After a year of conservation work, the original “Arbeit Macht Frei” sign, which hung ominously above the entrance to the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp before it was stolen at the end of 2009, has been restored.

The restored "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign, photo: auschwitz.org.pl

Piotr Cywinski, director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum told journalists, Wednesday, that a number of months were needed to find the right welding method to mend the sign, which was cut up into three parts when stolen.

The Arbeit Macht Frei sign was stolen in December 2009 and found three days later by police in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian region.

Five Poles and a Swede were arrested in connection with the crime, with Swedish prosecutors looking into who ordered the theft.

Swede Anders Hoegstroem, who pleaded guilty to masterminding the theft of the sign, was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison by a court in Krakow in March this year.

Prosecutors in Krakow accused Hoegstroem of hiring Polish thieves who dismantled the sign from the Auschwitz camp’s gate and tried to smuggle it into Sweden. (jb)

Source: IAR