Polish police found the infamous “Work makes free” sign, cut into three pieces and apparently ready to be fenced in the burgeoning market for Nazi memorabilia. The perpetrators were arrested, and seem to be ordinary thieves.
The suspects have not been identified publicly, but Rokita said they were between the ages of 20 and 39 and that their past offenses were “either against property or against health and life,” implying that at least one of them has a record for violent crime.
Four of them are unemployed and one owns a small construction company, he said. He would not give any other details.
Barry Rubin has some thoughts on the significance the sign holds for the world today. Read the entire post. This summary does not do it justice.
Of course, the Germans lost World War Two and their anti-pragmatism hastened that defeat. This, too, is worth keeping in mind. That is a factor to be used in the setting of strategy by democratic states and in the thinking of their people. Assuming they will act in the opposite way will not, however, strengthen that resistance.
Yet the greatest threat to the West of all is the mistaken belief that if we are really polite and avoid giving offense, that if we make concessions or work really hard we will be free of their threat. We have set up our own signs at the entrances to our universities and foreign ministries that are the precise equivalent of Arbeit macht frei.
Thank you for the link to Barry Rubin’s blog. I read this article and a second – and then subscribed.
I guess I wonder why they don’t have security at an important historical sight like that.