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.
Fines and jail time is too much I think. I’d vote for a thorough reprimand and maybe cleaning the grounds from trash instead.
It wasn’t a Nazi salute. It was a heartfelt and perhaps ill-advised gesture that, in the moment, could be misinterpreted as a Nazi salute. I think we shouldn’t be so quick to jump to conclusions.
/s
I just don’t nazi it…
Mr. Mangione had a heartfelt and perhaps ill-advised gesture against a CEO.
🤣
A heartfelt gesture indeed. Remember everyone: Jury Nullification.
Did they drove off in a Tesla ? (asking for a friend)
I’m stunned … again !! … I have visited Auschwitz and it’s impressive beyond words. At the entrance of the former gas chambers there is a sign asking to respect and remember those who died in there and keep silent in the chambers. Everyone did except for Israeli students. That is what brought the tears to my eyes. Betrayed and disrespected again, this time by their own.
Oh believe me, Israeli trips in Kraków are the worst kind of tourists in every aspect possible. They are louder than British stag parties, more obnoxious than Americans and their favourite thing is crying about antisemitism when they are removed from somewhere for causing disturbances or making a huge mess. They do not understand the idea of rubbish bins and you can trace their paths by following cigarette butts, empty crisps packets and spit.
Is there any chance the ones making all the ruckus and disrespect were non-Jewish Israelis? That’s not an excuse but it makes it make more sense than actual Jews being so disrespectful. And if it is young Jews doing it, can you make it make sense? Do you have some sense for why / how they might be thinking?
Keeping in mind just being bad tourists doesn’t quite explain it. Kids groups tend to be shite tourists no matter where they are from. But even I knew as a 10yo not to act stupid when visiting some of the more somber locations I went to in the US; no less as a 21yo when I visited Dachau as a non-Jew.
The Palestinian Arabs are too busy being bombed to go visit the holocaust museum.
About one in five Israelis are Arab - according to demographic figures.
Avoiding the obvious hot button issue, I’ll just say I was assuming the observation could have pre-dated the current war AND there are other non-jews in Israel than just Palestinians.
Israel didn’t exist before the current war. Palestine has been suffering an invasion and the occupation of its sovereign territory since 1948.
Maybe the genociders are also not jews, eh? Except for all those interviews where Israeli leaders spell it out with no possible room for denial.
I never know if they are Jewish or not, the groups themselves are distinct because they are always in large groups, with multiple guides and guards, but I can’t tell Jewish or non Jewish Israelis apart just by their faces. Idk why they behave like that. It’s all ages. I sometimes see them out in the city but I heard more chilling stories about them from a guy who operates a bus transfer business to Auschwitz.
[sigh] I’ll never understand this world.
Israel is a middle eastern country with a middle eastern temperament. That is less reserved and controlled than Central Europeans. The majority of Jews in Israel are Mizrahi, descendants from Jews who fled the MENA region, not Europe. They tend to be a bit more noisy and dramatic.
It would be interesting to get the perspective of an Israeli who went on such a trip.
It’s also unclear how prevalent this issue is, or if it’s just a few cases tainting their image. There are lots and lots of Israeli school kids visiting Auschwitz. Probably more than any other nationality. So it might simply be explained by their numbers.
Yup, all fair points and why I was asking hoping OP or someone else might have insights. Thanks.
Everyone did except this one guy. The other students didnt do this.
This also mirrors my experience at Aushwitz. Israeli teenagers were generally being dicks around the site and then unrolled several large Israeli flags to take group photos with.
Can’t blame the teens too much as their teachers had no problem with/promoted the behaviour.
I left the place traumatised, these kids… not so much.
When I was there a decade ago, people were taking selfies at the gas chambers. It was all a bit surreal to be honest. The museum is amazing, but the visitors were a mixed bag.
this reflects something i’ve been seeing rising here inemy hometown. when i was 15 i survived a terrorist attack. the whole community had a conversation about the appropriate way to address thiseand how to be respectful of the direct victims. 18 years later, you’d never even know we talked about any of that. the memorial is a popular place to take beaming graduation photos. the terrorist attack has been renamed in the popular lexicon from “place massacre” to “date shooting”. the institutions that promised us they saw and heard our pain and they would help us forge a new future are international sponsors of terror now.
it hurts. it hurts a lot.
I’m sorry you are going through that, my friend. May the path ahead be lined with good people and warm smiles. We often forget we live on a palimset of everything that came before.
I wonder how bibi is gonna spin this one into being antisemitism on the side of the people who reported the student.
"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. "
Sounds like his schoolland community are planning on punishment.
"The Ministry of Education takes this serious incident very seriously
Ya don’t say
Nothings gonna happen to that kid. This is the classic Israeli “We will conduct an investigation” response with zero follow through. They do this to get away with genocide, i’m sure they’ll be able to get away with a “misinterpreted hand gesture.”
His punishment will be having to join the IDF and killing palestinian babies.
Nah but nice to see they at least keep up the outward appearance of giving a fuck.
