The group had been on a day trip to nearby Kraków where they learned about the history and WWII fate of Jews living in the city.

But after being told that before the war the city had the 4th largest Jewish population in Poland and that only about 10% managed to escape the Holocaust, five of the 17-year-olds went back to their hotel, got drunk, watched videos of Hitler on YouTube, and then filmed themselves doing Nazi salutes.

The eight-second clip was then uploaded to Snapchat.

Recorded in May, it was only after the children returned to Germany that the school found out about what had happened.

Outraged director Christian Augustin of the Albert Einstein School in Lower Saxony told the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung news outlet: “We are deeply shocked and appalled by this immature behavior.

“This does not reflect the true attitude of the students.”

He added: “The five students were temporarily suspended from classes, and the police were informed.

“The young people had to answer to teachers, parents, and student representatives in a disciplinary hearing.”

According to the school, the 17-year-olds showed “remorse and apologized” and have now been made to “deal intensively with the Nazi era in a project.”

A statement added: “The Albert Einstein School has been committed to raising awareness about the crimes of National Socialism for years.

“Two of the school’s buildings are named after survivors, and on Holocaust Survivors Day, survivors are invited to tell the children about their experiences.”

Established in April 1940 to hold Polish prisoners following Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland, by the time it was liberated in January 1945, the Auschwitz death camp had grown into the largest killing machine in history.

Over one million people, mainly Jews, were executed, beaten, tortured, starved, or gassed to death there, while countless others died of disease or malnutrition.