Stolen gate returned to Nazi concentration camp in Dachau

Feb. 22 (UPI) -- A wrought iron gate that was stolen in 2014 from Germany's Nazi Dachau concentration camp was returned Wednesday.

The gate, through which some 210,000 detainees walked from 1933-45, bore the infamous slogan "Arbeit macht frei" ("Work will set you free").

A ceremony marked the gate's return to the site.

The gate, which weighs around 220 pounds and was 7 feet by 3 feet, was stolen on Nov. 2, 2014, between security guards' rounds watching the site.

Police found the gate in a parking lot near Bergen in Norway last December after an anonymous tip. No arrests have been made.

Karl Freller, who heads the foundation responsible for the Dachau memorial, said to Deutsche Welle "now that we have the gate back we will not let it out of our sight."

The gate will be restored and placed in the museum at Dachau on the 72nd anniversary of the camp's liberation. More than 40,000 people died at the camp in Dachau, near Munich, before its liberation by U.S. troops in 1945. It was the first camp established by the Nazis.

The replica that replaced the stolen gate in 2015 will remain on site.

Dachau attracts more than 800,000 visitors a year. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence visited the memorial last weekend.