IDF to punish soldier for protesting Polish Holocaust law at Auschwitz

Israel has promised to punish a reserves soldier on an army-sponsored trip to Auschwitz who publicly flashed a sign to protest a controversial new Polish law that outlaws accusing the country of complicity in the Holocaust.

The soldier flashed the handwritten sign in Polish, reading “You too had a part,” during a group photo with the other members of the the army’s Witnesses in Uniform program on Thursday, according to Army Radio.

The sign caught the attention of local officers, who reported it to museum authorities. The soldier was not detained, but the leader of the Israeli delegation assured Polish officials the IDF would handle the incident internally, according to the report.

In a statement, the IDF spokesperson called the soldier’s actions “serious and contrary to the values of the army the essence of the Witnesses in uniform missions,” and said he would be “disciplined in the coming days at the command level.”

The decision to discipline the soldier comes even as Israeli officials railed against the Polish law, which outlaws blaming the Polish nation for being complicit in Nazi German crimes,  as a distortion of history. The measure led to a major diplomatic rift when the Polish parliament first green lighted the legislation in January.

Israel often sends delegations of soldiers in uniform to the site of the notorious Nazi death camp as an educational opportunity and to serve as a powerful image of the resurgence of Jewish life following the Holocaust.

As currently written, the law calls for prison terms of up to three years for attributing the crimes of Nazi Germany to the Polish state or nation. The bill would also set fines or a maximum three-year jail term for anyone who refers to Nazi German death camps as Polish.

Though passed by the parliament in Warsaw and signed by Polish President Andrzej Duda, the law is still undergoing an investigation by a top court to check if it complies with the country’s constitution. The verdict may take months to come.

The US, along with Israel and other countries, oppose the law over fears it could violate free speech and whitewashes history.

One key paragraph of the law states, “Whoever claims, publicly and contrary to the facts, that the Polish Nation or the Republic of Poland is responsible or co-responsible for Nazi crimes committed by the Third Reich… or for other felonies that constitute crimes against peace, crimes against humanity or war crimes, or whoever otherwise grossly diminishes the responsibility of the true perpetrators of said crimes – shall be liable to a fine or imprisonment for up to three years.”

Critics of the law include Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who called it “baseless.” Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, warned it is detrimental to debate and research of the genocide.

Israeli politicians, including opposition lawmaker Yair Lapid, said it whitewashes Polish complicity in the Holocaust – allegations many Poles find offensive and the Polish government rejects.