German Jewish community slams Auschwitz theft

The iconic metal sign was stolen just before dawn on Friday from the entrance to the former Nazi death camp in present-day Poland.

The Central Council of Jews in Germany said on Friday that the theft of the "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign at the Auschwitz death camp was "shocking and hurtful."

- This is shocking and hurtful and dreadful and tasteless - Dieter Graumann, council vice chairman, told AFP. - For all survivors and for survivors' descendants and for everyone this is a great hurt and a shock. -

The iconic metal sign, which means "Work Will Set You Free", was stolen just before dawn on Friday from the entrance to the former Nazi death camp in present-day Poland, a spokesman for the museum now on the site told AFP.

About 1.1 million people perished at Auschwitz-Birkenau, one million of them Jews from Poland and the rest of Nazi-occupied Europe, some from overwork, starvation and disease, but most in the gas chambers.

The Holocaust, masterminded by Nazi Germany, killed six million people.