Two 17yr old schoolboys steal artefacts from Auschwitz

[PyjamasLlamas]

Did anyone read about this? Disgusting behaviour really from these two kids. They were arrested and charged and could have been jailed but have been released with a fine and suspended sentence.

I find their actions despicable. They were actually caught digging looking for artefacts and did indeed find some.

I'm also not impressed with the parent response which uses very guarded words such as 'unfortunate incident' and 'saddened by events'. Not really putting responsibility on the boys. The father of one is the CEO of the private school he attends. The headmaster also said they would have an investigation to make sure 'lessons are learned'. So not even going to suspend/expel them. I work in an inner city school and if one our kids did this they would definitely be excluded if not permanently than for a while.

Everyone seems to want to minimise it with one of the parents saying it was down to age and possible how badly he was affected by the experience of bein f there! What a load of BS. 17yr olds should know better!

If my eldest dc stole from Auschwitz and wasn't sent home in (at the very least) 'temporary exclusion' disgrace, they, and I, would be writing a formal letter of grovelling apology and sorting out some sort of reparation work, as suggested above. With a parental complaint sent to the governors about the school sanctioning hate crime.

And for background, my dc is only 11y old, with very significant SEN.

I don't think people (me?) were asking for burning at the stake of Iranian style execution

Nor am i revelling in anything. But it was in the news which is why I am commenting. It's already in the public domain.

It's less what they did and more the comments by both parents and the head which suggests they aren't taking it very seriously at all and I found that a bit odd.

I think it's quite rude to talk about potential artefacts as 'bits of broken glass and old buttons' btw

Actually, it looks as though they are guilty of a UK crime as well. Robbing historical graves overseas appears to fall under
DEALING IN CULTURAL OBJECTS (OFFENCES) ACT 2003

The objects were on the ground because it's a massive site, left pretty much as it was back then. The Nazis had an area where they sorted the belongings out, so things like spoons would be sorted into a metal pile for example. This was where they picked up the items according to the news. No, buttons aren't valuable on their own (although some people do pay for Nazi memorabilia) but if you arrived with just the coat on your back and whatever you could grab then the spoons and buttons might be the only remaining artifacts from that person. And all the items piled up together although in a sense 'worthless' e.g. old glasses, show the scale of what went on.
They would have explained they were in the sorting area on the tour I'd guess or there'd be signs explaining what the area was.

I don't think they should be publicly shamed or whatever, just surprised there was a statement defending them. Either say 'no comment' and let the press move on, or apologise IMO.

Have you been there AbbeyRoad? I wouldn't describe it as massive and I've never ever seen any buttons or spoons left lying around. It's been over 70 years now since these horrendous events occurred so it's not in any way plausible that there are still belongings scattered around. I must have been wrong about the digging. It does sound as if these boys did dig, quite literally. Which is pretty intrusive at such a site. There are notices everywhere asking visitors to please be respectful.

My main thoughts are that I wish the approach of 'let's think about why they did this' were used more frequently with young people.

Like those who DO end up in the criminal justice system, those who 'riot' etc.

I think their actions were appalling and agree that a 'no comment' respnse from both the school and their parents would have been more appropriate.