Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Israel suspends school trips to Poland, citing interference in content and security issues

The move, which affects 7,000 students this year, follows a diplomatic crisis between the two countries on how to talk about the Holocaust.

(JTA) — Israel’s education ministry has suspended school trips to Poland amid disputes with authorities there, possibly cancelling plans to have 7,000 students visit former death camps this summer.

The ministry’s statement Tuesday cited disagreements with Polish authorities over security for the trips — a possible reference to an issue involving armed guards accompanying the delegations.

But on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid cited disagreements between Israelis and Poles on how to talk about the Holocaust as one reason “jeopardizing school trips,” Haaretz reported.

“The Poles wanted to determine what is allowed and what’s not allowed to tell Israeli children traveling to Poland. We will not agree to this,” the newspaper quoted Lapid as saying.

The disagreements, he added, are connected to a law passed in Poland in 2020 that made it illegal to blame the Polish nation for Nazi crimes. Israel protested the law, which some Holocaust scholars warned would limit free speech and academic research on collaboration with the Nazis by thousands of Poles.

“Part of the implications of this legislation is the fact that the Poles wanted a say in the content given to the delegations. It certainly jeopardizes the trips of this summer. It’s a decision made by the education minister originally but clearly this has diplomatic consequences,” Lapid said.

A Polish government spokesperson confirmed to Haaretz that Poland wishes to change the content on school trips at Auschwitz and other concentration, death camps and heritage sites connected to World War II and the Nazi occupation of Poland.

Poland is asking Israel to teach about the Holocaust “with a wider historical perspective” free of “negative stereotypes about Poland and Poles,” Haaretz quoted the spokesperson as saying. “We want to increased the participation of Polish figures in preparing the groups and during the visits to the heritage sites, including through the engagement of Polish guides.”

This article originally appeared on JTA.org.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

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.

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..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

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 credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link 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 editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version