Michael and Dvora Sitbon fly with their four children from France to Israel with layover in Germany, where they say border officer humiliated them, made hand motions pretending to shoot them.
Anti-Semitism: German Officer Spat at Chabad Family
Michael and Dvora Sitbon fly with their four children from France to Israel with layover in Germany, where they say border officer humiliated them, made hand motions pretending to shoot them.
The Sitbon family will not forget their most recent flight to Israel for quite some time. Paris residents Michael and Dvora Sitbon flew with their four children from France to the Holy Land. During their layover in Germany, they claim they were subjected to degrading and racist treatment by one of the German border officers.
Once the border officer saw 26-year-old Dvora’s Israeli passport, he spat on it and made a gesture with his hands as if he were trying to shoot her, the Sitbon couple told French-Jewish radio station Radio Shalom.
“We were shocked. It is very painful. My wife is the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor. She lives and breaths this issue and was shocked by the incident,” said Michael, 28. “We flew by way of Germany because it was the least expensive, but my wife never wants to go back there.”
According to the couple, who have been living in France for the past three years, they arrived in the German airport on Thursday night from France with only a few minutes to catch their connecting flight to Israel. A border officer detained them at passport control. “When he saw that my wife’s passport is from Israel, he spat on it and didn’t let us pass, saying that she has overstayed her visit in France,” said Michael.
‘We’ll never again fly through Germany’
“We stood there with four children, the oldest of which is four and the youngest is a month and a few days. Because of this, we preferred not to respond to the provocation so that no trouble would be made for us in investigation.
”Afterwards, he decided that he would let us pass, but wanted to make sure that each child matched the passports given him. So he asked me in German to pick them up. When I did so, he cursed me and my wife and made all kinds of sounds as if he was spraying us with bullets,“ recounted Michael.
”There were very few people on the connection flight to Israel, so only one person saw the incident. He is our witness,“ explained Michael. ”I encountered anti-Semitism in the past. There is no lack of it in France. But I will not keep quiet about something like this. We will put this officer on trial, even if I need to stand before him. I can’t forget his face. He had a haircut like Hitler,“ said Michael.
On Friday morning following the event, the family landed in Tel Aviv. Michael reported the incident to Radio Shalom at the beginning of the next week, as well as to the German Embassy in Israel.
”It is difficult to recount what happened to us. My wife doesn’t ever again want to fly through Germany in her life,” said Michael.
sara
omg!!! imach shemo!!! please come back to france, u r so precious to us in sarcelles!! are u supposed to have a stop there also on your flight back??
ch resident
BRING THE WITNESS AND 1) FIRE HIM 2) MAKE A COURT CASE OF
RACIAL AND ANTISEMITIC DISCRIMINATION
we-ll never forget the number 6 million
oy… we stand behind you!! do what you have to do and remember that we are with you!!
feel for you
my son was in Germany once for Pesach. He encountered anti-antisemitism there big time. He reported it to the American embassy there. A few weeks after he came home, an FBI representative came to our house to apologize and to get more information. We also received a letter of apology from the German embassy as well as a letter from the American embassy.
Hashem!
Oy!! It would be one thing if he made some anti-semitic comment, but this is horrible!! A jewish family should never get this treatment. It just goes to show that there are still plenty of Pro-Holacaust’s around.
yossi.ch
i stand shoulder to shoulder with this beautiful family. what happened to them is reprehensible. may this be a michila for any other bad in thier lives!
we have witnessed so much hate over the years, ari halberstom etc. unfortunataly, this story is right up there with the worst it them. ad musi!
Y-machshemom
When I visited Dachow Consentration camps with a few bochurim whenever we walked passed a group of germans chatting, they suddenly became quit. Most older Germans are realy ashamed of what their country did.
hjg
why’s everyone moping about it? this is galus. we have to live through it and move on.
eisav will forever soneh es yaakov so whats the shock? of course its the shame of why this family had to get such treatment but we all feel it (as you can tell from the comments).
where ever you go you will NOT be liked.
there is always someone murmuring behind the smile.
you cant expect to be treated the same cuz we aint the same and they know it.
moshiach now!
mickeyblue
I have also flown via frankfurt from tlv and experienced such venomous hatred it was VERY scary.me and my husband walked away saying it felt like we were in nazi era circa 1940.
will NEVER fly into or via germany again.
appalled
Many Jews never never to set foot in Germany and I for one agree with them.Why should any Jew go there after the smell of the Shoah that still reeks?I don’t care how many Jews to live there-that’s their choice.But I never want my children to set foot in there-galus or not. And building Jew. institutions there? Or spend one penny in that hell?Never!
EMS
Moshiach Now
EMS
That guy is really crazy. You have to take him to court. Making soundds like bullets is absollutelly redicuolous. He could be a perrson with special neeeds. (All neo-nazi imoch shemoh.
MOshiach now
maca et ha fufa
I fill so bad why ad mosi do we have to wait we want mochiach now
publicity
If that was done to a black family, it would be international news… you can feel the hate in Germany and in most of Europe, but if you’re not going to do anything about it, who can you blame? thanks for sharing the story.
foo
Such a behaviour is totally unacceptable in Germany. File a complaint, it will most likely get the bastard fired. Antisemitism or other discriminatory behaviour is usually harshly punished especially when such an abuse comes from a representative of the authorities.
dovid.ch
this is like Natzi era anti antisemitism.
Pearl
I’ve flown through Germany a few times, and I have always felt uncomfortable.(as I do in most of Europe) but I have never expierienced anything likr this. Whoah. These people should NOT let this go. They need to take action so the border staff in Frankfurt will not get away with something like this again. The man said he had one witness. This is 2009. The airport most likely has the incident on camera as well. I would be a horrible shame to let this matter go.
For the record, Frankfurt airport should kiss the feet of this man and his family and all the Jews who fly through Frankfurt to Israel every day. What a great monetary loss is would be if they lost all that bussiness to Switzerland.
OnenReadype
The site is loaded for a long time now. Before, everything was much faster.
anonymous
what was so important to travel in the 9 days on Rosh Chodesh??? they say that in these days tragedy is very common to occur. Not a mazeldik week. Couldn“t they have waited until after Tisha BeAv???? Be careful and take care of self.
Hatzlacha Rabba & B”H your zecusim were great and saved from harm, BE”H.
Sylvia Navon
It is very disturbing to read about this incident. A young, beautiful family should not have to be the objects of some simple minded German. BUT the hatred has always been there, for a time hidden, but it never went away. In the very near future their Muslim immigrants will surpass them in population. If that weren’t such a miserable future for the world, it would almost be poetic justice.
DS
It happend to me in 1997 in Munich airport, the customs officer waited for us, cursed us, made belief he was going to shoot us etc. Exactly as described here. REfused to speak in English, Took apart our luggage and refused to put it back together. I wrote the embassy in Canada and they wrote back that this person was disturbed and was removed from contact with the public.
When I approached officials at the airport, they were very concerned whether I was planning on taking this public, go to the police etc.
If there is a pattern here perhaps we can connect some dots.
DS
SOrry it was Berlin Tegel Airport. I’m sending the letter received from embassy.
memories
Germany always hates Jews.
Just to sound good they will probably fire the guy.
horrible!!!!!!
sue them!!!!
paying money always scares them from doing that to anyone else!