Polish Facebook Post Mocks Majdanek Memorial
Facebook users in Poland slammed a teenager living there for an offensive post directed toward a memorial at Majdanek.
The post by the 17-year-old from Ukraine, identified as Wladyslaw, showed him holding up his middle finger in the direction of the Monument to Struggle and Martyrdom at the site of the former Nazi concentration camp.
“I took this picture, because I just do not like the Jews,” he wrote in his post.
Following the angry responses in response, Wladyslaw apologized on Facebook earlier this week to Poles who felt offended.
The Lublin prosecutor’s office is investigating the case. The teen could be charged with incitement to hatred for national, ethnic and racial reasons.
“The Struggle and Martyrdom monument is dedicated to the memory of nearly 80,000 people of different nationalities and faiths who lost their lives at Majdanek,” Agnieszka Kowalczyk-Nowak, a spokeswoman for the Museum at Majdanek, told the Polish daily Gazeta. “Making an offensive gesture there is an expression of lack of respect for all those who suffered in the camp.”
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
- 2
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 3
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
- 4
Culture Did this Jewish literary titan have the right idea about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling after all?
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture In a Haredi Jerusalem neighborhood, doctors’ visits are free, but the wait may cost you
-
Fast Forward Chicago mayor donned keffiyeh for Arab Heritage Month event, sparking outcry from Jewish groups
-
Fast Forward The invitation said, ‘No Jews.’ The response from campus officials, at least, was real.
-
Fast Forward Latvia again closes case against ‘Butcher of Riga,’ tied to mass murder of Jews
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.