Israeli Teen Fined For Urinating On Auschwitz Memorial
WARSAW, Poland (JTA) — A 19-year-old Israeli was detained at the Auschwitz-Birkenau state museum after he was caught urinating on a memorial commemorating the victims of the camp.
He was questioned for several hours and released on Wednesday after voluntarily accepting a fine as punishment, according to local reports.
According to Polish law those who desecrate a monument or other public place commemorating a historical event or a person can be punished with a fine or imprisonment.
The young Israeli was detained on Wednesday at about 1 p.m. According to witnesses, he urinated on a monument located near the ruins of the crematoria in the former Birkenau camp. The action was noticed by the museum’s guide who notified museum guards, who in turn called the police.
Auschwitz Museum spokesman Bartosz Bartyzel said he does not recall a similar event involving an Israeli citizen.
Last year, a group of anti-war activists, slaughtered a sheep, stripped naked and chained themselves to the gate of the Auschwitz memorial. They were sentenced in January to prison terms and fines.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
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 the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.