American Tourist Charged With Trying to Steal Part of Rail Track From Auschwitz
DISGRACEFUL
An American tourist at the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial in Poland was arrested after allegedly trying to steal a metal part of the historic rail tracks that brought prisoners into the death camp, officials said. The 37-year-old man was charged with attempted theft of an item of cultural importance, according to a local police spokeswoman in the southern Polish town of Oswiecim. NBC News reports the crime could be punishable by as much as 10 years in prison. Pawel Sawicki, a spokesman for the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum, said its security team alerted police after becoming aware that the tourist was trying to remove a metal element on the historic rail tracks. Over one million people were killed during World War II at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the most notorious of Nazi Germany’s death camps.