Israeli students litter death camps
Students visiting concentration camps in Poland, Germany report that many Israeli school delegations leave behind them heaps of garbage in sites where Jews were murdered
Next week, the State of Israel and schools all across the country will mark Holocaust Commemoration Day. However, eyewitness accounts that reached by Ynet reveal that some Israeli students still have a long way to go on the issue of Holocaust commemoration: According to these reports, many school delegations who visit death camps in Poland and Germany leave behind them piles of trash in sites where many Jews were slain.
'Israeli' garbage at Lopochova Forest (Photo: Ma'ayan Rimmer)
A group of students from the Misgav School in northern Israel recently documented the disgraceful sights they saw upon their arrival at the Lopochova Forest in Poland where the Nazis murdered and buried thousands of Jews from neighboring towns.
Ma'ayan Rimmer, an 11th grader who took part in the delegation, said: "We were visiting Lopochova Forest and at the entrance to where the buses park, we saw a shameful scene: Three boxes filled with Israeli-made snack wrappers and other typical Israeli food. There was no doubt that it was left by an Israeli delegation. Of course we cleaned it all up…"
Other students from different schools who went on trips to Poland and Germany confirmed the reports about the Israeli groups' behavior. "If they don't get drunk or get a stripper to the hotel, they behave like animals and litter the places they visit," one student stated.
Another student added that "people are amazed when they read in the papers of plans to turn Auschwitz into a disco or that families have picnics over there and everybody is shocked, but they forget that some of the Jews themselves lost respect for the site."
The Education Ministry issued a statement in response to the reports, saying that "regarding the garbage left at the memorial sites and the disrespectful behavior, the ministry views the matter with the utmost severity and pledges to deal with the issue."
