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Israeli Student's Auschwitz Thefts Were for an Art Project

Israeli Student's Auschwitz Thefts Were for an Art Project

The entrance to the former Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau with the lettering "Arbeit macht frei" ("Work makes you free") in Oswiecim, Poland, is pictured on Jan. 25, 2015. (Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images)

By    |   Thursday, 20 July 2017 05:42 AM EDT

After stealing items from Auschwitz, an Israeli student and granddaughter of Holocaust admitted the thefts as part of a project for school and now faces disciplinary measures.

The Yedioth Ahronoth daily published an interview with Rotem Bides in which she admitted to taking shards of glass, bowls, a metal screw, soil, and a sign prohibiting visitors from taking items, during six visits to the camp, the Times of Israel reported.

The Auschwitz-Birkenau museum called Bides’ actions “painful, outrageous and disrespectful” and said it intends to sue her over the thefts. It also demanded the items' return, according to the BBC.

Bides’ school, Beit Berl College, initially supported her, calling the thefts part of a free speech expression, but later decided not to exhibit her art and to hold a disciplinary hearing, the Times of Israel reported.

Bides said she took the artifacts out of a fear the Holocaust would one day “turn into a myth,” the BBC reported. She says she doesn’t regret taking the items.

“I felt this was something I have to do,” she said in the interview. “Millions of people were murdered because of the moral laws of a particular country, under a particular regime. If these are the rules, I can come and act according to my rules.”

Many Twitter users took a stance against the thefts and didn’t think they were justified.

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TheWire
After stealing items from Auschwitz, an Israeli student and granddaughter of Holocaust admitted the thefts as part of a project for school and now faces disciplinary measures.
israeli, student, auschwitz, theft
311
2017-42-20
Thursday, 20 July 2017 05:42 AM
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