British teenagers face trial over 'Auschwitz theft'

[Deleted]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...shire-35194290

Two British teenagers accused of stealing artefacts from the Auschwitz death camp during a school trip are to face a trial, prosecutors have said.

The pupils, from the independent Perse School in Cambridge, were allegedly seen by guards picking up buttons and fragments of a spoon from the ground.

In June, the school said they had been fined after admitting responsibility.

But Polish prosecutors said the boys had changed their minds and would now face a trial.

The pair, who were aged 17 at the time of the alleged theft, have withdrawn their admission of guilt, explaining that they were not aware the items had special cultural significance.

They had originally accepted a fine and suspended probation, their school said in June.

The artefacts, which also included a rusted hair clipper and glass fragments, were allegedly picked up in an area where new arrivals at the Nazi death camp were stripped of their belongings.

Krakow Regional Prosecutor's office spokeswoman Boguslawa Marcinkowska said the indictment had been sent on Tuesday to the Regional Court in Krakow.

She said it was likely the pupils would have to appear in court as they had changed their position and their intention to voluntarily submit to punishment.

The maximum penalty for the crime is a 10-year prison sentence.

No-one at the Perse School was available for comment.

Is it just me or is this ridiculously harsh?

[satimy]

Isn't auschwitz remade and thus not the original? So they stole replicas?

[Deleted]

not to diminish the horrors of what happened there, but have they seriously left stuff just laying round on the ground for 70 years ?
Seriously ?

if the items are on display, that is one thing. Leaving them where they lay on the ground (as this is what it sounds like) is just ridiculous.

[Ayla]

Glass fragments? They left glass on the ground? 'Kay. Im all for being authentic, but this is pushing it.

[lonely zergling]

Seems a bit harsh. It's not like they stole anything of importance. The guys who stole the "Arbeit macht Frei"-door from concentration camp Dachau last year should get such punishments, but not teenagers who pick up unimportant stuff on the ground imho.