The Simon Wiesenthal Center, which fights anti-Semitism, wants online auction house eBay to cancel the auction of an "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign, touted as "similar to the one in Auschwitz." The sign was put on sale by a Pennsylvania resident using the moniker "SS panzergrenadier." The description on eBay reads: "For sale is a sign in German meaning 'Work for freedom' that dates back to the 1700's and was used in many Nazi concentration camps. It was designed specifically from the sign over the main gate at Auschwitz. It measures about 7 feet long and is made from 1/4 round bar steel with 1/8 x 3/4 steel lettering...Note: Gate is not included." "The denigration of the victims of Nazi Holocaust continues unabated – from Iran's Holocaust-denying president, to thieves who stole the actual sign from the Auschwitz death camp,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in a statement from Jerusalem. "People of goodwill the world over expressed their shock and indignation after the real sign was stolen – including the son of an ex-American GI who fought the Nazis, who contacted the Wiesenthal Center to volunteer to make a new sign for the Auschwitz Museum." "eBay, one of the world's most powerful marketing tools, has a moral obligation to remove this callous 'auction' item by someone using the call letters of the SS seeking to cash in on last week's criminal act at Auschwitz," Cooper added.
