WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The brazen theft of the infamous "Arbeit Macht Frei" ("Work Sets You Free") sign has exposed shortcomings in the security system at the vast memorial site of the former Auschwitz Nazi death camp and sparked a national debate.
Police found the sign Sunday, cut into three pieces and hidden beneath a layer of snow in the woods, arrested five men and said the crime was not driven by ideology but likely commissioned by someone from abroad.
The pre-dawn heist Friday of one of the most notorious symbols of Nazi Germany’s World War II atrocities has launched a national discussion about security at key historic sites in a country constantly trying to preserve its past but also pay for the present.
The state official in charge of wartime memorials in Poland, Andrzej Przewoznik, has said that scant funding for the sites doesn’t allow for proper — and often costly — security measures more commonly found elsewhere in Europe and the United States.
Prosecutor Artur Wrona, the lead investigator overseeing the Auschwitz effort, said Tuesday that lack of proper security allowed the perpetrators to approach the main gate "unnoticed" and "undisturbed" and called it "glaring negligence."
He would not, however, discuss in detail how the surveillance camera system or the foot and car patrols operated Friday night, when the sign was stolen.
Only one camera overlooks the gate and it remained unclear if it recorded the theft in the dark.
Museum spokesman Jaroslaw Mensfelt said that the security system has proven sufficient in over 60 years of the memorial’s existence, but added that it was undergoing scrutiny and may need to be upgraded.
"Any upgrades that might be made must mean that no one will ever think of another theft," he said Tuesday.
Upgrades mean more spending for the museum sprawling over an area of 494 acres (200 hectares) at two separate locations in the southern city of Oswiecim. The museum is constantly trying to raise money to preserve the dilapidated wooden barracks and collapsing ruins of gas chambers where hundreds of thousands were murdered. Just last week, Germany replied to appeals for assistance with a pledge of €60 million ($87 million) to help preserve the site that draws 1 million visitors annually.
Director Piotr Cywinski estimates annual needs at 200 million zlotys ($70 million) while the state offers 10 million zlotys ($3.3 million) and the museum earns the same amount from guided tours, historic publications and a parking lot.
On Tuesday investigators held a re-enactment of the theft at the site with the participation of three suspects who have confessed to having a role in the act, which is widely considered to be a desecration of the memory of more than one million of the camp’s victims.
Two suspects deny any involvement and refuse to speak to the investigators, prosecutors said.
Wrona said the perpetrators drove to the then-closed museum in a sports car after dark Thursday but found they needed tools to get the sign down. They found one store open, bought what they needed and returned.
When they arrived the second time, it was just after midnight and there were no guards about as they unbolted one side of the 16-foot long (5-meter-long) metal sign and ripped the 66-pound (30-kilogram) metal phrase from the opposite gate post. They sawed it into three pieces to make it easier to stow in the car.
Wrona said that evidence gathered so far suggests the crime was commissioned by a "person living outside Poland" and police were seeking help from partners in other European countries.
He refused to confirm or deny Polish media reports, which cite no sources, that someone in Sweden could be under suspicion. Swedish police said they’ve not been contacted about any links.
All five suspects face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of stealing and dismantling the sign, which is a symbol of World War II and the Holocaust and has historic value for Poland.
Police in Krakow, some 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the Auschwitz museum, displayed the broken sign for journalists. Each of the three parts bore one of the words. Some of the steel pipe that formed its outline was bent and the letter "i” was missing from the word "Frei" because it had been left behind during the theft. It was recovered at the scene.
Forensics expert Lidia Puchacz said that cutting and sawing tools used in the theft were found at the home of one of the suspects.
Prosecutors will decide when to return the sign to the museum where it will be further examined for authenticity. On Jan. 27 the museum is to hold ceremonies marking its liberation by Soviet troops in 1945.
For now, a replica of the sign hangs in its place.
After occupying Poland in 1939, the Nazis established the Auschwitz I camp, for German political prisoners and Polish prisoners. The sign was made in 1940 and placed above the main gate there.
Two years later, hundreds of thousands of Jews began arriving by train in cattle cars to the wooden barracks of nearby Birkenau, also called Auschwitz II, where they were systematically killed in gas chambers.
