Police chief heading on once-in-a-lifetime trip
It’s a “tremendous lifelearning experience,” says Medicine Hat Police Chief Andy McGrogan, who will be travelling to Poland and Israel next week as part of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s annual mission for Holocaust education.
“(The Holocaust) it’s one of the most blatant examples of hate crime in that century,” said McGrogan, who was invited by the foundation to participate in this year’s trip from July 1-10 alongside other Canadian law enforcement officials and educators. The mission takes participants to sites including the ancient Jewish town of Krakow; the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp; the remaining sites of the Warsaw ghetto; the Gensia cemetery, Christian, Jewish and Muslim sites in Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv — and includes survivor testimony.
“It’s going to be a completely immersing experience,” said McGrogan, who has spoken with other police chiefs who have participated in previous years and told him it’s an experience of a lifetime. This will be McGrogan’s first time visiting the sites, and he stressed he is the one paying for his travels.
The foundation states that the tour is “designed to spur conversation and contemplation among frontline professionals for how the Holocaust came about, how it could have been prevented and how it relates to today’s complex world — particularly in their own communities.”
“In Medicine Hat, we have some anti-Semetism issues that arise, but it’s not our biggest issue, but it’s an important issue,” said McGrogan.
As well, the Medicine Hat Police Service is always working on diversity and inclusiveness, he said.
“And the more I learn about it as the leader of this organization the better I will be at making this a part of our every day experiences here.”