The recent theft of the sign Arbeit Macht Frei, “Work Makes You Free,” over the gate at Auschwitz is forceful evidence that anti-Semitism is not dead in Europe. The theft of this symbol of the Holocaust serves as a reminder that the Nazis used deception and guile as well as gas and bullets in their attempt to enact the Final Solution. For their campaign of annihilation, language was a weapon with misdirection its target.

This use of deceit was put into full use even before the Jewish victims arrived at Auschwitz. Exhausted and starving Jews were coaxed onto the train headed for the death camp with promises of “resettlement” and, perhaps, rescue. The deception went further with the Nazi promise of “three kilos of bread and a kilo of marmalade” to take on their journey. Lies, all lies.

The subterfuge continued as the doomed Jews approached the gates of Auschwitz and saw Arbeit Macht Frei. Bold words that hopefully confirmed the promise of survival to the Jews who passed beneath it. But the deception continued all the way to the gas chambers.

At their destinations with death Jews were ordered to take showers for “sanitary” purposes and handed soap and towels to support the picture of innocence. In some cases Jews were promised hot coffee after their showers; coffee they would never drink.

For the final scene, shower rooms that would turn into gas chambers were nothing more than stages of deceit. Fitted with pipes and faucets, clothes hooks and benches, all looked well until the gas was turned on.

Words that lied; words that promised and denied; guile and deceit, these were the weapons that the Nazis used in their war against the Jews of Europe. The missing sign, Arbeit Macht Frei, now recovered in pieces, is a reminder that lies and deception will not survive when just people expose them with the truth.