigrant had a “sexual emergency”. And yes, our own countries have our own issues, but it’s committed by perverts, whereas it’s the accepted culture where these people come from.

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    Mute Lily Martin
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    Jul 1st 2016, 2:20 PM

    Conri, Nowhere did I make any comment to suggest I condone violence or assault. You have done a marvellous job of reading subtext where there was none.

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    Mute conri
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    Jul 1st 2016, 3:34 PM

    @Lily, As you have, no where did I say you did condone violence , you also have done a marvellous job of reading subtext where there was none, we’ve so much in common you and I. Actually I was just stating (as a comment in response to yours) that this is an incompatible culture and will lead us down a very dark path if something is not done to stem the flow, it’s been described as an invasion, I agree with this. Can you please respond to the following question: do you want to see some of our towns and cities end up like some of Britain’s, unrecognisable to English people, unsafe for them to venture into ?

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