Malopolskie

27th January 2012

“I behaved stupidly, and I did play a role in this."

Share:

Anders Hoegstroem, the Swedish man convicted of ordering the theft of the Arbeit Macht Frei sign from the entrance of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, was released from a Swedish prison this week after serving a sentence of two years and eight months. Speaking to the Swedish media, he proclaimed his innocence and complained about the conditions he was held in while remanded in Poland.

“I behaved stupidly, and I did play a role in this. But if people think I took the sign myself, they should know that I never met the people who carried out the theft.” He told reporters that he confessed to inciting the theft only in order to get back to Sweden.

He claimed that the remand conditions where he was held before facing trial in Krakow were bad, that meanls consisted of pasta with grated cheese and his bedclothes were soaked with urine. “It was a little strange, it seemed like it had been agreed in advance who was guilty,” Hoegstroem’s lawyer told Swedish TV.

The theft of the Arbeit Macht Frei sign took place on Dec 18th 2009, sparking international outrage. Five Poles were arrested soon after, but they had already chopped the historic sign into three pieces, presumably for shipping to Sweden. The five were all sentenced to jail sentences ranging from 18 months to 2 years 6 months.

Five years for drunk skier?

A drunk skier hit a woman on a slope on Chelm mountain in Myslenice last Saturday, sending the woman to hospital with injuries to her limbs and back. The 23-year-old male had 0.12% alcohol in his blood and had been showing off on the slopes with a friend, skiing at high speed. He now faces a possible five years in prison.

Just how easily accidents can happen is shown in a video [http://kontakt24.tvn.pl/temat,snowboardzista-skosil-narciarza-stal-na-srodku-stoku,170546.html?grupa=najnowsze] submitted to TVN’s Kontakt site. In it, a skier comes to a halt in the middle of the piste and is then struck by a speeding snowboardist. Luckily no one was hurt in the incident.

Emergency services in Zakopane are bracing themselves for yhe winter holiday period during which the packed slopes deliver as many as 150 patients a day with all sorts of injuries, mostly fractures, using up to 250kg of plaster of paris.

Add your comment

NPE Premium - go beyond the news

The Camaldolese Monastery A peaceful retreat away from Krakow's mayhem

Despite the density of visitors to Kraków since the budget airline boom, it’s still incredibly easy to derail yourself from the tourist trail. Overlooking the Wisła river from atop a ... -

The EC1 centre will change the face of Lodz The new face of central Lodz

Lodz is the city that run out of luck. In slow decline ever since the demise of heavy industry, the new millennium saw the city well and truly hit the ... -

Your name	Your email
Your town and country	Your comments