A Berlin Synagogue, British Police and the Duty to Protect

This week, law enforcement leaders from across the world are gathering at a synagogue in Berlin to mark the 88th anniversary of Kristallnacht. In November 1938, at least 91 Jews were murdered, synagogues were set ablaze, Jewish businesses were destroyed, and tens of thousands of Jews were arrested across Nazi Germany. This was an organised pogrom, orchestrated by the Nazi regime, a test of how the world would respond to the persecution of Jews. The world’s failure to take decisive action raises a haunting question: might a determined response have altered the course of history that led to the Holocaust and the systematic murder of six million Jews?

For British police leaders, the question of what this history asks of them is urgent. Last year, on Yom Kippur, an attacker drove at people outside Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation in Manchester and attacked them with a knife. Adrian Daulby and Melvin Cravitz were killed, and three other men were seriously injured. Security staff, worshippers and police prevented the attacker from entering the synagogue.

A year later, the threat remains urgent. In September, counterterrorism police announced the arrest of two men in an investigation into a suspected plot targeting the Jewish community in the Manchester area. The allegations remain under investigation. Meanwhile, the Community Security Trust recorded 1,926 antisemitic incidents in the UK in the first half of 2026, its second-highest total for that period. Behind those figures are people threatened or hurt and Jewish institutions targeted because of whom they serve.

For Jewish families, this threat enters ordinary decisions: whether to send a child to a Jewish school, wear an identifiable symbol of their faith or enter a synagogue without scanning the street. No community should have to make those calculations.

The police cannot solve antisemitism alone. But they have a distinct responsibility to recognise danger, respond to threats and build the trust that allows people to report concerns before a crisis. That is why Holocaust education belongs in law enforcement training. It is more than a history lesson; it can help officers understand how hatred develops and what protecting a vulnerable community requires today. The Berlin gathering is part of Not on Our Watch, an educational partnership between the International March of the Living, the Rutgers University Miller Center on Policing and Community Resilience, and police unions around the world. Kristallnacht commemorations for law enforcement personnel taking place this week in Berlin carry this work forward, helping participants bring the lessons they learned at Auschwitz during the March of the Living back to their police forces and apply them in the communities they protect.

We must be precise about the history they are studying. Britain in 2026 is not Germany in 1938, and present-day incidents should not be treated as equivalents of Kristallnacht. But that history asks a question of institutions entrusted with public safety: when Jews report that they are being threatened, what do those institutions hear, and how do they act?

I think of my late friend Eve Kugler z’l, who shared her story with March of the Living participants for many years. As a child in Halle, she saw the synagogue her grandfather had founded burn on Kristallnacht. On Yom Kippur in 2019, a gunman tried to attack a synagogue in the same city. Unable to get inside, he killed a woman near the synagogue and a man at a near shop. Eve later returned to Halle with March of the Living and visited that synagogue. Her story connects a history still within living memory to the urgent task of protecting Jewish communities today.

For police leaders, that task has practical dimensions. Do officers know the Jewish communities in their area before an emergency? Do people trust that reports of intimidation will be taken seriously? Can information about a developing threat reach those who need it? Relationships that help answer those questions are built through regular contact, long before anyone calls for help.

At Heaton Park, the bravery of those who held the synagogue doors, the security staff and the responding officers prevented the attacker from reaching the worshippers inside. We should honour their actions and remember the two men who died, while asking what more can be done to keep people safe.

I have seen how encountering Holocaust history can change the way people understand their responsibilities. I urge British police leaders to join Not on Our Watch and to work with us to host a similar commemoration in Britain next year, bringing officers and Jewish communities together to learn and strengthen the relationships on which effective protection depends. The measure of that commitment will be what follows: how officers recognise threats, respond to concerns and protect those at risk. British Jews should be able to pray, learn and gather without fear. British policing has a vital role in making that possible.

Scott Saunders MBE is Founder and Chairman of March of the Living UK and CEO of the International March of the Living