In this June 25, 2015 file photo railway tracks lie in front of the main entrance of former Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp in Oswiecim, Poland. (Photo: Matthias Schrader, AP) 
 
 Two Hungarian tourists have been handed suspended jail terms after they were caught trying to steal bricks from the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz in German-occupied Poland. 
 
 The pair said they wanted to bring home a "souvenir," according to police. 
 
 The two were detained after other visitors at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp spotted the pair loading bricks from the ruins of a crematorium into a bag, Polish police said Monday. 
 
 Security officers were alerted and police were called to the scene. 
 
 "The man and woman were charged with theft of a cultural asset. They both admitted to wrongdoing," regional police press officer Mateusz Drwal told Polish news agency PAP. 
 
 The 30-year-old woman and 36-year-old man were each fined $405 and handed a one-year prison sentence on probation. 
 
 "They explained that they had wanted to bring back a souvenir and didn't realize the consequences of their actions," Drwal said. 
 
 Auschwitz-Birkenau is one of several death camps built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during the Second World War. 
 
 The Nazis murdered an estimated 1 million Jews there between 1940 and 1945. More than 100,000 others, including non-Jewish Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war and resistance fighters, were also killed at the camp. 
 
 It was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979. All objects on its premises are protected. 
 
 This article originally appeared on DW.com. Its content was created separately to USA TODAY. 
 
 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2zGlCwD ||||| Police say two 17-year-olds stole buttons, a comb, spoons and other items near where prisoners’ belongings were originally kept by Nazi guards 
 
 Two British schoolboys arrested at Auschwitz have each received a year’s probation, suspended for three years, and a 1,000 zloty (£170) fine after admitting stealing artefacts from the former Nazi death camp. 
 
 The boys, both 17, were released by Polish authorities on Tuesday afternoon after spending the night in jail. They were arrested on Monday while on a history trip with the independent Perse school in Cambridge. 
 
 Polish police said they had tried to steal a comb, spoons, buttons and pieces of glass from block 5 where Nazi guards stored prisoners’ confiscated belongings during the second world war. 
 
 The school’s headmaster, Ed Elliott, said: “I want to hear directly from the boys as to what led them to take these items. I want to ensure that all necessary lessons are learnt. The opportunity to be able to visit Holocaust sites carries with it the duty to treat those sites with the utmost respect and sensitivity.” 
 
 A spokesman for the £15,000-a-year school said: “The boys, neither of whom is yet 18, picked up the fragments in the Canada section of the camp. They cooperated fully with the authorities and admitted taking the items. They are deeply sorry for the offence they have caused.” 
 
 Sgt Krzysztof �?ach, a spokesman at the Kraków police headquarters, said the teenagers were with a group of friends when they were detained at 3pm on Monday. 
 
 He said they were arrested because they were suspected of stealing “some stuff from the museum – two pieces of broken glass, spoons, clothes buttons and a comb”. 
 
 “The museum is very important for us and to people from all around the world and the Jewish people.” �?ach said the boys spent the night in a youth jail. 
 
 Perse school counts the theatre director Sir Peter Hall and Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd among its alumni. 
 
 Men jailed for Auschwitz memorial sign theft Read more 
 
 A spokeswoman at the UK Foreign Office said officials were in contact with the Polish authorities and were ready to provide consular assistance. 
 
 The Holocaust Educational Trust, one of the biggest UK organisers of trips to Auschwitz, said the boys were not on one of its trips. 
 
 Auschwitz, near the city of Kraków in southern Poland, has become a poignant symbol of the Holocaust that claimed 6 million Jewish lives across Europe. 
 
 About 1.5 million people, mainly European Jews, were gassed, shot, hanged or burned at the camp, which was located in a Polish area annexed by Nazi Germany during the war. 
 
 Museum curators say some visitors try to pilfer artefacts as souvenirs. In 2010, a Swedish man was jailed for orchestrating the theft of the notorious “Arbeit macht frei” sign over the entry gate.
– Two Hungarians have been convicted of trying to steal bricks during a tour of the Auschwitz death camp in Poland. Per USA Today, the tourists told authorities they wanted to take the bricks home as souvenirs. Polish police reportedly said that officials were alerted to the pair's misdeeds when they were pointed out by their fellow tourists. The man and woman were charged with theft of a cultural asset, fined the equivalent of $405 each, and sentenced to a suspended sentence of one year, per DW.com. Auschwitz was the largest concentration camp constructed by the Nazi regime and estimates put the number of Jews killed in the complex outside Krakow between 1940 and 1945 at around 1 million. Auschwitz has been protected as an UNESCO World Heritage site since 1979.