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.
This happens a lot more than you’d think. I experienced something similar in Dachau and the guide told me if someone does something unhinged/disrespectful during a tour there’s a 9 out of 10 chance it’s a descendant of a holocaust victim. She didn’t say why she thought that is but she said it’s something that puts the staff on edge whenever there’s an Israeli group visiting. I’m surprised they got the cops involved though.
Not nazi salutes, but Hasidic tour groups in the US has a similar reputation for disrespectful behavior. They’re also the most visibly Jewish group to passerbys, so they drag the whole group’s image down with them and embolden anti-semites.