A television shoot on the Holocaust took a strange turn on Tuesday night as a Jewish community leader and his film crew became trapped in Auschwitz, and were later arrested as they tried to leave through a window.

Riccardo Pacifici, leader of Rome's Jewish community, became trapped along with community spokesman Fabio Perugia and two film technicians after the gates were closed for the night.

Pacifici spent an hour outside in the cold trying to call for help, but guards only arrived when the group tripped an alarm while trying to escape through an open window.

The group was then arrested and questioned until 2.30am, after which they were moved to a local police station. They were released at 6am.

Speaking to Haaretz, Pacifici claims they were treated "roughly as though we were criminals" and called the ordeal "shameful."