(JTA) — A Swedish neo-Nazi leader who organized the theft of the "Arbeit Macht Frei” sign from Auschwitz was transferred to Sweden to serve his three-year prison sentence.
Anders Hogstrom was handed over to Swedish officials on Monday at Krakow Airport, according to reports.
A Polish court last December sentenced Hogstrom, who acted as a middleman between a neo-Nazi buyer and five Polish thieves, to 32 months in prison as part of a plea bargain. Hogstrom faced up to 10 years in prison.
The iron sign, which measures 16 feet across and means "Work makes you free," was stolen from the former Nazi concentration camp on Dec. 18, 2009 and recovered elsewhere in the country 72 hours later. It was found cut into three pieces.
Hogstrom, who was arrested in February 2010 in Stockholm and extradited to Poland in April, founded the National Socialist Front, a Swedish neo-Nazi movement, in 1994.
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