That’s not punishment. That’s a legally required right of passage
“Military service teaches young people the values that we as a country believe in. It’s very important to our national identity that every adult citizen has murdered a baby. It makes us who we are.”
How long before President Elon threatens and belittles Germany?
It was just an “outpouring from the heart” gesture!Auschwitz is in Poland, dawg
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.
“He was just waving hello”
That’s what his co-student said. While that may be the case, it sure doesn’t sound like it, and they have the receipts so - I wouldn’t be betting a lot on that horse.
It says they have a video recording
That’s so crazy it’s almost like people don’t like Nazis… 🤷
Throw the book at them.
I feel like the irony is lost on many people
They skipped over how old this person is. Somehow I think this is a teen doing dumb stuff.
Teens doing dumb stuff isn’t a hall pass. Actions have consequences. Those consequences take this into account and often are mitigated but still enforced
Most of the time I would agree with this. If a teen gets caught stealing or vandalizing I think they need to be taught a lesson. However, this feels like something done just to break the rules which is on point for most teens.
I’d rather see teens getting away with stealing or vandalism than with normalizing Nazi shit (especially at a place like Auschwitz)
Nazi shit, from an israeli teen. I can’t wrap my head around chocking such a onion worthy act getting written off by “boys will be boys”.
Actually now I think on it, almost any time I hear about “dumb teen” stuff I think they get away with way more then what is healthy for society.
It’s about the fact that teenagers have underdeveloped reasoning skills and deserve some leniency while they develop their sense of right from wrong. As well just, if your goal is there being a net reduction of nazis in society, then imprisoning a teenager for throwing the salute is probably not going to achieve that.
Teens have a perfectly functional frontal cortex thing is they are still figuring out when to actually use it. They can be perfectly adult one moment, or in a particular area, and completely stupid in the other. Visiting Auschwitz, one might presume, would be a situation where an Israeli teen isn’t a rage of hormones. Be that when racing shopping carts.
Sense of right and wrong develops way earlier.
the fact that teenagers have underdeveloped reasoning skills
I can get that to a degree (like a 13 year old) but by 15 or 16 I expect about the same level of adulting as a US midwestern adult (not really a super high bar but enough to know that doing a nazi salute in a place dedicated to the memory of the victims of nazis while on a school trip from the only nation made up of the primary target of those same nazis, might be a life changing act).
I just don’t get the level of coddling that is now going on with an increasingly older limit of what is considered children. I remember working my first part time job at 13 and told by older people then they moved out at the same age (so I should stop complaining or some such), and now I am told about 25 year old “kids”. Its nuts, these are functioning people and although yes some stupid actions are expected when young there is no reason to not hold people to at least a modicum of responsibility.
The fact that a 16yo has worse reasoning skills than an adult is fairly well researched. I wouldn’t call them a child though. But as a society we decided long ago that an <18yo isn’t held to the same standard of criminal liability as someone 18 or older. I don’t really know that I’ve seen what you’re referencing with 25 year olds being called kids. I just think there are too many folks in this thread that seem to think a high school student should go to prison for something like this.
… do you think Midwesterners have undeveloped reasoning skills on par with 16 year olds? I mean you readily admit that you expect stupid actions from them.
Yeah the kid got like a $400 fine and told not to do that again. I think that’s a fair punishment for doing something really really stupid as a teenager.
I’d thrown in some community service on top, or 24 hours in jail if that’s not feasible. Fines just go to the kid’s parents - who also deserve to be punished tbf, based on how badly they’ve raised their kid to behave.
An Israeli high school student […]
How old though
Old enough to know better.
17
This genius ancestors must be rolling in their graves…
He should have been American🇺🇲, then Bibi would have pardoned him.
Dear god I hope eel-on-musk goes to Poland and tries that. He so deserves to find out.
Edit: clarification: I’m saying I want him to be arrested somewhere that’s not the US
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Depends. Europe isn’t isn’t exactly his fan right now, so unless he gets diplomatic immunity, he could get some real charges. He would just pay them off and cry about it on twitter, but it would be a very popular action for any Euro authority to take.
I cordially invite Elon to come to Melbourne Australia and flip his favourite salute.
Its a significantly more painful $23,000 fine there, and if he does it repeatedly there’s a good chance of a 12 month prison term.
https://www.vic.gov.au/fact-sheet-nazi-symbol-prohibition
P. S. If my maths is right he can do it almost 15 million times before he runs out of money, I might have to email Vic gov to ask them to review the fine to be wealth-adjusted.
I’m not going to give some asshat teenager the same level of shit as Elon. It’s a hell of a lot more likely in that context that he really was kidding, just distastefully.
People making political decisions over edgy memes lead to the rise of modern fascism in the US, stop treating it like it has no impact. Kid metaphorically talked shit, this is the proverbial get hit.
For real… we are dealing with an edgy teenager here. Put away the torches people
You could be referring to either of them
Unfortunately, you are right.
