During his visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau, King Charles III conveyed to Holocaust survivors the solemn and reverent atmosphere he felt being in Poland that day, making him the first British monarch to visit the site.
Witnesses noted that tears welled up in the monarch’s eyes as he attentively listened to the narratives of those who had lived through the horrors of the former Nazi concentration camp. He was seated alongside other global leaders gathered to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the camp’s liberation.
As the survivors made their way into the ceremony, they were met with applause from the attendees, which included distinguished figures such as France’s President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Spain’s King Philip VI and Queen Letizia, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, and King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands.
Among the survivors speaking today was Marian Turski, 98, who condemned a ‘huge rise’ in antisemitism, calling for ‘courage’ against Holocaust deniers.
Earlier, the King was welcomed by dignitaries as he landed on a Royal Air Force plane at Krakow Airport before visiting the Jewish Community Centre (JCC) in the city.
There, he met Holocaust survivors and heard from volunteers and members about the JCC’s support for people as part of its mission to rebuild Jewish life in the city.Â
Meanwhile back in London, the Princess of Wales will join her husband Prince William to attend official Holocaust Memorial Day commemorations in the UK.Â
The King said today at the JCC that the ‘evil’ of the Holocaust should ensure the world will never again ‘be a bystander in the face of violence and hate’.
Describing his visit to Poland as a ‘sombre and sacred moment’, Charles remembered the six million victims of the ‘hatred and violence’ of Hitler’s Nazi regime, pointing out that the anniversary was a timely reminder.
He said: ‘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.
‘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.’
Highlighting inspirational Holocaust survivor Lily Ebert who died last October, but inspired much of his work, he said she ‘collectively taught us to cherish our freedom, to challenge prejudice and never to be a bystander in the face of violence and hate.’
The King described the vibrant centre in which he was standing as a symbol of the Jewish community’s rebirth ‘from the ashes of the Holocaust’.
It came about after a visit by the King to Krakow in 2002 with the help of World Jewish Relief, of which he is patron, and now works not just with the city’s flourishing Jewish community but also to foster interfaith harmony and has been instrumental in assisting many of its Ukrainian refugees.
Moved by the stories of the survivors he met, the King sought to find a way for them to meet together to share their experiences and encourage the younger Jewish community, adding a significant personal donation of his own.
He returned in 2008 to officially open the centre and has kept in touch with it regularly since, adding another donation to its funds to mark today’s visit. It now has 1,000 members and has helped more than a million people.
Today he was reunited with one of the men he first met in 2002, whose story so moved him.
Ryszard Orowski, 84, lost his entire family after they were deported to the ghetto in Skawina from Krakow.
He was only saved after his mother found a way to get him out before its liquidation in 1942 and she was taken to the Belzec extermination camp.
He was taken in by a Polish family who raised him as their own, hiding him in their attic and cellar until after the war, going on to become an engineer, marrying and having two daughters.
Standing to shake hands with Mr Orowski, Charles said: ‘It’s such a pleasure. ‘
He then patted him on the back, joking: ‘Poor man has to put up with me each time. ‘
He was also introduced to Bernard Offen, the centre’s oldest survivor at 95, as well as Zofia Radzikowska, 89, some of the 58 Holocaust survivors in Krakow who use the centre.
‘You Majesty, do you remember me?’ Mrs Radzikowska asked.
‘Of course I do,’ the King said.
‘God save the King!’ she declared, loudly.
‘Oh no, no, no,’ Charles replied, smiling.
‘You are wonderful to be here today. It’s a great joy for me to come back to Krakow and have this chance to see you because I am thrilled that this centre is doing so well and is expanding its reach. More and more people come here,’ he said, smiling.
‘We are so grateful and happy,’ Mrs Radzikowska said.
‘I am so thrilled and happy about that,’ the King replied.
‘You are keeping reasonable well? Good. ‘
Told that they were among the centre’s most active residents, the King asked Mr Offen: ‘Are you singing in the choir? ‘
He was told that his voice wasn’t ‘good for it’.
‘I know that feeling, it gets worse,’ chuckled the King.
‘You can see each others and make lots of old friends here? Still amazing and energetic by the looks of it. You had such a dreadful time, didn’t you, in the war. The camps you ended up in. You survived, thank God.’
Talking to Mr Ryszard, the King said: ‘It was a long time ago that we met. I hope this is an improvement for you after all these years.’
‘Yes, thanks to Your Majesty we have a place to be together,’ an interpreter said.
