An Italian Jewish leader, whose grandparents were murdered in Auschwitz, says he was trapped in the former Nazi death camp on Holocaust Memorial Day.
Riccardo Pacifici, the head of Rome's Jewish community, and an Italian TV crew found themselves locked in Auschwitz after filming a television programme about the infamous concentration camp.
The group had been given permission to film live from the site, near Krakow, on Tuesday, the 70th anniversary of the camp's liberation.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
But at around 11pm, amid freezing temperatures, the guards who were meant to let them out had not arrived and they realised they were locked in, said Fabio Perugia, Rome's Jewish community spokesman, who was with Pacifici.
When nobody responded to their calls of help, they climbed out through a window, setting off a security alarm, reports Israeli news website Haaretz.
"The security guard arrived indeed, but instead of letting us go, they kept us there. For hours, and hours and hours. They started to interrogate us and they treated us like real criminals," said Perugia.
Polish police rushed to the scene and detained the group for questioning at a local police station.
It was not until Italian diplomatic authorities intervened that the police allowed the group to leave and return to Rome.
On Twitter, Pacifici described their detainment as a "disgrace" and thanked Pietro Grasso, Italy's acting president, for a "kind" phone call following his bad experience.
He told his followers: "We were not afraid but we were stunned by this farce, in which even the Polish police don't know what to do."
He later told Italian newspaper La Stampa: "For me, I have lost part of my family here. My grandparents died here. It was shocking."
A spokesman for the Auschwitz museum claimed that the crew had permission to film until 11.30pm and had broken into the visitor centre after finishing their filming early. He told CNN the group then refused to show their ID documents to the security guards, which is why the police were called.
-
Sean Bean brings ‘charisma’ and warmth to Get BirdingThe Week Recommends Surprise new host of RSPB’s birdwatching podcast is a hit
-
Film reviews: ‘Send Help’ and ‘Private Life’Feature An office doormat is stranded alone with her awful boss and a frazzled therapist turns amateur murder investigator
-
Movies to watch in Februarythe week recommends Time travelers, multiverse hoppers and an Iraqi parable highlight this month’s offerings during the depths of winter
-
Israel retrieves final hostage’s body from GazaSpeed Read The 24-year-old police officer was killed during the initial Hamas attack
-
China’s Xi targets top general in growing purgeSpeed Read Zhang Youxia is being investigated over ‘grave violations’ of the law
-
Panama and Canada are negotiating over a crucial copper mineIn the Spotlight Panama is set to make a final decision on the mine this summer
-
Why Greenland’s natural resources are nearly impossible to mineThe Explainer The country’s natural landscape makes the task extremely difficult
-
Iran cuts internet as protests escalateSpeed Reada Government buildings across the country have been set on fire
-
US nabs ‘shadow’ tanker claimed by RussiaSpeed Read The ship was one of two vessels seized by the US military
-
How Bulgaria’s government fell amid mass protestsThe Explainer The country’s prime minister resigned as part of the fallout
-
Femicide: Italy’s newest crimeThe Explainer Landmark law to criminalise murder of a woman as an ‘act of hatred’ or ‘subjugation’ but critics say Italy is still deeply patriarchal
