Israeli police have arrested several people for involvement in price fixing high school trips to Nazi death camps in Poland.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said Tuesday that nine people were arrested and that police searched offices and confiscated equipment and receipts.

Preserving the memory of the Holocaust has become a central tenet of Israeli identity. Students learn about the Holocaust from a young age and thousands of high school pupils make an annual journey to Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps in Europe in visits that some view as a rite of passage.

Some 6 million Jews were systematically murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators in Europe during World War II.

(AP)