Israeli legislator lashes out at Holocaust trips

Micha Lindenstrauss, Israel's State Comptroller, the lynch-pin of the country's legislative governing body (Knesset) also asks - why the school trips to Jewish landmarks and sites of the Holocaust only focus on Poland, and not Germany?

“It was not Poland, the country or its people, who perpetrated the Holocaust, but rather Hitler, the Nazi party, and the Nazi military,” he says in his review.

“Sometimes we miss the target by focusing on Poland."

Likewise, the report questions the wisdom of focusing so rigorously on the death camps, like Auschwitz, themselves.

“Aside from the pornography of evil, they have no educational value. In contrast, survivors' testimonies, thousand-year old Jewish culture... these do have educational value, but no one teaches them.”

According to the report, Israel's educational ministry has ignored complaints from parents and teachers, dismissing notions of forays into Germany, Ukraine or the Czech Republic.

The report also bashes the ministry for not reviewing the results of the trips.

“Since the trips began, the Education Ministry has never bothered to check matters such as their effect on participants, their added value, the extent to which they achieve their goals, whether they alter teens' stances, or the reasons many teens abstain from them."

About 25,000 Israeli schoolchildren take part in the trips each year. Research shows that the participants mainly hail from the more affluent families, creating a further level of exclusion. A trip costs about 4800 zloty (1700 dollars). (nh/pg)