A POLISH court has issued a European arrest warrant for a former Swedish neo-Nazi who has admitted involvement in December's theft of the infamous Arbeit Macht Frei(Work Will Set You Free) sign from Auschwitz.
The court in Krakow, near the former Nazi camp, has asked Swedish authorities to detain 34-year-old Anders Högström, suspecting him of acting as a go-between in the theft on December 18th. The five metre-sign was recovered three days later – cut into three pieces – and returned to the camp.
Mr Högström, who founded Sweden’s neo-Nazi National Socialist Front (NSF) in 1994, was a key figure in Polish investigations, along with two other unnamed Swedish men.
The Swede has admitted his involvement in the theft to Swedish newspapers. In several interviews he has claimed he was a middle-man in the deal. “We had someone who was willing to pay several million [Swedish] kronor for the sign,” he said. He also said he helped recover the sign, but Polish investigators deny this.
They have arrested five Poles in connection with the theft.
The Auschwitz death camp was established by the Nazis in 1940 and superseded by the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex two years later. Some 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, were murdered there by the end of the second World War.