STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Dec. 24 (UPI) -- Swedish neo-Nazis arranged the theft of the "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign at Auschwitz to sell it to finance terrorist attacks, investigators said.
Patrik Peter, a spokesman for the Swedish security police, said the Nazis allegedly planned to disrupt next year's national election, The Times of London reported.
The Stockholm newspaper Aftonbladet said a Nazi source claimed the sign was stolen on order from a collector.
"The sign was to be delivered to Sweden, since it was here the deal should be made," the source said. "My role was to find a buyer. We had a person who was willing to pay millions but he had no political agenda. These things have a huge collector value.... The biggest collectors are from England, the United States and France."
The sign on the main entrance gate to the Auschwitz camp, a converted Polish cavalry barracks, said "Work makes you free" in German. It greeted the prisoners who arrived at the camp, who included Jews, Polish dissidents and Soviet prisoners of war.
Five suspects who allegedly carried out the theft were arrested in Poland after a tip to a police hot line last weekend. The sign, cut into three pieces, has been recovered.
