DACHAU, Germany (AP) – The wrought iron gate to the Nazis’ Dachau concentration camp, which prompted an international outcry when it was stolen more than two years ago, has been returned to the German memorial site.
The gate, bearing the slogan “Arbeit macht frei,” (“Work sets you free”), was located in Norway’s western Bergen area after authorities received an anonymous tip late last year.
“We had almost given up hope and a replica had been made and installed at the original place,” Gabriele Hammermann, the head of the memorial site, said as the gate was returned Wednesday.
The theft of the gate “was one of the worst attacks on the Dachau camp memorial,” she said, adding that it remains very important to survivors that authorities continue the investigation into who stole the gate.
The theft in November 2014 was viewed by many as a desecration, as the cynical inscription has become a central symbol for the ordeal of the Nazi prisoners who had to walk past the gate every day on their way to slave labor work.