Israeli student admits stealing Auschwitz artefacts for artistic exhibition

Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum is pressing charges against 27-year-old Rotem Bides, the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors

27-year-old Rotem Bides made six separate trips to Auschwitz-Birkenau in recent years in which she took objects such as spoons, burnt soup bowls, pieces of glass and a sign warning visitors not to remove anything (Getty)

An Israeli art student is facing criminal charges in Poland for stealing items from the Auschwitz Holocaust memorial site which she used in an exhibition, Israeli media has reported.

27-year-old Rotem Bides made six separate trips to Auschwitz-Birkenau in recent years in which she took objects such as spoons, burnt soup bowls, pieces of glass and a sign warning visitors not to remove anything.

The items were featured in Ms Bides’ final project at Beit Berl College in Kfar Saba, along with a vial of her own blood and other items from Poland such as a rabbit’s leg and water from the river the ashes of victims of the Nazi atrocity were thrown into.

On learning of the objects’ presence in Ms Bides’ show, the museum said it will be pressing charges, Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

“This is a painful and scandalous act. This is a protected site and proof of the tragedy of the Holocaust that needs to be preserved for future generations,” Yedioth quoted a museum spokesperson as saying on Wednesday.

Ms Bides - all four of whose grandparents were Holocaust survivors - defended her actions in an interview with the paper. “I felt it was something I had to do. Millions of people were murdered based on the moral laws of a certain country, under a certain regime. And if these are the laws, I can go there and act according to my own laws,” she said.

“The statement I’m making here is that laws are determined by humans, and that morality is something that changes from time to time and from culture to culture.

“These are the things I want to deal with. I am a third generation to the Holocaust, but I’m not saying I’m allowed to do it because my grandfather was in Auschwitz. I’m simply asking the questions. I’m concerned that after all the survivors are gone, the Holocaust will turn into a myth, something that cannot be perceived.”

Ms Bides’ work was removed after the museum filed an official complaint with Poland’s public prosecutor general and the student has received a disciplinary hearing.

But some members of staff have come to her defence on the grounds of “creative and cultural freedom.”

“What is interesting is that [Ms Bides] is taking this to the most extreme place in which she feels the need to shock herself before she shocks others,” said Michal Na’aman, the student’s supervisor.

“She is not manipulative in the uninteresting sense, in that she wants money, success or fame. I am of course referring to to the act of stealing from Auschwitz.”