Historic gate at Germany’s Dachau concentration camp stolen

A wrought-iron gate bearing the Nazis' cynical slogan Arbeit macht frei [Work sets you free] has been stolen from the former Dachau concentration camp.

Security officials noticed early on Sunday morning that the gate measuring 190cm by 95cm, set into a larger iron gate, was missing, police said. Whoever stole it during the night would have had to climb over another gate to reach it.

Police said they found nothing in the immediate vicinity of the camp.

Dachau, near Munich, was the first concentration camp set up by the Nazis in 1933. More than 200,000 people from across Europe were held there and 40,000 prisoners died before it was liberated by United States forces on April 29, 1945. The camp is now a memorial.

Memorial director Gabriele Hammermann condemned the theft of the gate, which she described as "the central symbol for the prisoners' ordeal", news agency DPA reported.