Jewish leader trapped in Auschwitz on Holocaust Memorial Day

Riccardo Pacifici, the head of Rome’s Jewish community, was accidentally locked in Auschwitz and arrested by police - on Holocaust Memorial Day.

Mr Pacifici, whose grandparents lost their lives in the death camp, and four others were filming Italian TV programme Matrix live from the site on Tuesday to mark the 70th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation.

After the filming finished at 11pm Pacifici and his group realised they had been locked inside the site of the former concentration camp.

They eventually attempted to escape out of a window but set off a security alarm and were then detained by police. Italian diplomats had to intervene and secure the group‘s release, according to Italian news agency ANSA.

"They [the police] interrogated us until six in the morning... Jews who had been locked inside the Auschwitz camp, where I lost some of my family," Pacifici told Italian newspaper La Stampa, according to a translation by Haaretz. "My grandparents died here. It’s a shock. Our only crime was that we tried to get out through the window."

Auschwitz was the largest camp established by the Nazis in World War II. More than a million people were murdered there between 1940-1945.

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