'Not on our watch': Global law enforcement leaders unite in Poland against hate

AUSCHWITZ: Some 130 constabulary leaders from crossed the globe converged connected Kraków, Poland this week for a first-of-its-kind inaugural amid rampant antisemitism. 

The lawsuit is aligned with the March of the Living, which brings thousands of participants to Germany and Poland each twelvemonth to supply a first-hand look astatine the Nazi decease camps and to thatch the lessons of the Holocaust done engagement with survivors.

Paul Goldenberg, a instrumentality enforcement seasoned of 37-years, lawman manager of the Rutgers Miller Center connected Policing and Community Resilience, which organized the inaugural alongside the University of Virginia’s Center for Public Safety and Justice, spoke of the value of the trip.

"Being present is simply a testament to who these officers are and to the oath they person taken to support each communities, careless of identity," helium told Fox News Digital. "It is simply a committedness not lone to ourselves, but to the radical we serve. These are precise challenging times, and the police, successful each their forms, tin play a important relation successful sustaining antiauthoritarian values.

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Members of the International Police delegation circuit Auschwitz connected April 12, 2026. (Yossi Zeliger)

"This inaugural is astir learning, nonrecreational improvement and remembrance. It is besides astir reminding ourselves who we are, wherefore we clasp these positions and what we indispensable bash to guarantee radical are kept harmless — nary substance who they are oregon wherever they are," helium said.

The three-day programme included a walking circuit of Kazimierz, the Jewish Quarter successful Kraków, a guided circuit of Auschwitz connected Monday; a property league and testimonies by a Holocaust subsister and survivors of antisemitic shootings, culminating connected Tuesday's information successful the March of the Living and a circuit of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Goldenberg said the Holocaust was unsocial successful that it was a state-directed run successful which constabulary forces played a role, and that a cardinal acquisition is however the Nazis’ dehumanization of Jews and different targeted groups enabled the strategy to function. He added that the extremity of the inaugural is for participants to instrumentality to their departments with a deeper knowing that volition assistance them amended bid officers, enactment victims of hatred crimes and admit the value and captious quality of their responsibilities.

He pointed to the urgency of the situation, noting that equipped subject units are present guarding synagogues successful Western countries and that some the United States and Canada person deployed specialized constabulary forces to support Jewish institutions.

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People adhd to a floral tribute extracurricular Bondi Pavilion astatine Bondi Beach successful Sydney, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025.  (AP Photo/Steve Markham)

"What is striking is that these are not overseas entities — they are integral parts of the societies successful which they exist. A synagogue successful Belgium is Belgian. A synagogue successful London belongs to London. A synagogue successful New York City is portion of the cloth of that city," helium told Fox News Digital.

"From a policing perspective, what is profoundly concerning is the erosion of information and information for susceptible communities. It is simply a profoundly alarming script — 1 that, successful immoderate respects, echoes patterns seen successful the 1930s," helium added.

The taxable of this year's March is combating antisemitism, which has surged to unprecedented levels since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre successful Israel.

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Abbie Talmoud, manager for Jewish Community Affairs astatine the Embassy of Israel to the United States, survived a panic onslaught extracurricular the Capital Jewish Museum successful Washington, D.C., successful May 2025, successful which 2 Israeli embassy unit members, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, were killed.

Speaking to Fox News Digital successful Auschwitz, Talmoud said that amid rising antisemitism, feeling harmless successful the United States "is truly difficult" and would necessitate "systematic change," adding that she has stopped attending immoderate events wherever she does not consciousness capable information precautions are successful place.

Members of a planetary instrumentality enforcement delegation attended the March of the Living successful Auschwitz connected April 13, 2026.  (J.V. Katz)

"There needs to beryllium an knowing that the mode we don’t let racism for different races and ethnicities, we can’t let antisemitism. It needs to travel from the apical — the schoolhouse system, parents, governments," Talmoud said.

Catherine Szkop, manager of nationalist affairs astatine the Embassy of Israel to the United States, who focuses connected interfaith relations and engagement, carpooled with Talmoud, Lischinsky and Milgrim to the lawsuit that evening and besides survived.

"I person a household past tied to the Holocaust. In the Book of Names, I looked up ‘Szkop’ and saw a leafage taller than maine filled with that name, on with dates and locations of those who were murdered. I realized my ain sanction could person appeared there, with ‘murdered successful Washington, D.C.’ written adjacent to it," she told Fox News Digital astatine Auschwitz.

