Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), a co-chair of the Senate antisemitism task force, visited Poland last month to discuss antisemitism and the Holocaust, including a visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

She told Jewish Insider in an interview last week that the trip was designed to “really think about and witness for myself firsthand what … this extreme hate can really do,” with a focus on the experiences of Jews in Poland during the Holocaust. Rosen’s trip included visits to both Warsaw and Krakow.

“One thing we know for sure is hate may start with the Jews, but it never ends there,” Rosen continued. “And so I went to think about that, to talk to folks about how they still deal with the scars there in Poland, and how it will inform my work here in America as we fight rising antisemitism.”

She said that one of the critical lessons from the trip was that the genocidal antisemitism of the Holocaust did not come on suddenly or all at once, but instead “creeps up bit by bit.”

“It’s important for us to remember and think about the history of the Holocaust because it’s a warning for what’s in store for us when society ignores hate and discrimination,” Rosen said. “It’s a moment that we’re in right now, that calls all of us, Jew and non-Jew, to action.”

The trip was Rosen’s first visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau, though she said she had been close with a woman who had survived the camp. She described it as “quite an intense experience.”

“When you see it there, you just can’t imagine how hate can just fester and grow, and the cruelty that people just did every day,” she said. “The indifference from society — how could you not smell the crematoriums? People knew, and they were indifferent because it wasn’t them.”

She said that visiting the camp brought to life the images and stories that she has heard.

“You feel the pain that was there, and I kept thinking, ‘What did it smell like? What were the cries? What were people doing?’ It’s very haunting,” she said.

She said that she came away from the trip dedicated to passing the Jewish American Security Act, a bill she is helping lead to combat antisemitism in the United States and better protect Jewish community institutions in the face of rising antisemitism globally.

She said that she and Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), the lead Republican sponsor, are continuing to work to pass the bill before the end of the year, and said that building more bipartisan support during the Senate’s brief September session will be critical.

“Whether I go forward and do unanimous consent [request to pass the bill], whether it becomes part of a larger end of the year package, as we oftentimes have, doing nothing is not an option,” Rosen said.

Rosen said that the “bright spot” of her trip was visiting Krakow, which still maintains a vibrant Jewish community where she was able to enjoy a Shabbat dinner, a show of “resilience” and moving forward in the face of “cruelty and indifference.”

The Nevada senator also met with members of the Polish government but said her conversations largely focused on NATO and the Russian incursions into NATO territory, rather than on Poland’s handling of post-Holocaust issues or antisemitism.

The country, and particularly its former government, have been condemned for its failure to reach a restitution agreement for Holocaust survivors and efforts to downplay Poland’s role in the Holocaust.

She said she had spoken about fighting antisemitism in modern Poland with others during her trip, including the country’s chief rabbi, the U.S. ambassador to Poland and the head of the American Jewish Committee’s office in Poland.

Rosen said that provisions in the Jewish American Security Act addressing social media will help address the rise of antisemitism abroad as well, and also emphasized the need for the U.S. to continue to lead in pushing back against Holocaust denial and distortion and setting a model of how countries can support and protect their Jewish communities.