Lies, Damned Lies Re: Auschwitz Sign Theft

[Peter Lemkin]

Police believe the theft was financially motivated. Yeah, Right! 90 lbs of scrap iron would bring little at current prices of $200 per ton. We are also to believe they drove from N. Poland to S. Poland late at night to earn a few dollars in scrap, that they had to know would possibly involve a police hunt. They spent more on gas then they could earn, and it would be split 5 ways. And they expect the public to believe this?! Cut in three pieces it wasn't going to fetch much on Ebay or to a private collector. There is much more to this than authorities are admitting. The usual.....lies!

The "Arbeit macht frei" sign stolen from Auschwitz in southern Poland has been found in the north and five men are being questioned by police.

The five suspects, aged in their 20s and 30s, were not members of a neo-Nazi group, Krakow police said.

The metal sign from the main gate, which symbolises for many the atrocities of Nazi Germany, had been cut into three pieces, they added.

A major search was launched after the sign was stolen before dawn on Friday.
This symbol, probably one of the most important of the past century, can be put back in its place
Pawel Sawicki
Spokesman for Auschwitz museum

Sign of death and defiance
Viewpoint: Why sign is irreplaceable


Andrzej Rokita, the local police chief in Krakow - where the men were being questioned - said the theft had been financially motivated, and it remained unclear whether it was carried out to order.

"From the information we have, none of the five belong to a neo-Nazi group nor hold such ideas," Andrzej Rokita said of the suspects.

'Enormous relief'

The sign's theft had caused outrage in Israel and among Polish politicians.
The sign has been cut into three pieces, police say


More than a million people - 90% of them Jews - were murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz during World War II.

Pawel Sawicki, a spokesman for Auschwitz museum, said the recovery of the sign was an "enormous relief".

"We are extremely grateful to the police who have done fantastic work," he told AFP news agency.

"This symbol, probably one of the most important of the past century, can be put back in its place."

The museum is preparing to celebrate the 65th anniversary of Auschwitz-Birkenau's liberation by Soviet troops on 27 January.

Scrap metal yards searched

Police had stepped up security checks at airports and border crossings and searched scrap metal yards over the weekend in their hunt for the 5m (16ft) sign, which translates as "Work sets you free".


The sign has been restored since the camp was liberated in 1945


"We have arrested five men aged from 20 to 39 in the north of Poland," said Krakow police spokesman Dariusz Nowak.

"They were picked up shortly before midnight and the sign was found in a house," he added without giving further details.

The wrought-iron sign was half-unscrewed, half-torn off from above the death camp's gate between 0330 and 0500 on Friday.

Investigators said at least two people would have been needed to steal the 40kg (90lb) sign.

Auschwitz museum spokesman Jaroslaw Mensfelt said the thieves had apparently carried the sign 300m (328 yards) to an opening in a concrete wall. The opening was left intentionally to preserve a poplar tree dating back to the time of World War II.

Four metal bars that blocked the opening had been cut and footprints in the snow led from the wall opening to the nearby road, where police presume the sign was loaded on to a vehicle.

[Magda Hassan]

I don't buy it either Peter. Probably more to do with the Polish Red Watch here: http://www.deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/...php?t=2843

[Peter Lemkin]

According to the Polish press the inscription was stolen on a Swedish citizen's order and the plates were ready to be transported to Sweden via ferry. Each of the three thieves was to be given 10,000-30,000 euros for the stolen inscription. It needs to be established if the Swedish citizen was an employer or just a middleman.
In Polish:
http://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/Wiadomosci/ ... l?skad=rss

We're up to nearly 100,000 Euros...and I'll be there was even larger money behind this. Fascism and fascists are ascendant, worldwide, sadly.

