Fury after students make neo-Nazi gesture at Auschwitz and post pictures online
04-17 HaiPress
The teenagers made the ‘OK’ sign,which has been adopted by white supremacists (Picture: Instagram)
Footage has emerged showing teenagers making a neo-Nazi pose at the Auschwitz gates,while others sang a nationalist chant at Bergen-Belsen.
The German students caused an uproar after making the gesture at the Auschwitz death camp,where around 1.1 million people were murdered during the Holocaust.
The high school pupils from Germany made the ‘OK’ gesture,which has been widely used by white supremacists when visiting the concentration camp,The Times reports.
Four boys from the city of Görlitz made the gesture in March,but news of the incident emerged this week after a picture appeared on a student’s Instagram account.
Three girls caused an uproar in 2018 when they made the Nazi salute,which is illegal in Germany,but not in Poland where Auschwitz is located (Picture: CEN)
A spokesman for the Scultetus high school said the four were disciplined and assisted in a workshop for people with disabilities,according to The Times.
While the Nazi or Sieg Heil salute is illegal in Germany,Austria and Slovakia,making the ‘OK’ sign is not.
What you cannot do when visiting a concentration camp
There have been reports of visitors moving items from Auschwitz,Poland,including stealing pieces of the infamous iron gates.An American tourist tried to steal part of the historic train tracks,where prisoners were unloaded to their deaths.However,moving,damaging or removing any objects on the grounds is prohibited at Auschwitz-Birkenau.Visitors should also keep to designated paths,maintain silence and avoid any disrespectful activity.Clemens Arndt,from the Saxony state education office,told the German tabloid Bild: ‘The pupils were made aware of their misconduct. The headmistress confirmed that the four pupils had understood.’In a separate incident,the students,aged 14 and 15,sang ‘Germany for the Germans,foreigners out’ at the Bergen-Belsen memorial last summer.Around 52,000 people died there during Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime before prisoners were released by British troops 80 years ago.
