Motti Posloszny, the Israeli who was arrested with his wife on Shabbat for taking items from the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, resigned Monday from his senior job in the Herzliya municipality. Interviewed by Kol Yisrael government radio on Tuesday, the reserves colonel said he needed time to himself to calm down following the incident.
Posloszny, a son of Holocaust survivors, explained that he took rusty dinnerware and other pieces of metal from the mud in between the relics of the buildings at Birkenau as momentos of the meaningful place. He said others take things from the site all the time but apologized for what he did, calling it a "mistake in judgement". Posloszny protested the "Auschwitz thief" label and expressed hope that his good name would be restored soon.