Kate to join William today at event honouring Jews who were killed in Holocaust – as King makes historic Auschwitz trip
PRINCESS Kate is set to join Prince William at a special event today to honour the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust.
Today’s ceremony - on Holocaust Memorial Day - also marks 80 years since the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp was liberated in Poland.
The Prince and Princess of Wales will join faith and civic leaders as well as survivors of the Holocaust and more recent genocides at the London event.
William is set to give a reading and light a candle at the moving ceremony.
The candles act as a symbol to remember all those who lost their lives in the Holocaust and other genocides.
Holocaust memorial day takes place every year on January 27, remembering the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Read More
The day honours survivors of the Holocaust, Nazi Persecution, and subsequent genocides in Bosnia, Cambodia, Rwanda and Darfur.
Meanwhile, King Charles is in Poland to visit Auschwitz on a "deeply personal" trip.
The King has become the first-ever British monarch to visit the Nazi concentration camp.
He will be joined by foreign monarchs, presidents, prime ministers and Holocaust survivors.
Most read in Royals
They are set to attend a service held at the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum and memorial.
During a recent Buckingham Palace reception ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day, the Monarch said: "I feel I must go for the 80th anniversary, (it's) so important."
He has already visited the Jewish Community Centre today, meeting survivors and volunteers, as well as unveiling a plaque.
The monarch also greeted wellwishers outside the centre, which he opened in 2008.
Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated by soldiers of the 60th Army of the First Ukrainian Front who opened the gates on January 27 1945.
Commemorations at the former death camp began earlier when Poland's president Andrzej Duda joined Auschwitz survivors laying wreaths and candles at the site.
Their tributes were left at a reconstruction of the Death Wall, the site where several thousand people, mainly Polish political prisoners, were executed.
In a speech, Mr Duda said "we Poles are the guardians of memory today" and had a duty to maintain the life stories of the survivors.
More than a million people were murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz-Birkenau during the Second World War.
They comprised mostly of Jews, but also Poles, Soviet prisoners of war and other nationalities were killed as part of the Holocaust.
In total, more than six million Jewish men, women and children were killed.
The camp was finally liberated by soldiers of the 60th Army of the First Ukrainian Front, who opened the gates on January 27, 1945.
The ceremony marking the anniversary will be held in front of the infamous gates which had the words Arbeit Macht Frei - "work sets you free" - above it.
Auschwitz survivors will address the invited guests at the event.
Dignitaries are expected to include President Emmanuel Macron, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands and Spain's King Philip VI and Queen Letizia.
Survivors will place a light in front of a freight train carriage as symbol of the event.
King Charles, along with other heads of state and Government, will also lay lights in memory of those who died during the Holocaust.
After the ceremony, Charles will walk through the gates to view personal items confiscated from victims when they entered the camp.
He will also lay a wreath at a reconstruction of the Death Wall, the site where several thousand people were executed.
In years past, Princess Kate held back tears when she attended an emotional ceremony on Holocaust Memorial Day in Westminster.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
William and Kate joined invited guests and dignitaries including Boris Johnson, actress Nina Wadia and actor Martin Shaw.
The royal mum-of-three became visibly emotional during the ceremony.
Queen pledges to ‘never forget’ Holocaust atrocities
By Matt Wilkinson, Royal Editor
QUEEN Camilla vowed to “never forget” the atrocities of the Holocaust — ahead of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
She spoke at the annual lunch of the Anne Frank Trust in central London where she met survivors, including Eva Clarke, 79, who was born in a concentration camp.
Camilla said: “Today, more than ever, with levels of antisemitism at their highest level for a generation, and disturbing rises in Islamophobia and other forms of racism and prejudice, we must heed this warning.
“The deadly seeds of the Holocaust were sown at first in small acts of exclusion, of aggression and of discrimination towards those who had previously been neighbours and friends.
“Over a terrifying short period of time, those seeds took root through the complacency of which we can all be guilty: of turning away from injustice, of ignoring that which we know to be wrong, of thinking that someone else will do what’s needed - and of remaining silent.
“Let’s unite in our commitment to take action, to speak up and to ensure that the words “never forget” are a guiding light that charts a path towards a better, brighter, and more tolerant future for us all.”
Trust patron Camilla also stood with Auschwitz survivor Arek Hersh, 96, for a candle lighting ceremony before observing a minute’s silence.
Otto Frank was the only family member who survived the war, with 15-year-old Anne dying along with her older sister Margot in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and her mother Edith dying at Auschwitz.
Published in 1947 and read by millions, Anne’s diary became a symbol of hope and resilience.
