I had the privilege of being invited to attend the Poland Study Tour 2026 hosted by the Council of Christians and Jews (CCJ). In hindsight, I was grateful for the two pre-tour briefing sessions we had, one in person and one online. However, nothing fully prepared me for the impact of visiting the sites in Poland and hearing the personal and historical accounts of the Holocaust.
I was so pleased to undertake the tour with ecumenical colleagues from across the church traditions I already knew, including representation from the Anglican Church; Catholic Church; United Reformed Church; Methodist; Quaker; Greek Orthodox and Church of Scotland traditions.
The first three days of our visit to Poland were spent in Warsaw, a city completely rebuilt after the ravages of World War Two. As you walk through the city centre of Warsaw, you’re reminded on every street corner of that conflict. Whether by impressive monuments or street names, Warsaw while now a thriving city, reminds you of the scars of war and displays the shadows of both German invasion and post-war Soviet Union occupation.
Our tour began with a visit to the Jewish cemetery and then on to the POLIN Museum. I was particularly struck by the unmarked, common grave covered by stones, which would have represented so many Jewish lives lost. The POLIN Museum gave us a fascinating insight into a thousand years of Jewish history in Poland. The following day we walked around the geographical area that would have been the Jewish Ghetto in Warsaw. Little of the Ghetto remains, but the stories were nonetheless haunting and gave us a vivid sense of how hard life was for the Jewish community in the terrible conditions there, where so many lost their lives.
The train journey from Warsaw to Krakow gave us all a chance to reflect on what we had seen in Warsaw. Krakow, in contrast to Warsaw is an old city that was not flattened during World War 2. A city full of character, with a vibrant main city square. From there, we travelled to the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.
Nothing can prepare you to visit this vast concentration camp. The appalling, overcrowded conditions people were forced to live in. The gas chambers, the piles of glasses, hair, and even pots and pans that people had brought, hoping at least for resettlement, yet meeting a horrific, untimely death.
I reflected on social media at the time that the visit to Auschwitz “had been a deeply moving and disturbing reminder that bad things happen when ordinary people at best acquiesce and at worst collude with beastly forces.” We say “never again,” and yet history has repeated itself in other parts of the world, even up until today!
My hopeful memory of the Poland tour was sharing food at the Jewish community centres in both Warsaw and Krakow. The resilience and community development I observed in those community centres reminded me of the resilience I see in my own community – African Caribbean communities in the UK. That against all the odds, “Still We Rise!”
If you haven’t visited Auschwitz, I would recommend you do. I grateful to the Council of Christians and Jews to give me the opportunity to be part of this tour. For me it was a timely reminder that in today’s world it only takes good people to stay silent for the evils of Nazism, fascism and racism take hold once again.
All photo credits: Bishop Mike Royal