A group of people in their 20s managed to find something even more offensive to do at Auschwitz-Birkenau than take selfies or play Pokemón Go.The AFP reports that a group of men and women were arrested at the former Nazi concentration camp in Poland on Friday after they slaughtered a sheep, stripped off all of their clothes, and then chained themselves to the camp's famous Arbeit macht frei (or "work makes you free") gate. According to the BBC, they also lit a firework in the parking lot."This is the first time something like this has happened at Auschwitz," museum director Piotr Cywinski told the AFP. "I have no idea what their motives were."Local police apprehended the men and women on Friday and swiftly took them to a local station for questioning, according to authorities. Police haven't yet determined what inspired their weird, nude sacrifice, but they reportedly filmed the whole thing with a drone so that footage could later offer some clues."Any use of Auschwitz for political statements, even using Auschwitz for moral statements, is not how Auschwitz should be remembered," Poland's chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, told the AFP. "The Germans used Auschwitz to try to eliminate the Jewish people. Any happenings are a desecration of the memory of all those killed at Auschwitz, Jews, Poles, Soviet prisoners of war, Roma, and others."Malgorzata Jurecka, a spokeswoman for the local Oswiecim police, told the AFP the trespassers "will likely be charged with desecrating a monument or other historical site" and could face fines.About 1 million people were killed at the camp between 1940 and 1945 and it's since become a harrowing symbol—and tangible remnant—of the genocide perpetrated by the Nazis during World War II, which killed an estimated 6 million Jews. The museum has been open on the site since 1947 and receives more than a million visitors every year. It's a haunting, difficult place to visit, where people laugh, text, and talk just like they do everywhere else.
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