By JAMIE ROMMauschwitz sign ebay(photo credit: )
The Simon Wiesenthal Center is urging eBay to cancel the auction of an "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign, touted as "similar to the one in Auschwitz" being offered for sale on the Web site.
The representation, which is being sold by a Pennsylvania man using the name "ss panzergrenadier," is being marketed a few days after the real sign was stolen from Auschwitz and found two days later in northern Poland in a forest buried under snow.
The sales description on eBay reads: "For sale is a sign in German meaning 'Work for Freedom' that dates back to the 1700s 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…Gate is not included, just the actual lettering and boarder pictured."
The sign was intended to mislead arriving victims into thinking that if they worked hard they would do well at the death camp.
As of Wednesday afternoon there was one bid for the item at $75, with bidding set to end on Friday at 7 p.m.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center said that he was shocked at the sale.
"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," Cooper said. "In fact, people of good will, 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."
Cooper said, "[eBay], one of the world's most powerful marketing tools, has a moral obligation to remove this callous 'auction' by someone using the call letters of the SS, seeking to cash in on last week's criminal act at Auschwitz."
There are no restrictions regarding facsimile signs from concentration camps listed under "offensive material policy" on eBay, but there are restrictions regarding other Nazi memorabilia including films, toys and most products containing a swastika.
if(catID != 151){
var cont = `Take Israel home with the new Jerusalem Post Store
