A group of IDF officers was barred by Polish police from entering the Birkenau concentration camp with Israeli flags during a Holocaust memorial ceremony on Thursday.

The 180-member Israeli delegation, part of the IDF’s “Witnesses in Uniform” Holocaust education program, had arrived at Birkenau—part of the Auschwitz death camp complex—for a planned commemorative event. But as the delegation approached the entrance, local police abruptly stopped them, insisting that no flags would be allowed inside the camp.

Attempts by Israeli officers and local authorities to reach a compromise were unsuccessful, and the group was ultimately forced to enter the site without their flags — an act participants described as both “humiliating” and “disrespectful.”

“There was tension in the air,” said one Israeli officer who took part in the event. “No ceremony has ever been interrupted in this way — not in Treblinka, not in Warsaw, not in Majdanek. This was different. This was targeted.”

Delegation members say the flag ban was not only unexpected but also interpreted as a disturbing sign of lingering antisemitism in Europe — particularly when directed at a Jewish military delegation commemorating the Holocaust on the soil where six million Jews were murdered.

“This shows that we are still fighting antisemitism in Europe,” said one participant. “There are still those who want to erase the Zionist narrative, and deny us the right to honor our history on our terms.”

The IDF’s “Witnesses in Uniform” program brings Israeli military personnel to former Nazi death camps in Poland to deepen their understanding of the Holocaust and the moral responsibility of military service in the shadow of Jewish history.

The Polish authorities have not publicly commented on the decision or clarified whether the ban was the result of a standing policy or an isolated action by local police. Previous ceremonies at Birkenau and other Holocaust sites have included Israeli flags without incident.

The Israeli Defense Ministry and Foreign Ministry are expected to issue formal diplomatic inquiries to the Polish government.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)