One million Jews, including children, were killed at Auschwitz-Birkenau from 1940 to 1945.
Two Turkish students were arrested for giving the Nazi salute outside the gate of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp in Poland. The phone they used to capture the salutes was confiscated by police.
Israel National News reported:
Two Turkish tourists could face up to two years in prison for giving Nazi salutes outside the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp in Poland.
The Turkish nationals – who according to Turkey’s Zaman news site are a man and woman, both aged 22 – are apparently studying history at Budapest university in neighboring Hungary.
They reportedly took pictures of each other making the offensive gestures underneath the infamous “Arbeit macht frei” (“Work makes you free”) sign, which stands at the entrance to the former death camp. The sign was one of the first – and for many, the last – things which the camp’s estimated 1.1 million victims, approximately 90% of whom were Jewish, saw upon arrival, after being offloaded from crowded cattle carts.
The pair will likely face charges for publicly promoting Nazi symbols in public, which is a criminal offense in Poland.
