Two Canadians were held for questioning by police after they had tried to steal railway sleeper pins at the site of the site of the former Auschwitz Nazi death camp, in southern Poland.

The Canadians were finally let go and no charges will be brought against them.

The two men wanted to take the sleeper pins with them as souvenirs. Their behaviour at the historic railway ramp, where prisoners brought to the camp disembarked during W II, aroused suspicion among other visitors, who alerted the museum guards.

The former camp is a museum and is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Its spokesman Jaroslaw Mensfelt says that the area is monitored by video cameras and patrolled by guards. But the museum stretches over almost 200 hectares and comprises around 150 buildings, 300 ruins, many kilometres of fencing and watch towers. In fact, anyone can pick something unseen and take it away, the spokesman told Polish Radio.

Last December, five men stole the infamous "Arbeit macht frei" from the gates of the museum.

The Nazis killed over 1.1 million people in Auschwitz, most of them Jews. (kk/pg)

Source: IAR

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