A video of 17-year-old schoolchildren from western Germany giving the Nazi salute before a visit to the Auschwitz extermination camp has prompted criminal investigations by German authorities.
The video of five pupils is known to authorities and is the subject of an investigation into the illegal use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations, police announced on Monday.
The principal of the school in the town of Laatzen also confirmed the incident, and emphasized that the 17-year-olds had "acted completely immaturely."
In mid-May, a total of 13 participants in a class had taken a trip to Krakow in Poland with their teachers to research the city's Jewish history, according to local media reports.
A visit to the Nazi extermination camp Auschwitz, which occupying German forces set up in occupied Poland during World War II to use for its mass murder of more than a million people, was also on the agenda for the trip.
The incident occurred on the evening before the visit to the camp, the principal told the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper. The pupils watched videos on the internet of speeches given by Nazi German dictator Adolf Hitler.
That evening, one of the pupils filmed four of his classmates, who were obviously intoxicated, while they made a Hitler salute. The eight-second video was then posted on the social network Snapchat, which only became known to school leaders after the group returned home.
The use of that gesture, as well as other symbols or slogans of the Nazi party, is against the law in Germany outside of limited educational or historical contexts.
"We are naturally shocked and appalled," the school's principal told the newspaper.
According to reports, the five young people were initially suspended after the video came to light and the police were informed.