The King discussed Shabbat and other traditions at the centre and heard that it has became so successful they needed more space.
‘So we need to have another effort? he said.
‘There are a lot of people here from Ukraine, I hear. The wonderful thing here is that you can providing housing, food and support,’ he said.
Charles was then shown the ‘free shop’, a food bank that is staffed by volunteers for many of the Ukrainian refugees that have arrived in the city. The JCC still helps around 1,000 people a week, mainly women and children, 98 per cent of which are not Jewish.
He was introduced to Anastazja Lasna and her mother, Victoria, who now live in the city with her young daughter, Lisa, who was at school today.
Both women fought back tears as they spoke to the King and appeared genuinely moved by his presence.
Anastazja said: ‘You Majesty, my family were forced to leave our home but we found a safe place here in Krakow with this Jewish community which have provided us with emotional support, housing and essential needs.Â
‘Here we have found a sense of belonging and I feel we can start a life here again. On behalf of every community member I want to express my deepest gratitude to you and your family. Thank you. ‘
Victoria added: ‘Thank you so much. It’s such an honour for me to meet you in person.’
‘As long as it isn’t too much of a terrible experience for you,’ Charles smiled kindly.
Official welcoming the king to ‘your centre’, its executive director, Jonathan Ornstein, told the King it was particularly important that the Jewish community, who had once been victims, could now be ‘caregivers’ in helping the Ukrainian people.
As the King had arrived early there was enough time to pop into the premises of the Jewish preschool below – the first to open since the Holocaust – where he was presented with a sweet painting that had been made by the children of himself, thanking him for helping to set the centre up.
It was given to him by Ayala Ornstein Leonardi and Michael Aderet. ‘Thank you!’ they chorused.
‘Oh look! I say! Thank you so much indeed, very nice isn’t it? So who has done it? All of you? Thank you,’ the King said.
The monarch then left straight for the formal commemorations at the concentration camp.
Speaking about the visit, centre director Mr Ornstein said: ‘Without question this building exists because the then Prince of Wales met with survivors and asked how he could help them and had the vision to understand that this community could be about so much more than Holocaust survivors.
‘We send regular briefings to him, he tells me how proud he is of our work here, particularly with Ukraine. Unlike a lot of people who visit here kept his promise and we are incredibly grateful always that the King gave this Jewish community a future.
‘The message here is that no community, no matter what it goes through, is beyond help. This community has gone through genocide eighty years to go on to help others.’
Before he left Mr Ornstein told the King he also had to thank him for meeting his wife at the centre.
‘Fortunately I don’t charge commission,’ the sovereign joked.
Born in 1935, Mrs Radzikowska, 89, spent the war in hiding with her mother in Krakow pretending to be Polish Christians. Her father was murdered in Auschwitz
She said afterwards: ‘People told my mother after the war that my father had been murdered. Auschwitz is an evil place. The King will find it difficult.
‘What happens today in the world, happening not far way from us, it is very important that Great Britain keep helping Ukraine. Eighty years later and again we don’t feel safe. Humanity has not learned its lesson.
‘Today I am very happy to meet King Charles. He is a man of class, he has done so much for this place, for us. He is a man ready to speak to everyone. He is a gentleman. It’s how I image a real English gentleman. We have to remember the past and shape the future. It’s important the whole world remembers what happened and that it could happen again. Everywhere there is war. God help us.
‘Now I am not strong enough to come here [the Jewish Centre] every day but I come here for Shabbat or if something is happening. A big part of my life is connected with this place. ‘
Speaking through an interpreter, Mr Orowski said: ‘It’s a wonderful thing to have the king here. It was my request of him to help us. He asked what could he do for the Jewish community in Krakow. My proposal was to have a building for the community where all the Jewish organisations could meet.
‘Back then the prince said ‘yes I will do my best to make this happen’. And he did. My message to the world is not to have conflict between nations. Even minor conflicts lead to catastrophic war. There should be no differences between people. We should be tolerant towards each other. We should remember what happened during the war the holocaust and do everything possible to make sure it doesn’t happen again.’
The King has travelled to Poland to commemorate the milestone with foreign monarchs, presidents, prime ministers and Holocaust survivors invited to a service at the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum and memorial.
During a Buckingham Palace event earlier this month to mark Holocaust Memorial Day, held annually on the day Auschwitz – which was in German-occupied Poland – was liberated, the King said: ‘I feel I must go for the 80th anniversary, (it’s) so important.’.’
