BERLIN (JTA) — An Israeli couple held in Poland admitted that they stole historical objects while visiting the Auschwitz memorial.
Several items that had belonged to prisoners at the death camp — including scissors, spoons and porcelain bottle stoppers — were found in the luggage of the unnamed couple as they prepared to fly out of the Krakow airport, the BBC reported. The couple was being held in jail late on June 24.
In lieu of a possible 10-year sentence, a two-year suspended sentence was imposed in return for a donation to the memorial to help preserve historical objects, according to reports. The amount of the donation has not been named.
When questioned at the airport, the couple — aged 60 and 57 — said they had found the objects at the site of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, now a memorial. After police brought them back to the memorial, they said they took the items from the area were the Nazis stored belongings from prisoners.
Krakow police spokesman Dariusz Nowak told BBC and Reuters that it was the third time this year that visitors had been found attempting to remove objects from the Auschwitz memorial.
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