UK teenagers held over theft of artefacts from Auschwitz museum

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/23/uk-teenagers-held-thefts-artefacts-auschwitz-museum

I am speechless. LL

LL, I can't think of why anyone would want to steal as much as a speck of dust from Auschwitz. I would feel - dirty, cursed even?

Am speechless too...

bb1 wrote:LL, I can't think of why anyone would want to steal as much as a speck of dust from Auschwitz. I would feel - dirty, cursed even?

I have been to Mauhausen, Bergen-Belsen, Dauchau and Sachsenhausen and I can tell you one thing, there are no birds flying above, nor singing at any of these death camps. One feels very uncomfortable visiting them; for me the worst one was Mauthausen where my relatives were murdered. My grandfather, mother and father plus us kids did a pilgrimage to those camps. Even now I cannot really believe what I saw, it will stay with me forever. LL

I too have connections, LL and I do not want to go.   I was told that Dachau was moved in its entirety to a different location as they felt that bad.

lily wrote:I too have connections, LL and I do not want to go.   I was told that Dachau was moved in its entirety to a different location as they felt that bad.

If you mean it was moved after liberation that is incorrect. The main camp is sited in an area of an old munitions camp; it took us about an hour to actually find it as it was well hidden in a wooded area and it was just marked as KZ . The US army used it as a military base during the occupation until 1960 then it was handed over to the Bavarian Bereitschaftspolizei (Rapid Response Police). It is a memorial to those who died there. LL

I know about that LL, I didn't make myself clear.   

When the decision was made to open it up it was re-sited piece by piece.  They didn't want it on the original ground as that would be even too horrid.

Was told that by a photographer friend who went there early on to photograph it.

lily wrote:I know about that LL, I didn't make myself clear.   

When the decision was made to open it up it was re-sited piece by piece.  They didn't want it on the original ground as that would be even too horrid.

Was told that by a photographer friend who went there early on to photograph it.

Well, my grandpa was the one who took us there and he never mentioned it being removed elsewhere.   So I don't know who is right on this one, but grandpa knew Dachau well as he had contacts there before the war.  I am sure he would have said if it had been moved.  LL

This was going back about early 80's LL.  

The photographer was a professional whose work was in demand and I remember he phoned me from Germany at the time.  Of course it could be BS but he was quite the honest guy....

ETA:  I remember he told me that they had told him that they did that because it would be too much of a shock to Jews visiting and seeing the camp etc.......so they attempted to soften the blow by moving it a bit.

Many Jews visit it as they do all the camps. For many it is the only connection with their dead relatives, they lay flowers on the sites of the various gas chambers (a lot were blown up by the Nazis when they realised the end was nigh) and on the sites of the burial pits. Your friend may have been told it had been moved, but it is a very large camp and would take a hell of a lot to resite it. LL

As I've never been, I accept in total what you say LL.   I have not been in contact with him for years although he is also a respected author and too much water has gone under the bridge......

What he might be referring to, lily, is the morphing of the camp into the memorial site it is now, with churches and a shul built on the old parade ground. It would look like a resiting to people not familiar with the old camp, perhaps, rather than a restoration. LL

Oh that sounds like it is that, LL.  I appreciate that!  

The thieves were a pair of spoiled brats:

Two British schoolboys were spared jail yesterday after stealing artefacts that belonged to prisoners at the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Marcus Dell and Ben Thompson, both 17, were arrested during a school trip to southern Poland to learn about the horrors of the Holocaust.
The pair, who attend Cambridge’s exclusive The Perse School where fees are more than £15,000 a year, were spotted acting suspiciously on Monday afternoon


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3135957/British-teenagers-arrested-stealing-items-former-Nazi-concentration-camp-Auschwitz.html#ixzz3dzx1PZJL
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