Poland is not Shoah-land

To be fair, the tourists in this case spoke very little English and no Polish, and were not able to understand what the museum's security guard was telling them. Still, it seems hard to imagine that they didn't understand that breaking locks was inappropriate. The group paid $400 for the damage they caused.

This is not the first such incident. Also in July, around 60 Israeli college students arrived at the grounds of the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp at 11 pm and demanded to be let inside. Despite the hour, the museum guards allowed them to enter, preferring to avoid conflict. The students left the site around 5 am.

The fact is that such tourists represent a small minority of the many Jewish visitors coming to Poland to broaden their understanding of the Holocaust. But the incidents have also underscored that these travellers often understand little about the Poland of today. Many Israeli tour groups arriving in Poland greatly restrict their contact with Polish society, and security guards are a standard feature of package travel. To Poles it often seems they are uninterested, even uncivil, in their relations with locals. Moreover, the message they send is clear: Poland is the land of the Shoah, and little more.

Undoubtedly, it is of extreme importance for Jews to have the opportunity to visit these sites. But in the interest of international relations and intercultural understanding, their vision of Poland should not be blinkered to see only the history of the Holocaust.

Both Poles and Israelis could do much to further that goal. Poland should continue to work to improve ties with Jews around the world, and to present itself as a modern, tolerant country. Jewish visitors, for their part, have every right to seek understanding of the Shoah and its legacy, but they should do so while abiding the law and keeping an open mind about modern Poland. l