[Magda Hassan]

A former leading European neo-Nazi has claimed that he was the middleman in the theft of the Auschwitz sign bearing the three most powerful words from the Holocaust: “Arbeit Macht Frei”.
According to Polish and Swedish investigators, the theft was organised by Anders Hoegstrom — who set up the virulently anti-immigrant National Socialist Front in Sweden in the 1990s. “My role was to get the sign in Poland,” he told the Swedish tabloid Expressen. “I was the middleman and was supposed to take care of the sale.”
Mr Hoegstrom claims that he turned himself in to the Swedish authorities when he suddenly became aware that the sign was to be sold to a collector and the money used to fund a campaign to disrupt the Swedish election campaign this year, if necessary with violence.
“That was not something I wanted to be involved in or carry out in any way,” he said.
Related Links

• Auschwitz sign 'stolen to fund attacks'
  

• Neo-Nazis suspected of raid on Auschwitz
  

• Five arrested after Auschwitz sign is recovered
  

The wrought-iron lettering — meaning Work Sets You Free — was nailed by the Nazis to the gate leading into the concentration camp where more than a million Jews were killed.
The sign was stolen last month by a gang of five Poles, apparently to be shipped to Sweden and then sold. It has since been recovered and the gang believed to be responsible is under arrest.
The Swedish intelligence agency SaePo has confirmed that it is investigating reports of a neo-Nazi plot to blow up the Swedish parliament, the Riksdag, and the home of the Prime Minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt. The leader of the Polish gang, named only as Marcin A by the Polish authorities, got to know Mr Hoegstrom two years ago while doing odd jobs on his family estate in southern Sweden.
When Mr A returned to his small building company in Poland, the two men stayed in touch.
Last autumn Mr A received word from Sweden that he should put together a group of experienced thieves to unscrew the sign and smuggle it out of the country.
The gang, aged between 25 and 39, with nicknames such as “Old Mouse” and “Sparrow”, realised that it was out of its depth when the theft on December 18 prompted an international outcry and a nationwide manhunt. The sign had been broken into three parts and hidden in woodland. Communication was reportedly then made between the Poles and Mr Hoegstrom, and the Swede decided to turn himself in to the police.
“I contacted the police immediately as soon as the sign was stolen and gave them all the information I had,” he said. “I haven’t committed any crime. I was the one who saw to it that the sign was found.”
The plot then thickens and indeed begins to resemble the bestselling thrillers of Stieg Larsson, who first made his name as a journalist investigating the far-right fringe in Swedish politics. Sweden’s neo-Nazi movement has shown itself capable of violence in the past. In 1999, for example, far-right attackers shot the trade unionist Bjoern Soederberg.
It was this and other attacks that spurred the journalistic endeavours of Mr Larsson — who worked for a while as the Scandinavian correspondent for the Britsh anti-fascist magazine Searchlight — and persuaded Mr Hoegstrom to change sides.
He renounced his party, which has since splintered and renamed itself, and now co-operates with a group that helps former neo-Nazis to return to normal life.
This leaves several questions unanswered. Why should Mr Hoegstrom be involved in such a high-profile and apparently ideologically driven theft if he has renounced his ways? Who was being lined up to be the final buyer of the sign? And who, if anybody, was really trying to raise cash to blow up parliament?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/wo...980065.ece

[Peter Lemkin]

A former leading European neo-Nazi has claimed that he was the middleman in the theft of the Auschwitz sign bearing the three most powerful words from the Holocaust: “Arbeit Macht Frei”.
According to Polish and Swedish investigators, the theft was organised by Anders Hoegstrom — who set up the virulently anti-immigrant National Socialist Front in Sweden in the 1990s. “My role was to get the sign in Poland,” he told the Swedish tabloid Expressen. “I was the middleman and was supposed to take care of the sale.”
Mr Hoegstrom claims that he turned himself in to the Swedish authorities when he suddenly became aware that the sign was to be sold to a collector and the money used to fund a campaign to disrupt the Swedish election campaign this year, if necessary with violence.
“That was not something I wanted to be involved in or carry out in any way,” he said.
Related Links

• Auschwitz sign 'stolen to fund attacks'
  