Szkop said she has ne'er been this vigilant oregon fearful of imaginable attacks.

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"I deterioration headphones less; it makes maine much alert of my surroundings. It’s a premix of fearfulness and wanting immoderate bid of caput aft what happened. I don’t fto it halt maine from living, but it’s made maine a small much afraid," she said.

Jeanne Hengemuhle, superintendent of the New Jersey State Police, told Fox News Digital successful Kraków that her agency, which includes 3,500 sworn members and 1,500 civilian staff, works intimately with assemblage leaders crossed the authorities to code hate-related concerns earlier they escalate into crises, emphasizing that aboriginal engagement, information-sharing and collaboration are cardinal to preventing issues earlier they arise.

"We are instrumentality enforcement, but we are besides portion of the communities we serve, and we indispensable admit that relation arsenic the archetypal enactment of defense," she said.

A photograph taken 27 May 1944 successful Oswiecim, showing Nazis selecting prisoners connected the level astatine the entranceway of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. (Photo by -/Yad Vashem Archives/AFP via Getty Images)

Hengemuhle said that, arsenic quality beings, determination is simply a work to bash everything imaginable to combat hate, which requires knowing and educating 1 another, arsenic good arsenic drafting connected antithetic policing and nonrecreational backgrounds.

"This is my archetypal year, and I americium precise humbled to person been invited to instrumentality portion successful the march and larn more. To me, it is astir coming unneurotic and learning from what happened successful the past truthful we bash not let it to hap again successful the future," she said.

"The Holocaust did not hap overnight," she continued. "There were small, incremental changes that yet led to what took place. I deliberation it is important that, by coming unneurotic and having these discussions, we inquire whether we are seeing the kinds of aboriginal indicators that could pb america down a unsafe way — and however we intervene earlier it goes excessively far."

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To this end, elder constabulary officials and associations from Europe and North America signed a landmark memorandum of knowing (MOU) successful Berlin earlier this month, formally launching a caller transnational inaugural titled "Not connected Our Watch – The Democratic Policing Initiative."

The statement brings unneurotic the German Police Union (GdP), the European Federation of Police Unions (EU.Pol), the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), the National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA), the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators (IACLEA), the Small & Rural Law Enforcement Executives Association (SRLEEA) and the International Police Delegation, successful collaboration with starring world institutions.

The MOU formalizes a shared committedness among participating organizations to fortify aboriginal menace detection and intelligence-sharing crossed borders, including establishing coordinated operational responses to emerging extremist threats, among different things.

An anti-Israel  protester's high-vis overgarment during a march against the Jewish authorities by the Sydney Harbor Bridge successful Australia. Aug. 2025. (Ayush Kumar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Jim Skinner, sheriff of Collin County, Texas, and incoming vice president of the National Sheriffs’ Association, told Fox News Digital successful Kraków that arsenic a instrumentality enforcement leader, his work is to service everyone equally, noting that portion determination is important partisanship and governmental part successful the United States, instrumentality enforcement indispensable service and support each communities equally.

"We each person an work to excavation heavy and marque definite hatred doesn’t hap connected our watch, and to admit that we person a cardinal work to deliberation critically astir however to support our communities safe," helium said.

Skinner noted that North Texas is location to a ample and vibrant Jewish community, which helium said helium is fortunate to serve. He added that helium traveled to Israel soon aft the Oct. 7 onslaught with 2 different sheriffs and visited Kibbutz Be’eri, an acquisition helium said helium volition ne'er forget.

A subordinate wrapped into a emblem of Israel stands astatine the main gross with the lettering "Arbeit macht frei" (Work sets you free) astatine the commencement of the yearly March of The Living to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust during World War II, astatine the memorial tract of the erstwhile Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi decease campy successful Oswiecim, Poland, connected April 14, 2026.  (Wojtek Radwanski/AFP via Getty Images)

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"I came distant with important, applicable lessons for my organization, but besides with a deeper knowing of a satellite filled with hate. It reinforced for maine that the authorization entrusted to maine by the radical who elected maine indispensable beryllium utilized wisely successful however I attack my occupation each time — to guarantee that thing similar that does not hap to the citizens wherever I live, and that if it ever did, we would person a due and effectual response," helium said.

"I deliberation astir the march," helium continued, "it honors Holocaust victims and serves arsenic a reminder of the consequences of hatred and the value of lasting against unit and intolerance. That’s the connection I privation everyone I person power implicit to understand."