'Arbeit Macht Frei' sign over Auschwitz is stolen, prompting fears Nazis took it

' Work Sets You Free' sign wrenched off in early hours of morning

Exact replica immediately hung in place of original as police hunt thieves



The sign from the gates of the Auschwitz death camp has been stolen.



Poland yesterday vowed to recover 'at all costs' the 15ft metal inscription Arbeit Macht Frei - Work Sets You Free.



The deceitful Nazi slogan was meant to convey to the prisoners who passed under it that they could attain 'spiritual' freedom through hard work for the Fatherland. But for most, it was the inscription on a gateway to a living hell.

A bird flies above the original gate of the Auschwitz Museum about two weeks before the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz in 2005

The entrance to Auschwitz in a picture taken last night after the sign above this gate was stolen

Mystery shrouded the motivation for the theft, which took place in the early hours of yesterday. But police fear it was more sinister than a drunken prank.



Some believe the shadowy Nazi memorabilia network, where a piece such as the 90lb sign could be sold for a small fortune, could be behind the theft.



It could never be displayed, but there are known to be many relics of the Nazi era in private collections, owned by wealthy individuals with an obsession of history's most evil regime.



Poland's ambassador to Israel, Agnieszka Magdziak-Miszewska, said police information indicated the robbery was 'meticulously planned'.



She said the thieves skilfully avoided CCTV cameras monitoring the entrance to the camp that was opened by the Nazis in 1940 initially to incarcerate Polish political prisoners.



Tourists walk underneath the replacement of the 'Arbeit macht frei' (work will set you free) sign in Auschwitz

A hole cut in the Auschwitz fence believed to have been made by the thieves

'Everyone is doing everything they can to catch those who did this,' she said, adding that the governor of the region has declared a state of emergency.



Whoever took the sign was armed with a screwdriver with which they loosened one side before wrenching it from its mountings.



Auschwitz museum official Pawel Sawicki said: 'It's a symbol of what Auschwitz stands for. But a place where hundreds of thousands died obviously doesn't mean anything to the thieves.'



Noach Flug, chairman of the Centre of Organisations of Holocaust Survivors, called on the Polish government 'to exert an especially concentrated effort' into catching the thieves and bringing them to justice.

The main gate of Auschwitz I pictured shortly after it was liberated by the Russians in January 1945

Death camp: More than one million people visit Auschwitz every year

The missing sign, which is occasionally removed for conservation work, has been replaced by a replica while the hunt goes on.



A former Polish army barracks, the Nazis converted the site into what became known to Holocaust planners as Auschwitz 1. While thousands were murdered in its buildings, the far larger complex at Birkenau several miles away - with railway lines that transported the Jews of Europe virtually to the doors of the gas chambers - was chiefly responsible for the deaths of 1.1million.

More than one million people, mostly Jews, were killed or died of starvation and disease while carrying out forced labour at the camp