Irony of ironies: An Israeli high school student has been arrested after performing a Nazi salute at the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp in Poland.
The student, who was probably just trying to be edgy, was questioned for two hours over his actions and eventually fined 1,500 zloty (£300), according to Ynet. Which I’m sure his parents will be thrilled about having to pay.
In the boy’s defence however, another student claims the lad was only waving at someone.
According to the student, the group was at the entrance to the camp and one of their party was trying to take a group photo in front of the famous gates. In an attempt to disrupt the photo, the suspect ‘waved’ his arm, and kept doing it despite the other student telling him “it doesn’t look good.” However, the boy kept doing it because he thought it was hilarious.
Sure enough, security guards who were watching on CCTV determined that the boy was doing a Nazi salute, despite the protests of others who were with him. Just your classic friendly wave/Nazi salute mix-up. Happens all the time!
In fairness to the boy, in the one photo shared by The Times of Israel, he does seem to be waving and not making a Nazi salute:
Obviously we haven’t seen the CCTV footage that the security guards saw, but going off that photo, you have to say the boy is completely innocent. His arm isn’t even stretched out fully! It literally does look like he’s just waving at the camera.
In any case, the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum condemned the incident.
“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 Education Ministry also said in a statement that it takes “a very serious view of the unusual incident” and that making such a gesture was “unacceptable and completely against the values of Israeli education and the significance of the trip to Poland.” It said the student’s actions will face a ‘thorough review’ when he returns to Israel. Guessing he’s in a bit of trouble there.
The Poland trips are meant to be a learning experience about the Holocaust. Around 25,000 Jewish Israeli high school students visit the museum annually. Amazingly, it’s quite common for visitors to Auschwitz to fail to behave – like this girl who took a bunch of smiley selfies at the site and got dragged all over the internet.
