Three Israel Air Force F-15 jets overflew the site of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp this afternoon. "We are sending a message," said one of the pilots, all of whom are sons of Holocaust survivors. "It's true that we're 60 years late, but the State of Israel will ensure that there will never be another Auschwitz." Two Polish government Mig-29 jets accompanied the Israeli craft - although the Auschwitz museum management said it objected to the flight.
"For Israeli planes to fly symbolically over Auschwitz serves as an important reminder that Allied planes flew over the notorious Nazi death camp in 1944, but knowingly failed to bomb the gas chambers and crematoria where 1.5 million Jews were murdered," said Dr. Rafael Medoff, director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.
At the same time as the flight, a ceremony was held on the ground in Auschwitz to commemorate the transport that arrived on Sept. 4, 1943, exactly 60 years ago. Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum provided the names of 600 French Jews who arrived that day in Auschwitz.
An Austrian man was sentenced to a year in prison yesterday for denying the Holocaust. The convict, who was born six years after the Holocaust ended, is a former Vienna city councilman who was sentenced for disseminating posters claiming that the Nazis never used gas against Jews. The courtroom was filled with his supporters.
"For Israeli planes to fly symbolically over Auschwitz serves as an important reminder that Allied planes flew over the notorious Nazi death camp in 1944, but knowingly failed to bomb the gas chambers and crematoria where 1.5 million Jews were murdered," said Dr. Rafael Medoff, director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.
At the same time as the flight, a ceremony was held on the ground in Auschwitz to commemorate the transport that arrived on Sept. 4, 1943, exactly 60 years ago. Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum provided the names of 600 French Jews who arrived that day in Auschwitz.
An Austrian man was sentenced to a year in prison yesterday for denying the Holocaust. The convict, who was born six years after the Holocaust ended, is a former Vienna city councilman who was sentenced for disseminating posters claiming that the Nazis never used gas against Jews. The courtroom was filled with his supporters.