Commemorations at the former death camp began earlier when Poland’s president Andrzej Duda joined Auschwitz survivors laying wreaths and candles at the site.Â
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, mostly Jews but also Poles, Soviet prisoners of war and other nationalities, were murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz-Birkenau during the Second World War as part of the Holocaust in which six million Jewish men, women and children were killed.
The camp was liberated by soldiers of the 60th Army of the First Ukrainian Front who opened the gates on January 27, 1945.Â
The ceremony will be held in front of the infamous gates of the former Nazi concentration camp which had the words Arbeit Macht Frei – ‘work sets you free’ – above it.
Survivors will place a light in front of a freight train carriage – a symbol of the event – and the King with other heads of state and Government will 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 and lay a wreath at a reconstruction of the Death Wall, the site where several thousand people, mainly Polish political prisoners, were executed.
It comes as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer warned a similar atrocity could happen in the future unless society upholds its duty to ‘make ‘never again’ finally mean what it says’.
In a statement, he paid tribute to the six million Jewish people murdered by the Nazi regime and renewed his commitment to ensure all schools across the country teach students about the genocide.
‘The Holocaust was a collective endeavour by thousands of ordinary people utterly consumed by the hatred of difference,’ Sir Keir said. ‘That is the hatred we stand against today and it is a collective endeavour for all of us to defeat it.
‘We must start by remembering the six million Jewish victims and by defending the truth against anyone who would deny it.’
The Prime Minister said ‘as we remember, we must also act,’ pointing to other atrocities in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur which followed the Holocaust.
‘Today, we have to make those words mean more. We will make Holocaust education a truly national endeavour,’ he said.
‘We will ensure all schools teach it and seek to give every young person the opportunity to hear a recorded survivor testimony, because by learning from survivors we can develop that empathy for others and that appreciation of our common humanity, which is the ultimate way to defeat the hatred of difference.
‘It happened, it can happen again: that is the warning of the Holocaust to us all. And it’s why it is a duty for all of us to make ‘never again’ finally mean what it says: never again.’
The Prime Minister also visited Auschwitz earlier this month, where he vowed to fight the ‘poison of antisemitism’.
Last Wednesday, he welcomed a group of survivors and their families to Downing Street, describing the meeting as ‘an incredible privilege’ and praising their ‘sheer and remarkable courage’.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch spoke of the importance of confronting ‘the resurgence of antisemitism today’ while reflecting on the Holocaust as a ‘unique evil in human history.’
‘This year, we solemnly commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. We must continue to honour the memory of the six million Jewish men, women, and children who were brutally murdered in the Holocaust,’ she said.
‘As the Holocaust recedes from living memory, it is imperative that we listen to the testimonies of the remaining survivors and ensure their stories are passed on to future generations.
‘While we reflect on the unimaginable horrors that antisemitism has wrought in the past, we must also confront the resurgence of antisemitism today.
‘Globally, we have witnessed the abduction of Jews, violent riots, and attacks on synagogues.
‘Alarmingly, antisemitism is on the rise here in the UK as well. The Jewish community has significantly enriched our nation, and their traditions, history, and resilience are integral to Britain’s diverse and vibrant identity.
‘Yet, we see weekly marches spewing modern-day hatred of Jews. Antisemitism, often disguised as ‘anti-Zionism,’ is prevalent on our streets and in our universities.
‘The Holocaust stands as a unique evil in human history. It is crucial that we learn its lessons and continue to combat antisemitism, ensuring that ‘never again’ truly means never again.’
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey urged vigilance in defending ‘peace, human rights and compassion’ and guarding against ‘antisemitism, hatred, discrimination and oppression’.
’80 years ago, seven thousand people were finally liberated from Auschwitz. Free at last, after years of unimaginable misery,’ he said in a statement.
‘In the years before, 1.1 million people had been murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz alone – mostly Jews.
‘As we commemorate 80 years since Britain and her allies defeated the Nazis and ended the Holocaust, we must never forget those appalling atrocities.
‘We must never forget how six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis; how so much inhumanity was inflicted on humans by humans.’
He paid tribute to Lily Ebert, a Holocaust survivor and memoirist who died last October.
‘Lily wrote about a banknote, given to her by an American soldier after the liberation. He’d written on it: ‘A start to a new life. Good luck and happiness,” Sir Ed said.
‘She wrote: ‘This was something I knew I’d keep forever, a reminder, after all the cruelty we’d endured, that people could be compassionate. There was some hope and humanity left in the world’.
‘We must remember that too, and live up to the positive vision Lily could see, even after so much darkness.’
