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The leader of Rome’s Jewish community was arrested by police on Tuesday night along with a TV crew who were found trying to escape Auschwitz after they had been locked in following filming for an anniversary show.
The group then attempted to leave through a box office window, which triggered alarms and caused the museum guard to arrive with several Polish police officers.
They were interrogated at Auschwitz until 2:30 am before they were taken to a police station where they were questioned for another three hours, eventually being released at around 6 am following the help of an interpreter, the Italian Foreign Ministry and the Italian Embassy in Warsaw.
Holocaust Memorial Day 2015: Haunting images of Auschwitz
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Mr Perugia told Haaretz that they had been treated “roughly” as though they were criminals, while Mr Pacifici tweeted about the situation, calling it a “disgrace” and criticising the way they had been handled by the local police.
He later tweeted a message of gratitude to the Italian president for apparently telephoning him after the ordeal.
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