Later this month, King Charles will travel to Auschwitz to participate in an event commemorating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp.
The ceremony, which will be held in Poland on 27 January, is expected to draw international visitors, including world leaders and dignitaries.
Ahead of the commemorations, the King will host an event at Buckingham Palace on Monday afternoon, where he will meet individuals involved in educational initiatives that aim to preserve the memory of the Holocaust. Among those he will meet is Manfred Goldberg, a 94-year-old Holocaust survivor who endured the horrors of concentration camps and a death march.
The King’s involvement in Holocaust remembrance has been longstanding. In 2022, he commissioned portraits of seven Holocaust survivors, including Mr. Goldberg, to honor the remaining witnesses of these atrocities. During the unveiling of these portraits, the then Prince Charles remarked, “These portraits represent something far greater than seven remarkable individuals. They stand as a living memorial to the six million innocent men, women, and children whose stories will never be told, whose portraits will never be painted.”
The upcoming events in Poland will pay tribute to the victims of Auschwitz and honor the survivors who lived through its horrors. According to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, the ceremony will take place under a tent erected at the camp’s iconic gate, where many victims arrived by train. A symbolic freight car will be positioned in front of the gate as a poignant reminder of the past.
At the time of the camp’s liberation by the Soviet army in January 1945, approximately 7,000 prisoners remained in Auschwitz. The camp had been the site of the murder of 1.1 million people, most of whom were Jewish. The focus of the commemoration will be on the elderly survivors who endured Auschwitz, ensuring that their stories are remembered by future generations.
During his visit, King Charles is also scheduled to meet Polish President Andrzej Duda. The event coincides with Holocaust Memorial Day, a global day of remembrance.
Mr. Goldberg, whom the King will meet at Buckingham Palace, was born in Germany in 1930 to a Jewish family. He faced forced labor in Riga, Latvia, and was later imprisoned in the Stutthof concentration camp, near present-day Gdansk, Poland. After being liberated at the end of World War II, Mr. Goldberg eventually settled in Britain. In recent years, he has dedicated his efforts to sharing his story to educate younger generations about the Holocaust.
King Charles has consistently worked to foster dialogue among different faiths and has spoken against religious intolerance and extremism. His continued support for Holocaust remembrance underscores his commitment to promoting understanding and unity.
The upcoming commemoration at Auschwitz serves as a vital reminder of the atrocities committed during World War II and the importance of preserving the memory of those who perished and those who survived. Photo by xiquinhosilva, Wikimedia commons.