Italian goes uncharged for Auschwitz theft

photo - glowimages.com

The man was apprehended at Krakow's John Paul II airport, where customs officers spotted a suspicious object in his luggage.

It transpired that the item was a 30cm strip of barbed wire that the traveller had removed while on a visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum.

The 66-year-old explained that his father had died at the death camp during the war.

Police ascertained however, that the location where the wire had been taken from was a little outside the area that is under conservator's protection, and the Italian was released without charge.

The theft follows several other incidents at the site in recent times.

In February this year, an Israeli couple received a three-year suspended sentence for stealing objects from the museum.

Similarly, a case involving the alleged theft of parts of a former unloading ramp in by two Canadian teachers in June 2010 has twice been suspended.

The most notorious theft, however, occurred by night in December 2009, when a group of Polish men clambered into the museum and removed the infamous “Arbeit Macht Frei” sign (“Work Makes You Free”) that taunted inmates during the war.

The Swedish man who ordered the theft, together with five Poles, were all given prison sentences for their parts in the crime. (nh)