King says ‘remembering evils of the past remains vital’ as he marks Auschwitz liberation anniversary

The King has told Holocaust survivors on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz that “remembering the evils of the past remains vital”.

“It is a moment when we recall the depths to which humanity can sink when evil is allowed to flourish, ignored for too long for the world,” he said on a visit to the Jewish Community Centre of Krakow, which he opened in 2008.

The King then joined survivors and other dignitaries at Auschwitz, marking the first time that a serving British monarch has visited the concentration camp where more than a million people were murdered at the hands of the Nazi regime.

Before he laid a candle as the UK’s representative at the ceremony, three Holocaust survivors shared their stories, with Tova Friedman saying she felt it was “normal” that “as a Jewish child they all had to die”.

Janina Iwanska also said: “It is difficult to calculate all the people killed here.”

Follow the latest: Survivors recount Auschwitz horrors at ceremony 80 years later

Kate, the Princess of Wales, will also join Prince William at a Holocaust commemoration ceremony in London later on Monday.

The royals will pay their respects alongside Sir Keir Starmer and hear survivors and campaigners speak.

Speaking in Krakow, the King said: “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.

“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.

“Here in Krakow, from the ashes of the Holocaust, the Jewish community has been reborn.”

Read more:
Survivors mark liberation from Auschwitz 80 years ago
‘My mother sacrificed herself for me’

The King went on to say there is “no greater symbol” of that rebirth than the centre he is speaking in itself.

“In a post-Holocaust world, projects such as this, this centre, is how we recover our faith in humanity,” he said.

“They also show us there is much work still to be done,” he says, adding that it’s important not just to remember the past, “but to use it to inspire us to build a kinder and more compassionate world for future generations”.

“This remains the sacred task of us all,” he added.

Later, the King joined world leaders like Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Auschwitz, as those who lived through the Holocaust shared their stories of survival.

‘The killing machine’

Ms Iwanska said that while the camp was originally for political prisoners, in March 1942, “the operators of the camp started building gas chambers and the crematorium”.

“It was no longer a POW camp, a Soviet camp – this is when the killing machine started its operation,” she added.

“It is difficult to calculate all the people killed here.”

Ms Friedman also told those in attendance: “I remember as a five-year-old child watching from my hiding place as all my little friends were rounded up and driven to their deaths while the heartbreaking cries of their parents fell on deaf ears.

“After all the children were gone and the courtyard was empty – I thought ‘am I the only Jewish child left in the world?'”

She recalled that while held in Auschwitz, she “was being beaten mercilessly by a guard for fidgeting for not being able to stand still for hours,” as she looked into her mother’s eyes.

“She was pleading with me ‘don’t cry’. And I didn’t. At five I had the rebellion in me that I would not let them know the pain they are inflicting on me.”

More than a million people were murdered at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp during the Second World War, most of whom were Jews but also Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war and other nationalities.

Six million Jewish men, women and children died during the Holocaust.

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.