Mastermind of Auschwitz sign theft transferred to Swedish jail
08 February 2011
The former Swedish neo-Nazi leader Anders Högström, who organized the theft of the ‘Arbeit macht frei’ sign from Auschwitz, has been transferred to his home country to serve his three-year prison sentence. Högström was handed over to Swedish officials at Krakow Airport, according to media reports. Last December, a Polish court sentenced him to 32 months in prison as part of a plea bargain. Högström had faced up to 10 years in jail.
The iron sign, which measures 16 feet across and means ‘work will set you free’, was stolen from the former Nazi concentration camp on 18 December 2009 and recovered elsewhere in the country 72 hours later. It was cut into three pieces. Högström was arrested in February 2010 in Stockholm and extradited to Poland two months later. He founded the National Socialist Front, a Swedish neo-Nazi movement, in 1994, but later quit as its leader.
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