King Charles hosted a Holocaust Memorial and Education event at Buckingham Palace (Image: Getty)
will become the first British monarch to visit Auschwitz when he travels to the former Nazi concentration camp later this month, he told guests at a memorial event yesterday.
He revealed to Holocaust survivor Manfred Goldberg, 94: “I feel I must for the 80th anniversary. It’s so important.”
Auschwitz was liberated on January 27, 1945, by soldiers who found 7,500 prisoners and 600 corpses. Eighty years to the day, heads of state, presidents and prime ministers from around the globe will gather at the site in Poland for a poignant remembrance ceremony.
Buckingham Palace said Charles, 76, will meet members of the local community in Krakow beforehand, as well as Poland’s president Andrzej Duda.
It comes five years after Camilla visited the concentration camp for its 75th anniversary. In 2015, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip visited another camp, Bergen-Belsen, during a visit to Germany.
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Earlier today, Charles spoke of his trip at an event in the palace’s Bow Room, where he lit a candle and heard about initiatives to ensure the experiences of Holocaust survivors aren’t forgotten when they die.
He told Mr Goldberg and his wife Shary: “I can’t bear the dwindling number left behind.”
Mr Goldberg, who didn’t talk publicly about the horrors he saw until he was in his 70s, has previously worked with the King and the Prince and Princess of Wales to keep the memories alive.
He is one of four Holocaust survivors whose stories form part of a new educational programme using AI to let children chat with them face-to-face, as if in real time.
Each survivor answered more than 1,000 questions over five days of filming, allowing the programme to provide the answers to around 15,000 questions via a databank.
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King Charles lit a candle during his engagement today (Image: Getty)
King Charles will travel to Poland to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz (Image: Getty)
The King watched a demo of the programme, called Testimony 360: People and Places of the Holocaust, at yesterday’s reception.
Mr Goldberg said: “I find it almost difficult to put into words, and I’m not often lost for words, but I think it is an astounding affirmation by His Majesty that he fully understands the colossal injustice and atrocity that was perpetrated against the Jewish people during the Holocaust.
“He seems to have made it an active component of his life to do what he can to ensure that people become aware. Like me, he is trying to spread knowledge. Once people understand what the Holocaust represents, every single one contributes to preventing it happening again.”