Sign above Auschwitz gate stolen

[Derek Ortt]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8420053.stm

Didn't see this posted. It has since been recovered in 3 pieces

As for the punishments for these thieves... maybe make them serve their sentence AT THE CAMP. Lets give the tourists a first hand account of how prison life was and actually see real prisoners in the striped uniforms, wearing a green triangle

since they wanted the camp so badly that they had to steal from it, I say give it to them

[Category 5]

What a sickening crime.

[DanKellFla]

Who was going to buy it?

[Derek Ortt]

What a sickening crime.

Was thinking of the punishment for these thieves a little more. Give them the standard treatment I would give criminals, meaning the 750 calories of spoiled food per day (potato and turnip soup and bread is appropriate here), and the 16 hours of labor. In this case... a new I.G/ Farben factory would be perfect

and if they complain this is too harsh... just tell them that they are criminals and you loved the camp so much, that you earned your vacation.

[Frank2]

I'm short on time right now but per this insensitive act, probably done by those too young to know the suffering that went on at camps like that, I want to share a concentration camp survivor story of my own, from the early 1960's...

After chruch we'd visit a new Jewish bakery in the area, and over the weeks my late sister and I came to recognize a very pretty but also very sad young woman (in her 20's), and we always wondered why she looked as sad as she did - until one Sunday when our Mom was with the girl's parents at another counter, and their daughter handed my sister a loaf of bread...

At that moment the girl's white bakery coat sleeve pulled, and we suddenly realized her sadness - when her tatooed serial number became visible. The shocked looked that my sister and I had at that moment could not be hidden, and in silence the young woman stared at us, hoping we'd not say anything, since in the early 1960's concentration camp survivors were many here in America, but that fact was often kept quiet by family and friends, for a variety of reasons...

To this day, I can still in some way see the sadness of this woman's face - as my late sister and I often said, this woman was the saddest person we'd ever met, and for certain only God knows what she experienced as a child-prisoner, since she must have been only grade-school age or less when that serial number was drilled onto her wrist by her captors...

Similar to The Sound of Music (which was shown last night on ABC in it's restored length), millions like Captain Von Trapp either were forced to flee for their lives with nothing but the clothes on their backs, or face almost certain death by either hiding at home (as did Anne Frank and her family), or by "volunteering" for deadly military service as was forced on Captain Von Trapp, which created a situation so terrible that we can only try to comprehend what that was like...

As also shown in the movie - many Nuns hid those trying to flee the approaching occupation - and were often shot for their bravery...

We happened to see The Sound of Music when it first opened in 1965 - within weeks of the 20th Anniversary of VE Day - and many adults in the crowded theater were silent during the last 20 minutes of the film - no doubt the Nazi chase scene brought back many painful memories...

So, to those young adults of this century who act as if that terrible period never happened, or treat it with coldness or disrespect, please remember that it did happen, and resulted in terrible human suffering - during and long after the war was over...

Frank

[Ptarmigan]

That's just low.