British teens to face theft charges for taking Auschwitz items

A court in Poland has refused to drop the case against two British teenagers allegedly caught in June taking objects from the site of the Nazi Auschwitz death camp and has referred it to a lower court.

Initially, the teenagers from Hertfordshire, pleaded guilty to charges of stealing items from the historic site while on a school trip.

But later their lawyers argued that the case should be thrown out, because the teenagers were not aware that the objects from the site of the former camp’s warehouses had special historic value.

A court in the southern city of Krakow admitted the items were of no special historic value, but ordered a court in Oswiecim, where the former camp is located, to weigh charges of simple theft.