Stolen Auschwitz sign.

[ Poland, Auschwitz. from the BBC ]

Four dawns ago, the sign bearing the Nazi slogan "Arbeit Macht Frei" was stolen.

It was neither murder nor rape. Nothing monied misplaced. But along with many others, I felt a quiet shock. And learned, again, that in the vast territory that is the human world, no one thing is uniformly sacred.

Today, the five thieves were apprehended. The 5-metre sign was found cut into three pieces.

We forget, dismember, pillage. And in undermining the markers of our humanity, we undermine our own.

And oh yes, those thieves were 'art thieves'.