Stolpersteine memorials on a Berlin street. (AP/Markus Schreiber)
Berlin police chief Barbara Slowik apologized for the incident on Monday and said the service would examine the incident internally.
By Tobias Siegal/WIN and Associated Press
Shocking photos depicting two German police officers doing press-ups on a Holocaust memorial site in Germany have circulated online in the past few days, drawing public fury and an apology by the Berlin police force.
The images, first published by the German newspaper Berliner Zeitung, show two officers in uniforms performing press-ups on the stones of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.
The memorial, which was opened in Berlin in 2005, consists of a 19,000-square-meter site covered with 2,711 stone slabs. It attracts thousands of visitors every week.
According to Berliner Zeitung, the photos were stills from a video apparently taken by the officers themselves on a cellphone during a holiday weekend in May when they were deployed to the area because of demonstrations.
Berlin police chief Barbara Slowik apologized for the incident on Monday and said the service would examine the incident internally.
“The colleagues’ behavior disrespects what this memorial stands for and also offends the memory of those who were murdered,” Slowik said, adding that the officers involved do not represent the values of the Berlin police force.
The GDP union, which represents German police officers, also apologized and condemned the “tastelessness” of the officers’ actions, adding that there must be “consequences” for those involved. “The Holocaust memorial is not an adventure playground,” it said.
Unfortunately, the officers’ actions do not represent a new phenomenon, and are merely the latest example of inappropriate behavior by visitors to the Berlin Holocaust memorial site.
On Friday, a viral video shared on TikTok by the account @influencersinthewild shows a blonde woman modeling a black sports bra while leaning on one of the site’s stone slabs.
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