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Stolen Gate Returned to Germany's Dachau Concentration Camp

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FILE - A visitor enters the Dachau Nazi concentration camp in Germany.
FILE - A visitor enters the Dachau Nazi concentration camp in Germany.

The iron gate with the grim slogan "Work Will Set You Free" has been returned to the Dachau Nazi concentration camp in Germany, where it was stolen more than two years ago.

The gate was found hidden in a parking lot north of Bergen, Norway, in December.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned its theft as an "appalling" crime. Others called it a desecration to the memories of the more than 200,000 Holocaust victims imprisoned and murdered there.

The investigation into the gate's theft continues.

Officials replaced it with a replica after it was stolen. The original will now be put inside a museum and hooked up to an alarm.

Dachau was the first concentration camp the Nazis set up after Adolf Hitler took power in 1933. Its victims included Jews and those who opposed the Nazis.

More than 41,000 people were murdered in Dachau before U.S. troops liberated the camp in the closing days of World War II.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence visited Dachau during his trip to Europe earlier this week.

Another iron gate with the "Work Will Set You Free" slogan was stolen in 2009 from the site of the notorious Auschwitz death camp. It was later recovered after having been cut into pieces.

A Swedish neo-Nazi was arrested and jailed in connection with that theft.

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