Dutch Tourist Charged With Nazi Propaganda Over Hitler Salute at Auschwitz

It appears that some individuals should think twice before starting to kick off their photo-ops against the background of what remains a grim symbol of Nazi Germany's genocide of about six million European Jews killed during World War Two.

A female Dutch tourist has been charged with engaging in Nazi propaganda after she gave the Hitler salute at the site of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Poland.

Local police said the 29-year-old, whose name was not revealed and who "confessed", had been detained as she was making the gesture in front of the Arbeit Macht Frei gate.

According to the Polish news agency PAP, the woman was caught in the act by guards while posing for a photo taken by her husband.

PAP cited regional police press officer Bartosz Izdebski as saying that the woman explained the incident as "a bad joke". The news outlet added that incident was followed by prosecutors issuing the 29-year-old with an undisclosed fine as punishment, which she agreed to pay. It remains unclear whether a court case will be opened.

Nine years ago, a similar Nazi salute at Auschwitz by two Turkish students resulted in the pair being fined and sentenced to six months in jail.

On 27 January 1945, Soviet troops entered the infamous Nazi death camp, where more than one million people were gassed, worked, and starved to death during the Second World War.