King Charles has accepted an invitation to visit the Auschwitz concentration camp in January, joining representatives from 20 countries to mark the 80th anniversary of the camp’s liberation.
The King, who visited Auschwitz in 2020 while still Prince of Wales, has long-standing ties with surviving prisoners, many of whom, despite now being infirm, are expected to take part in the commemorative ceremonies. During his visit in 2020, he warned that “hatred and intolerance still lurk in the human heart.”
Although he himself is not in the best of health, he continues his weekly treatment for cancer, King Charles is strongly opposed to anti-Semitism and intends to attend the historic event on January 27. It will almost certainly be the last such event attended by Holocaust survivors.
Organisers say he will be the first British monarch to visit Auschwitz. His mother, the late Queen Elizabeth, made her last overseas trip in 2005 when she visited Bergen-Belsen.
Although Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet Union’s Red Army troops, it is thought there will be no official delegation from Russia at the ceremony.
Piotr Cywiński, director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum, said the presence of Russian representatives at the celebrations was “difficult to imagine” due to disagreements over “European values.”
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić expressed his position on the subject, calling it perverse that Russians would not be invited to the celebrations. He said:
“Now there will be events on the occasion of the liberation of the concentration camp in Auschwitz. Those who liberated it, which were Russians, will not be invited. I assume that those who created the camp will be invited. Everything in our world is, how can I put it, so as not to sound rude, perverted in the opposite way. And this is very strange.”
The King has long been a supporter of the Jewish community, especially in Poland, where his close association with World Jewish Relief led to the opening of a Jewish community centre in Krakow. He remains a patron of the charity.
The UK government has announced additional funding to support the commemoration for the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, of which the King is also patron.
The main events will begin at 4 p.m. in a specially constructed marquee above the gates of the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp with its infamous, deeply cynical Nazi slogan “Arbeit Macht Frei,” or “Work makes you free.” A freight wagon will be placed in front of the gate as a powerful symbol of remembrance.
To mark the anniversary, people across the UK will take part in a special nationwide project called 80 Candles for 80 Years. The event will be the start of several commemorative events, culminating in the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day on May 8.
King Charles’s grandmother, Princess Alice, was named Righteous Gentile for sheltering a Jewish family in Athens during the Holocaust.
