A delegation of the Israel Police (IP) and the Ministry of Public Security participated in a recent mission to the death camps in Poland as Witnesses in Uniform.  The journey by the 30 police officers (which is a permanent feature of the curriculum at the Command and General Staff College for senior officers) and two Ministry  representatives took place at the end of November 2005.

Among the aims of the mission are:

• First and foremost, to be witnesses, to see and to be seen;
• Imparting the legacy  of the Shoah (Holocaust) and the heritage of the Jewish nation among the officers and commanders of the Israel Police;
• Understanding the connection between Jewish history, particularly the Shoah, and the imperative of maintaining the security of the State of Israel;
• Strengthening the self-identity and the personal and professional feeling of  responsibility of the officers as it relates to their role in maintaining both a safe and a just society;
• Emphasizing the role of the commander as educator, based on the values of respect for one’s fellow man, human rights and tolerance;
• Displaying the presence of the State of Israel and the Israel Police at the sites of the murder of the Jewish people in the Nazi attempt to carry out the “Final Solution”.

The sites where the mission served as witnesses included: the Warsaw and the Krakow ghettos; Treblinka, Maydanek and Auschwitz-Binkenau death camps; mass graves in Warsaw, in the Lopokhova forest, in Kielce and in Kaluchin; at synagogues that were destroyed, or rebuilt, and at those which now serve only as museums of what had been.

The Israel Police held ceremonies at the camps and at memorial sites, with honor guards, display of Israeli and IP flags, special prayers and readings – sometimes personal – and the singing of Hatikva, the national anthem.

Inside the synagogue in Tikochin (1642-1941)