• Neo-Nazis suspected of raid on Auschwitz
  

• Five arrested after Auschwitz sign is recovered
  

The wrought-iron lettering — meaning Work Sets You Free — was nailed by the Nazis to the gate leading into the concentration camp where more than a million Jews were killed.
The sign was stolen last month by a gang of five Poles, apparently to be shipped to Sweden and then sold. It has since been recovered and the gang believed to be responsible is under arrest.
The Swedish intelligence agency SaePo has confirmed that it is investigating reports of a neo-Nazi plot to blow up the Swedish parliament, the Riksdag, and the home of the Prime Minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt. The leader of the Polish gang, named only as Marcin A by the Polish authorities, got to know Mr Hoegstrom two years ago while doing odd jobs on his family estate in southern Sweden.
When Mr A returned to his small building company in Poland, the two men stayed in touch.
Last autumn Mr A received word from Sweden that he should put together a group of experienced thieves to unscrew the sign and smuggle it out of the country.
The gang, aged between 25 and 39, with nicknames such as “Old Mouse” and “Sparrow”, realised that it was out of its depth when the theft on December 18 prompted an international outcry and a nationwide manhunt. The sign had been broken into three parts and hidden in woodland. Communication was reportedly then made between the Poles and Mr Hoegstrom, and the Swede decided to turn himself in to the police.
“I contacted the police immediately as soon as the sign was stolen and gave them all the information I had,” he said. “I haven’t committed any crime. I was the one who saw to it that the sign was found.”
The plot then thickens and indeed begins to resemble the bestselling thrillers of Stieg Larsson, who first made his name as a journalist investigating the far-right fringe in Swedish politics. Sweden’s neo-Nazi movement has shown itself capable of violence in the past. In 1999, for example, far-right attackers shot the trade unionist Bjoern Soederberg.
It was this and other attacks that spurred the journalistic endeavours of Mr Larsson — who worked for a while as the Scandinavian correspondent for the Britsh anti-fascist magazine Searchlight — and persuaded Mr Hoegstrom to change sides.
He renounced his party, which has since splintered and renamed itself, and now co-operates with a group that helps former neo-Nazis to return to normal life.
This leaves several questions unanswered. Why should Mr Hoegstrom be involved in such a high-profile and apparently ideologically driven theft if he has renounced his ways? Who was being lined up to be the final buyer of the sign? And who, if anybody, was really trying to raise cash to blow up parliament?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/wo...980065.ece

I knew from the get-go it had to be neo (sic) Nazis, but that it was Swedish ones is a bit of a surprise. Their plans to blow up their Parliament and other government buildings is interesting and seems to be a trend around the world - the rise in an organized fashion of the Far FAR Right, or should I say Reich! Troubling times would be an understatement.

[Magda Hassan]

Perhaps the Swedish ones are not the ones behind this but just the middlemen. It would be good to know more about this. Who was pulling Ander's strings?

[David Guyatt]

I can well imagine that a wealthy neo nazi collector of nazi artifacts would want to add this to his collection of SS daggers, skulls and bones rings, Swastika flags etc.

It is worth bearing in mind that some Swedes volunteered for and fought with the SS Panzer Divisions Wiking and Nordland.

[Magda Hassan]

Angers Hoegstrom / Anders Hoegstroem / Anders Högström Goes to Gaol / Jail / Prison

Posted on December 31, 2010 by @ndy
Swedish neo-Nazi Angers Hoegstrom / Anders Hoegstroem / Anders Högström has been sentenced by a Polish judge to two years and eight months imprisonment for plotting to steal the "Arbeit macht frei" entrance sign to Auschwitz, supposedly in order to sell it to a collector.
D'oh!
A big hunk of metal, the sign apparently has some greater symbolic significance. If you believe in The Holohoax, that is. Which Paul Frommwho recently completed a tour of Australia and New Zealanddoes not. As for WWII, director of the Melbourne Underground Film Festival, Australian Sex Party supporter and self-described "fascist" Richard Wolstencroft also dares to challenge the prevailing orthodoxy:

LOL.
The Good News for Mister Hoegstroem is that he'll be doing his time in Sweden, not Poland.
http://slackbastard.anarchobase.com/?p=23180

[David Guyatt]

A timely reminder, I think:

Swedish Nazi Background of Assange Accuser's Accuser

Click HERE for full piece.