Two Britons arrested for stealing from Auschwitz-Birkenau

The 17-year-old and 18-year-old teenagers could face up to ten years of jail time if convicted.

On Monday afternoon, the Museum guards notified the police on suspicion of the theft of a fragment of hair clippers, a spoon shard, buttons and two pieces of glass from the site at Auschwitz-Birkenau– the site of the former Nazi-German concentration camp in southern Poland.

The items were found in the ground around the notorious “Canada” section of the camp. This area was once home to a number of warehouses which were filled with camp inmates and their possessions. Nazi troops burned the warehouses in January 1945 just before the Red Army arrived at the site.

Following rainfall, small fragments of items still come to the surface, and although they are not guarded, it is still illegal to pick any of the historical items.

This is not the first time the former concentration camp was the target of thieves. The iconic “Arbeit Macht Frei” sign outside the camp was stolen in December 2009, and two Poles and one Swede were arrested as a result. The sign was restored in 2011. (rg)