Yad Vashem criticizes details of Israel-Poland deal to renew youth trips

The Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum criticizes details of the new Israeli-Polish deal to restart youth trips to the European country, saying some of the locations agreed upon as potential sites for visits should not be part of educational trips.

Details on the deal published by Haaretz today indicate it includes an Israeli agreement to recommend various sites on Polish history to students that include those commemorating individuals involved in the murder of Jews, as well as sites focusing on Poland’s victimhood under Nazism. The revelation was criticized by a number of Israeli historians.

Yad Vashem says it was not involved in drafting the list. It stresses that part of learning the Holocaust’s history in Poland should be “the Polish people’s part in persecuting, turning in and murdering Jews — as well as in saving them.”

It notes that it appears the new deal does not limit such teachings, but adds that the list of recommended sites — of which students will need to choose one on their trip — “includes problematic locations that should not be visited on an educational trip” as these may distort Holocaust history or promote “a historically incorrect narrative.”

The museum notes that students are not being forced to visit such sites.