( CNN ) -- An iron gate with the notorious Nazi slogan `` Arbeit Macht Frei '' has been stolen from the former Dachau concentration camp in Germany , officials said . The slogan , which translates as `` Work sets you free , '' became emblematic of the forced labor camps of World War II in which so many inmates died . The gate was stolen overnight from Saturday to Sunday , officials at the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial said in an online statement . While this is the first such theft at Dachau , it 's not the first time that the slogan has been targeted by thieves . The famous `` Arbeit Macht Frei '' sign at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland was stolen in 2009 . It was discovered shortly afterward cut into three pieces . The Dachau center 's director , Dr. Gabriele Hammermann , described this weekend 's theft as a `` deliberate , reprehensible attempt to deny and obliterate the memory of the crimes committed in this place . '' The gate is of `` highly symbolic importance , '' he said , and its removal is `` an attempt to demolish the memorial at its very core . '' Hammermann said it was no coincidence that the theft occurred at a time when the number of survivors of the camps was dwindling due to their age -- and stressed that efforts to protect such historic sites and educate the public must continue , especially in the face of far-right radicalization . It 's not yet known who was behind the theft . Police and state security services are investigating , the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial statement said . Dr. Max Mannheimer , a Holocaust survivor and vice president of the International Dachau Committee , said he was `` horrified that Nazis apparently so desecrated the memorial to those murdered here and violated the reverence due to such a place . '' The Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum said , `` While we do not know who is behind the theft of the sign , the theft of such a symbolic object is an offensive attack on the memory of the Holocaust . '' Germany charges 93-year-old as accessory to 300,000 Auschwitz murders . According to the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial , the gate was forged by inmates in one of the camp 's workshops after it first opened in 1933 for political prisoners . A Communist inmate was ordered by the SS to fashion the lettering `` Arbeit macht frei , '' which was removed after the war and replaced by a reconstruction when the memorial was established in 1965 , it said . The propaganda slogan `` reflects Nazis ' attempts to appear harmless by presenting the concentration camp as a 'work and reeducation camp , ' '' it said . Tens of thousands of Jewish , Sinti and Roma prisoners were also sent to the camp , many of whom died before it was liberated by U.S. Army troops in 1945 . Playing to live : Pianist survived Holocaust by performing for Nazis .
The gate was stolen from the former Nazis concentration camp in Poland . The slogan World War II became emblematic of the Jewish camps . Director : Theft is an attempt `` to deny ... the memory of the crimes committed in this place '' The Arbeit Macht Frei '' sign at the Auschwitz camp in Poland was stolen in 1933 .