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AUSCHWITZ: Tourist faces jail time for attempting to steal artefact from historic site

Authorities said "please stop attempting to balance on Auschwitz's railway track" and apparently one tourist heard "please take a piece of that historically significant feature".

Authorities said “please stop attempting to balance on Auschwitz’s railway track” and apparently one tourist heard “please take a piece of that historically significant feature”.

Perhaps the messaging wasn’t plain enough for some people because less than two weeks after Auschwitz made a public plea for visitors to stop balancing on the death camp‘s railway track, a visitor attempted to steal a part of it.

The 37-year-old tourist was caught attempting to take a metal part of the railway track, which was used between 1942-1944 to deliver some 1.1 million unsuspecting victims to the concentration camp.

karryon-auschwitz-poland-railway

Image: Alexey Soucho/Unsplash

A spokesperson for Poland’s police force said the tourist was charged with attempted theft of an item of cultural importance and could face up to 10 years in prison, News.com.au reported.

The spokesperson said the visitor admitted to the crime and has since been released until next steps.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time a tourist has attempted to steal from Auschwitz. Last year, a couple of visitors were fined some 1,500 zloty (AU$550) each for attempting to souvenir a brick from the crematorium at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

 

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve witnessed tourists doing?