nolympics submits "Last Update: 04/09/2003 09:40

Auschwitz museum opposes plans for IAF fly-over at camp

By Amiram Barkat, Haaretz Corespondent and Agencies



The Polish museum at the former Nazi death camp of

Auschwitz on Wednesday criticized plans for Israel

Air Force pilots to fly warplanes over the camp's

site to honor the Jewish victims of the Holocaust.



Descendants of Holocaust survivors plan to fly over

Auschwitz in southern Poland on Thursday in three IAF F-15 jets

which had earlier taken part at an air show in the country.



"The National Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau deplores the

demonstration of Israeli military might in this place," the museum said in a statement.



"It's a cemetery, a place of silence and

concentration," museum spokesman Jaroslaw

Mensfelt said by telephone.



"Flying the [F-15s] is a demonstration of

military might which is an entirely

inappropriate way to commemorate the victims."



A statement from the Israeli Embassy in Warsaw

said that the three jets - piloted by

descendants of Holocaust survivors - will fly

over the former deat camp at noon Thursday.

They will be joined by two Polish MiG-29 jets,

Israel Defense Forces spokeswoman Sharon

Feingold said.



During the fly-over, organizers planned to read

off the names of victims who arrived at

Auschwitz exactly 60 years ago, on September 4,

1943. Pages of testimony on the victims are to

be carried by the pilots in their planes,

Feingold said.



Israel's ambassador to Poland, Shevach Weiss,

insisted that the overflight was not a

demonstration of Israeli air power.



"They will fly over the camp for about a second

to honor the ashes of their fathers and

grandfathers. This will be a very emotional

moment for them. They will probably be crying

in the planes. This is not a demonstration of

military power. Our army simply wants to honor

the victims," the envoy told Reuters.



Both the IDF and Foreign Ministry defended the

fly-over plans, citing cooperation between

Israel and Poland to remember the more than one

million people who perished at

Auschwitz-Birkenau, the vast majority of them

Jews, from 1940 until its liberation on January

27, 1945. A total of six million Jews were

killed during the Holocaust.



Some 200 IDF soldiers also are to take part in a

ceremony at Birkenau, the former death camp

adjacent to Auschwitz, according to Israeli

officials.



"It's a joint Israeli-Polish initiative and for

a noble cause," Foreign Ministry spokesman

Jonathan Peled said. "We share a tragic

history, and obviously it's being done in full

cooperation."



Organizers said the idea of the overflight was

prompted purely by the coincidence of the

planes being in Poland for the air show.



Mensfelt said that the museum had not been

consulted about the fly-over. He added that the

International Auschwitz Council, an advisory

body to the museum headed by Wladyslaw

Bartoszewski, an Auschwitz survivor and former

Polish foreign minister, also "does not support

such a way to commemorate the victims.""