'a stupid joke'
Tourist arrested at Auschwitz for making a Nazi salute
A Dutch woman was arrested on Sunday at the site of the Auschwitz death camp after she made a Nazi salute while posing for a picture.
Police said the 29-year-old tourist was standing in front of the gate that says "Arbeit Macht Frei," or "Work Sets You Free," when she made the salute. Auschwitz is in Poland, where people who promote Nazi propaganda can receive up to two years in prison, and a security guard detained the woman until police arrived.
The woman and her husband were questioned by officers, and she told them making the gesture was "a stupid joke," the Auschwitz Museum tweeted. She has been fined an undisclosed amount.
Auschwitz was the largest Nazi death camp, and at least 1.1 million people — most of them Jewish — died there, with many immediately gassed upon their arrival and others dying after working hard labor in deplorable conditions. The "Arbeit Macht Frei" gate is one of the most well-known parts of Auschwitz, and this wasn't the first time someone was arrested for making the Nazi salute there; in 2013, two Turkish students made the gesture at the gate, and were fined and sentenced to six months in prison, the Polish News Agency reports.