Irish tourist admits defacing Auschwitz memorial

Fence at Auschwitz

An Irish tourist has admitted to defacing a memorial at Auschwitz, the former Nazi concentration camp.

It is understood he scratched his name on a wall.

He was detained by security guards at the site in Poland last Sunday, a local prosecutor confirmed to Irish national broadcaster RTÉ .

The tourist was charged in the nearby town of Oświęcim, in the presence of a translator, with breaching Article 335 of the Polish Penal Code.

A prosecutor told RTÉ the man, who reports say is 38, admitted defacing the memorial and agreed to a punishment, which will be made public after a court hearing.

The use of an accelerated process means that the tourist, whose name was not released, will not have to return for the hearing.

Thousands of victims were murdered daily at Auschwitz

The court process is expected to take two months.

Nearly one million Jews were murdered at the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp complex. Tens of thousands of others also died, mainly Poles.

The site, now a museum and memorial, is visited by hundreds of thousands of people each year.