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News

Auschwitz Theft

150 replies

OurBlanche · 29/12/2015 16:37

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-35194290

Why? They were going to be fined for being stupid and thoughtless. Now they are going to try and make people believe that attending one of the 'best' prep schools in the UK neglects to educate its pupils on the long term cultural significance of Auschwitz, whilst arranging an edcaational trip to, erm, Auschwitz.

Why? They were 17, not 7. The guards, curators, legal system and the school had all acknowledged that the usual expediency of a fine, suspended sentence and sound telling off would be appropriate. End of story, silly boys.

Now what? Are they going to defend themselves by saying they couldn't be expected to know that anything inside Auschwitz might have been anything important? Oh yes! They are: The teenagers have withdrawn their admission of guilt, explaining that they were not aware that the items had special cultural significance.

What's that phrase? More money than sense...

OP posts:

Report

OurBlanche · 31/12/2015 17:44

You beat me to it, Caprini.

OP posts:

Caprinihahahaha · 31/12/2015 17:46

I fairness I'm 8 hours ahead of the U.K.

funnyperson · 31/12/2015 17:50

Part of the problem may be that it is a Great British Tradition to loot pick up articles of interest when in museums/historical areas abroad . The British Museum is full of them. The Tradition carries on in Iraq Syria and Cairo by all accounts: but that doesn't excuse the boys.

funnyperson · 31/12/2015 17:51

Ah yes the great British sense of humour which not everyone finds funny in the world especially when applied to buttons of dead Jews's clothing. .

IguanaTail · 31/12/2015 17:52

Oh I reckon they suddenly realised that they would have to declare it, and were advised to pretend they didn't know about the cultural significance. The work experience in the museum is pathetic.

Caprinihahahaha · 31/12/2015 17:58

That makes no sense at all. Perhaps your son can explain it?

Molio · 31/12/2015 18:02

lovefairylights who are you referring to when you talk about money/power/connections buying favour in Poland? You find that a peculiarly Polish phenomenon (if indeed it is a phenomenon in Poland)? And why 'increasingly'?

There's no evidence that the boys have 'connections' which they intend to use to attempt to nobble the judicial system - they merely have enough money to engage a lawyer, nothing special about that.

funnyperson · 31/12/2015 18:10

caprin an investigation into their fundamentally boring online social networks etc looking for neo nazi tendencies and basically being bothersome and nosy would upset the boys so much they would change their plea back to guilty.

Caprinihahahaha · 31/12/2015 18:13

Nope. Still makes absolutely no sense.

Are you trying to suggest that they are neo nazi because your son said, half jokingly, that schools like that sometimes are?

If not, what are you actually implying?

Caprinihahahaha · 31/12/2015 18:16

would a social network search reveal your average teenager being somber and respectful at auschwitz

Draylon · 31/12/2015 18:21

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Molio · 31/12/2015 18:32

Agree Draylon. What the parents of these kids should do is stop being weasly and stop advising and paying for their kids to be weasly. They're making matters far, far worse. It's a breathtakingly stupid tactic.

funnyperson neo-nazi is pretty strong. I doubt your son seriously believes that schools like the Perse breed neo-nazism.

Lilymaid · 31/12/2015 18:39

Have to fess up to being the parent of a DS who went to the school. I wouldn't describe it as posh but it was full of the DCs of local doctors, scientists and academics who wanted their DC to have a grammar school type education. The posh went elsewhere. Don't think DS has built up the "right sort" of connections through going there!
The boys involved behaved in a stupid way and were culpable and should have accepted their guilt. No sympathy for them.

fidel1ne · 31/12/2015 18:43

Everything Draylon has said on this thread. Every word.

pippitysqueakity · 31/12/2015 18:52

Capri, those selfies are dreadful.
Have people really so little empathy? (Well obviously, I suppose)

FinestGrundyTurkey · 31/12/2015 18:56

They are dreadful but 'average teenagers'?

There aren't many different individuals, & Princess Breanna dominates. Not sure how representative she is.

funnyperson · 31/12/2015 19:19

I agree I think neo-nazi is pretty strong. But who really knows anyone? Why are the boys so reluctant all of a sudden to admit they did wrong? OK could be a misguided attempt to avoid a criminal record but for that very reason throw the book at them and make it difficult and unpleasant for them and cast aspersions on their character and that of their families because they know very well what they did.
Everyone does wrong in their lives and no one is perfect. If people have no insight into their wrongdoing it will simply be repeated by them and copied by others.

Nataleejah · 02/01/2016 12:51

Could it be something that the media blew out of proportion? Holocaust is certainly very emotional and sensitive subject to tread on.
17yo's are certainly old enough to know better, yet still young enough to be stupid beyond belief.

As for neo-nazi thing, there is a great difference between a teenage street thug and suit-and-tie high-flier. Look at popularity of Donald Trump for example.

OurBlanche · 02/01/2016 13:07

I don't think the media has gone to town on it though. Short, factual pieces with quotes form the Polish judiciary. Though I haven't looked at all pieces, so there could be some daft, overblown stuff out there..

As for the neo nazi thing, I have n idea why that was introduced here. Just a bit of full blown Godwinning, I think.

The young people in the selfies are just doing the thoughtless self advertising stuff younger people do all the time. That they have no filter is shocking but I doubt they are doing so in any concerted or deliberately disrespectful manner. They are just diarising the unusual experiences they are having, as they always seem to do these days. Hopefully they will grow up and see the error of their ways!

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Nataleejah · 02/01/2016 13:35

Recently there was an article about tourists behaving outrageously -- damaging historical artifacts, disturbing wildlife, exposing themselves indecently, or going to toilet in very wrong places. But that is placed in "odd/bizarre" section rather than cause massive outrage.

OurBlanche · 02/01/2016 13:51

Crikey! I think I am glad I missed that!

But in this case, the press has been restrained. I suppose we will just have to wait until June, to see what transpires.

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funnyperson · 02/01/2016 20:01

Well as I said I have no sympathy for the 'young and ignorant' argument and the danger of using Godwin to brush this off is that sometimes neo-nazi's are...well...neo-nazi's.
There are probably parents and staff and others involved trying to influence this thread and incidentally I thought the deputy head who was on the school trip dealt with it sensibly, got the boys to own up and apologise
It is the boys and families who are suspect, not the school.

redbinneo · 02/01/2016 20:08

funnyperson:
Why don't we leave the assessment of guilt to the Polish courts, unless of course you don't trust foreigners to meet out justice?

Molio · 02/01/2016 22:02

OurBlanche which selfies are you referring to? The inappropriate photos I've seen being taken in Auschwitz have been taken by middle aged people. I think it's fair to say that some people simply have no sense of the appropriate, regardless of age. Interestingly, some of our students asked what sort of dress would be appropriate, which shows evident thought, and one 17 yr old student told me later that he'd asked the couple taking photos against the wall of death to think about what they were doing, because it could upset people present. It certainly upset him.

FinestGrundyTurkey · 02/01/2016 22:31

Selfies linked upthread, Molio?

(By Caprini) (aka Pagwatch)

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