We were galled by the news that the infamous Arbeit Macht Frei ( "Work Brings Freedom") sign over the entrance gate to the Auschwitz death camp had been stolen. The Nazis killed people all over Europe. But Auschwitz -- the death camp in Poland where about 1.1 million people were murdered, 90% of them Jewish -- has become synonymous with the Holocaust. After the war, the Polish government declared the site of the death camp a museum.

The enduring symbol of the camphas become the wrought-iron sign mounted over the gate, whose words offered the false promise of salvation through obedient service to the Third Reich. That someone would steal the sign is a slap in the face not only to the million-plus who died there, but the millions of others -- survivors and their descendents -- who have struggled for the past two generations to ensure that the Nazis' evil deeds are never forgotten. The sign belongs to history, and especially to the survivors of this dark chapter of it.

On Sunday, Polish police announced they had recovered the sign -- which reportedly had been cut into pieces -- and detained five men suspected of its theft. Those who performed this crime should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. And the sign itself should be quickly repaired and reinstalled, so that it may offer mute, authentic witness to the 20th-century's archetypal evil.