Teen Boys Pinch Artifacts At Auschwitz Museum — Sadly, Theft Isn’t Uncommon At Hallowed Site
A couple teenage boys from a posh British high school have committed a theft in possibly the worst place imaginable — Auschwitz, the concentration camp turned museum in Poland.
Both boys’ actions have been punished with a year’s probation, three years suspension, and a fine, The Guardian reported. Pilfering items of special cultural importance usually carries a 10-year prison sentence.
They spent the night in jail after officials at the Auschwitz museum saw the teens, both 17, milling suspiciously around block 5 on Monday. That spot marks a store house, where Nazi German guards stored prisoner’s belongings after they arrived at the concentration camp, Reuters added.
According to BBC, museum guards claimed to see the boys pick something up from the ground. Both were searched as a result and their theft discovered –of a comb, razor fragment, piece of a spoon, some buttons, and two pieces of glass.
UK schoolboys fined and released after theft of Auschwitz artefacts http://t.co/unVxnDnjM7 pic.twitter.com/Zj7rJa4oUq
— The Guardian (@guardian) June 24, 2015
The youth were on a history trip with fellow students at the $20,000-a-year Perse School in Cambridge, which has a few celebs as alumni. A spokesman there said the students were sorry for the theft.
“We understand they have explained that they picked up the items without thinking, and they have apologized unreservedly for the offence they have given, and expressed real remorse for their action.”
Auschwitz, located near Kraków in southern Poland, shouldn’t even be considered a prime target for theft. The site was the largest Nazi concentration camp during World War II. About 1.5 million people died there — they were gassed, shot, hanged, or burned; 6 million Jews died during the Holocaust. Auschwitz became a museum shortly after the war, in 1947.
Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Education Trust, was clearly angry by the teens’ theft.
“Every single artefact found at Auschwitz-Birkenau tells a story of the more than a million people who were ruthlessly murdered by the Nazis there and this incident serves to show why our work is crucial now more than ever. We have a duty to educate the next generation to prevent ignorance and hate, and in over 15 years of organizing for thousands of British teenagers to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau, we have never known of such an incident.”
Sadly, theft is committed at the museum up to twice a year, even though visitors are warned not to pick anything up. In 2010, a Swedish man even attempted to take the camp’s famous sign, “Arbeit macht frei” (“Work sets you free”), from the entry gate.
By way of explanation, the parents of one of the boys — who is reportedly mortified by what he did — said their son was likely swept up in the emotion of the trip, ITV News added.
“When you’re young you sometimes do things without thinking them through. It is quite possible that he has been affected by the enormity of what he has seen and experienced and this may have clouded his judgment. (He) is mortified that he has offended people, but really is not a malicious or disrespectful boy.”
[Photo Courtesy Christopher Furlong/Getty Images]
