Israeli officers barred from Birkenau with flags in tense stand-off with Polish police

In what is believed to be an unprecedented incident, a group of Israel Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers and security officials was barred by Polish police from entering the Birkenau concentration camp with Israeli flags during a Holocaust commemoration ceremony, according to a report by the Hebrew-language outlet Ynet.

The delegation, composed of 180 Israeli officers and security personnel, was visiting the site as part of the “Witnesses in Uniform” program — a long-running initiative dedicated to Holocaust remembrance. The group had arrived at the gates of Birkenau on July 31, planning to conduct a memorial ceremony within the grounds of the former Nazi extermination camp. However, a local Polish police officer prevented them from entering with their Israeli flags.

Efforts by Israeli officials and local agents to resolve the standoff proved unsuccessful, forcing the soldiers to proceed without the national banners. According to participants, the moment was both distressing and degrading.

“This was a humiliating and tense experience,” one delegation member told Ynet, adding that the incident was perceived as being motivated by antisemitic sentiment. “No ceremony has ever been stopped mid-way — never in Treblinka, Warsaw, or Majdanek,” the participant emphasised. “This shows that we are still fighting against antisemitism in Europe, and there are still those who are trying to change the Zionist narrative and the sanctity of this place for us.”

The Birkenau camp — also known as Auschwitz II-Birkenau — was the largest extermination facility established by Nazi Germany and formed part of the broader Auschwitz concentration camp complex near the town of Oświęcim in occupied Poland.

Built in 1941 and operating until 1945, Birkenau was the epicentre of the Nazi regime’s “Final Solution,” where over 1.1 million people — predominantly Jews — were systematically murdered, primarily in gas chambers. Other victims included Poles, Roma (Gypsies), Soviet prisoners of war, and others. The camp's inmates suffered from horrific conditions, including starvation, forced labour, overcrowding, and disease.

Today, Birkenau stands as a preserved historical site and a central component of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, serving as a solemn memorial to the victims of the Holocaust.