King Charles spent Monday in Poland, to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Many world leaders came to Poland to mark the day – The Netherlands’ King Willem-Alexander, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and French President Emmanuel Macron, among others. This was the first time a British monarch visited Auschwitz. He was given a tour of the on-site museum, he laid a wreath at the Death Wall and lit a candle. It was all very moving and it’s right that he made the effort to make the journey. Can I also say? It seems very odd that Camilla didn’t go with him. I know she got sick the last time they traveled together, but this was a day trip to a European country. It feels pointed that Camilla didn’t bother.
A royal source emphasized the significance of the visit for King Charles, saying, “While His Majesty has found many ways over the years to engage with survivors of the Holocaust, I know this visit to Auschwitz will be a particularly poignant one for him.”
“That’s not only because of the significance of the anniversary, but as an opportunity for him to reflect on the many stories of suffering and courage he has heard from those who bore witness in the very location where they took place,” the palace source added. “As anyone who has visited the camp can avow, it has a profound impact on the soul, bringing home both the scale of the horrors and the lessons that must be learned for eternity. In that sense, it will be a deeply personal pilgrimage for The King – paying tribute both as man and monarch,” the source said.
In Poland, King Charles began the day at the Jewish Community Centre (JCC) in Krakow, where he met Holocaust survivors and heard from volunteers and members about the organization’s support for people of all ages and backgrounds as part of its mission to rebuild Jewish life in the city.
In a moving speech at the JCC, the King said, “To be in Poland on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, as we commemorate eighty years since the liberation of Auschwitz, is both a sombre and indeed a sacred moment.”
“It is a moment when we recall the six million Jews, old and young, who were systematically murdered, together with Sinti, Roma, disabled people, members of the L.G.B.T. community, political prisoners, and so many others upon whom the Nazis inflicted their violence and hatred.”
“It is a moment when we recall the depths to which humanity can sink when evil is allowed to flourish, ignored for too long by the world…In a world that remains full of turmoil and strife, and has witnessed the dangerous re-emergence of antisemitism, there can be no more important message – especially as the United Kingdom holds the Presidency of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance,” he continued.
“As the number of Holocaust survivors regrettably diminishes with the passage of time, the responsibility of remembrance rests far heavier on our shoulders, and on those of generations yet unborn. The act of remembering the evils of the past remains a vital task and in so doing, we inform our present and shape our future,” the King said.
I will always respect Charles’s interfaith outreach and he has a long, well-documented history of allyship and alliance-building with the Jewish community, Muslim community, Hindu community and beyond. All of those alliances are just going to disappear when William becomes king, right?
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
