Fourteen men and women in their twenties were arrested yesterday after slaughtering a sheep and taking their clothes off at Auschwitz.
The individuals, aged 20 to 27, whose identities and motives were unknown, then chained themselves together in front of the former Nazi death camp’s infamous Arbeit macht frei (Work makes you free) gate, the museum in southern Poland said in a statement.
According to local media, the individuals draped a white banner with the red text “love” over the gate. They used a drone to film themselves.
Museum guards at the site near the city of Oswiecim immediately intervened and police said that all those involved had been detained. They included Polish citizens and foreigners. Visits to the site were temporarily suspended.
“The individuals have been transferred to a police station for questioning. A large group of police officers are at the scene,” Malgorzata Jurecka, a local police spokeswoman, said.
She said they would inform prosecutors of the incident and added that those involved “will probably be charged with desecrating a monument or other historical site”.
Bartosz Bartyzel, a museum spokesman, called the incident a reprehensible act. “We are shocked and outraged by this attempt to use this memorial site for a protest and which mars the memory of thousands of victims,” he said.
Read the full article by David Charter at The Australian (subscription only).