Italian man arrested for stealing Auschwitz barbed wire
Claims he did it because his father died there
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Auschwitz-Birkenau (photo credit: Courtesy Rubinstein PR)
WARSAW, Poland (JTA) — An Italian man who stole a one-foot piece of barbed wire from Auschwitz was arrested at the airport in Krakow.
The man, 66, tried to leave the country Saturday night with the wire in his luggage. He explained he did it because his father died in Auschwitz.
This is not the first theft at Auschwitz. The most well-known case of theft in the former camp occurred in December 2009. Thieves have stolen the inscription “Arbeit macht frei” from above the gate of the former camp, and cut it into at least three pieces. The perpetrators were sentenced to jail.
The camp Auschwitz was established in 1940. Two years later the Germans built Auschwitz II-Birkenau. At least 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, were killed there.
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