Berlin police chief sorry after officers practice push-ups on Holocaust memorial

Berlin’s police chief apologizes for an incident in which officers were pictured practicing push-ups on a part of the German capital’s memorial to the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust.

Pictures published by Berlin’s B.Z. tabloid showed uniformed policemen leaning on one of the slabs that makes up the Holocaust memorial to practice push-ups. The newspaper said they were stills from a video apparently taken by the officers themselves on a cellphone during a holiday weekend in May when they were deployed to the area because of demonstrations.

שוטרים גרמנים מבזים את אנדרטת השואה בברלין | תיעוד מביש של שני שוטרים ברלינאים לבושים במדים מבצעים שכיבות שמיכה דווקא באנדרטת השואה בבירה הגרמנית פורסם היום בבילד. מדובר בשוטרים מיחידה 26 שאחראית על אזור שרלוטנבורג ששירתו במרכז העיר באותו יום כדי לפקח על כמה הפגנות שנערכו שם. pic.twitter.com/BC34rhNLYE

— Antonia Yamin אנטוניה ימין (@antonia_yamin) November 1, 2021

The memorial, a field of 2,700 gray concrete slabs near the Brandenburg Gate that opened in 2005, is open around the clock and isn’t surrounded by any barriers. Visitors are supposed to refrain from activities such as running and jumping from one slab to another.

Berlin police chief Barbara Slowik says the service will examine the incident internally.

“The colleagues’ behavior disrespects what this memorial stands for” and also offends the memory of those who were murdered, Slowik says.

The GdP union, which represents police officers, also apologizes and condemns the “tastelessness” of the officers’ actions, adding that there must be “consequences” for those involved. “The Holocaust memorial is not an adventure playground,” it says.