Charlotte Korchak, the Israeli who proudly raised the national flag on the railway tracks at the entrance to Auschwitz — and firmly answered a young woman who confronted her with, “How are you not ashamed?” — spoke on Wednesday morning about the encounter. “In that moment,” she said, “I felt I had to do more than defend. I had to show pride, to prove our heads are not bowed.”
Korchak, founder and director of the Jerusalem Education Institute, had been accompanying a group of students from Miami near the camp. She recalled: “We had just finished our tour of Auschwitz. I stepped outside, stood on the railway tracks, and raised the flag. The students weren’t with me at that exact moment.”
Describing the confrontation, she said: “The young woman walked out of Auschwitz and came at me aggressively. It was almost like slow motion. I thought to myself, is this really happening? She said, ‘Aren’t you ashamed?’ I answered, ‘No. What do I have to be ashamed of? This is the flag of the Jewish state.’ At that point, the students formed a circle around me, and she suddenly realized she was the minority.”
Korchak, who immigrated from the United States, said she felt a responsibility to respond. “I’m an educator. I run my own institute, the Jerusalem Education Institute, and part of my work is teaching people how to deal with anti-Israel and anti-Zionist arguments — and also how to talk with those who aren’t. But at that moment, I knew this wasn’t about teaching or explaining. She wasn’t there to listen.”
She explained that she chose to answer firmly because the students were nearby: “These were Jewish teens from the U.S., who had just had a deeply powerful experience in Auschwitz. I didn’t want it spoiled for them. I knew this was the moment to show them pride, without shame. We are Jews. We are Israelis. There is nothing to be ashamed of. Every country has its flaws, but there was no way I was going to stand with my head down and walk away. No — this was the time to show pride, to keep our heads held high, and to make sure they stayed that way.”
Korchak said the anti-Israel young woman—whose background is unknown—claimed she came to Auschwitz to learn history. “She loves dead Jews, but not living ones. I asked her, what did you really learn here? Did you understand this happened because we had no state? Did you understand that Israel exists so it will never happen again — because we have one country that, if antisemitism rises and Jews must flee, will take them in? She didn’t understand that.”
She recalled that the students began singing “Am Yisrael Chai”—“The People of Israel Live”—which finally prompted the young woman to leave. “The students were the real heroes. I’ve been doing this for 20 years. I’ve been shouted at many times. That’s nothing new. What was new was that it happened there, of all places — which is shocking. But these teens, who come from a Jewish school in Miami in a city with a large Jewish community, aren’t used to facing things like this.”
We are Jews. We are Israelis. There is nothing to be ashamed of. Every country has its flaws, but there was no way I was going to stand with my head down and walk away.
Korchak praised the students, who are now in Jerusalem: “They didn’t lash out, they didn’t shout, they didn’t curse. They kept their composure. In the end, they realized there was no point arguing, so they sang. They showed her there is nothing to be ashamed of — that we are proud Jews. They really are the heroes. I saw them yesterday in Mahane Yehuda market, and they were glowing with pride. It was uplifting, because it could so easily have gone the other way. Instead of ruining their experience, it strengthened it. They truly are our heroes.”