Auschwitz museum files complaint over rare WWII files smuggled out

The Auschwitz Museum filed a criminal complaint with Polish prosecutors on the heels of media reports that rare documents on the former Nazi German death camp were smuggled out of Poland.

“We’ve notified prosecutors and the Institute of National Remembrance about the possibility of a crime having been committed after hearing media reports alleging rare archives have been taken,” Auschwitz Museum spokesman Pawel Sawicki said.

Two German unidentified nationals are reported to have unearthed three crates of documents with the details of personnel who had worked at the notorious death camp during World War II.

Polish media reported the crates were found in Przelecz Kowarska, in southwestern Poland and near the German border by the Germans, and a Pole named Mieczyslaw Bojko.

“These apparently rare, historical documents should have been handed over to Polish authorities,” Mr Sawicki said.

The Nazis killed about 1.1 million people at Auschwitz-Birkenau between 1940 and 1945, the vast majority of whom were Jews. The other victims were non-Jewish Poles, Romas and Soviet prisoners of war.