The infamous sign over the gates to the former Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz in Poland has been stolen.
Officials say the wrought-iron sign, which says "Arbeit Macht Frei", or "Work Sets You Free", was taken down sometime on Thursday night.
They say that at least two people would have been needed to remove it, because it weighs 40 kilograms and is five metres long.
More than a million people, most of them Jews, were murdered at the camp - which is now a museum - during the Second World War.
Jarek Mensfelt, from the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum, has told the BBC: "It is more than just stealing something. It is a desecration."
Avner Shalev, director of Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, says the theft "constitutes a true declaration of war". Mr Shalev says he assumes that the perpetrators are neo-Nazis.
