An Israeli couple has confessed to stealing objects from the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp memorial and have settled for a suspended prison term and a fine, officials said Saturday.

The Associated Press

WARSAW, Poland —

An Israeli couple has confessed to stealing objects from the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp memorial and have settled for a suspended prison term and a fine, officials said Saturday.

An Israeli couple has confessed to stealing objects from the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp memorial and have settled for a suspended prison term and a fine, officials said Saturday.

The couple were detained at Krakow airport Friday, on their way to Israel after border guards found a few old items, including knives, scissors and spoons inside a plastic bag in their luggage, memorial spokesman Bartosz Bartyzel told The Associated Press.

The 60-year-old man and 57-year-old woman, whose names have not been released, said they took the items from the memorial site, officials said. Police took them back there and the couple indicated a place in Birkenau where, during World War II, belongings robbed off the death camp victims were stored, the chief spokesman for the memorial, Janusz Mensfelt, told the AP.

"We can safely assume that the objects they stole where original, from that time," Mensfelt said.

Prosecutor Mariusz Slomka told Polish media that the couple confessed to stealing the objects and settled for a suspended prison term and a fine, which Slomka did not specify. The couple are free to return to Israel, Slomka said.

During World War II, Nazi Germans killed more than 1 million people - mostly Jews - at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2015424258_apeupo...