An Israeli high school student was arrested and questioned by police for doing a Nazi salute during a school trip to Auschwitz, Israeli media reported on Sunday.
The teenager from Kiryat Bialik was on his school’s field trip to Poland when he did the gesture under the entrance sign to the camp.
He was questioned for two hours by Polish police and was fined approximately NIS 1,500 after security guards observed him performing the salute. The museum also captured the incident on its security cameras; the footage was handed over to the police.
Polish police charged him with promoting Nazism, local media reported. Performing a seig heil is illegal in Poland, and carries a potential sentence of up to two years in prison.
Student performs Nazi salute at concentration camp
One of the students who was on the trip recounted the incident to Channel 13 News.
“We were at the entrance to Auschwitz, and a girl from our grade was taking a picture of the gate—because everyone does that when they come,” the student told Channel 13 News. “He saw that she was taking a picture, and he waved at her as if to disrupt the shot, just joking around. I noticed what he did and went up to him, telling him, ‘Put your hand down, it doesn’t look good.’ Then he said to me, ‘What doesn’t look good? I’m just waving hello.’”
“He really wasn’t thinking about anything,” the student continued. “A second later, she took another picture, and he just waved at her again. The security guards didn’t listen to anyone, they wouldn’t let us explain, they just took him away immediately.”
The Auschwitz-Birkenau museum said that the salute was the symbol of hatred that caused millions to die at the camp.
“Committing such an act at the historical site, where Nazi Germany murdered approximately one million Jews, along with tens of thousands of Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war and others, is not only deeply offensive and morally reprehensible but also a violation of the law,” the museum said in a statement, as reported by Ynet.
The Ministry of Education said that it had disciplined the student from an educational standpoint and that it would conduct an inquiry into the incident to ensure it did not happen again.
“The Ministry of Education takes this serious incident very seriously. This is inappropriate behavior that completely contradicts Israeli educational values and the significance of the trip to Poland,” the ministry wrote in a statement, as reported by Channel 13 News. “The student was immediately addressed from both an educational and disciplinary standpoint and will undergo a full inquiry upon returning to Israel. Ministry officials will thoroughly examine the circumstances of the incident and formulate additional educational measures to ensure such incidents do not happen again.”
Additionally, the Kiryat Bialik Municipality said in a statement that it would also be disciplining the student, Channel 13 News reported.
“We are investigating the unusual incident that took place during the Auschwitz tour and express our regret over the situation,” the statement read. “According to the student’s claim, he was merely waving and did not perform a Nazi salute. The student was released following an inquiry with Polish police. Upon his return to Israel, an educational process will take place.”
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