... and remembering Auschwitz, a royal who DOES know how to behave
Paying respects: The Duchess of Cambridge at Holocaust Memorial Day in London yesterday
THE Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have made a point of telling their children about the Holocaust, they told survivors at a ceremony to commemorate the liberation of Auschwitz yesterday.
Kate and William were guests at the service in Central Hall, Westminster, where they met survivors of the genocide. William read an extract from a letter written by a friend of his greatgrandmother Princess Alice – who was famed for saving a Jewish family from the Holocaust – about her good deeds.
The royal couple also helped the 12 survivors light 75 candles – one for each year since the liberation – in memory of those killed during Hitler’s reign of terror, as well as atrocities in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.
‘We were talking to the children about it earlier today,’ Kate told 89-year-old survivor Mala Tribich, who had asked about her family.
‘But we have to be, you know, for a six year old… the interpretation,’ she added, suggesting that she had explained the events in an appropriate way for a child of Prince George’s age.
‘It was so emotional, so many moving stories,’ the Duchess told a group, including Mala, who had spoken on stage of her experience of surviving the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
Mala said afterwards: ‘I said I speak about it in schools... It brings them closer to the history. I told her I follow her and her lovely children in the news and she said “I have told the children”. They have made them aware of it [the Holocaust].’
Mala said of the ceremony: ‘I found it very emotional. The reason I am able to speak about it all is that I’m able to control my emotions, but lately it has become more difficult,’ adding that the music at the event ‘went right into my bones’.
In deeply moving scenes, some of the survivors wept as William and Kate lit wax tapers from the candles, using them to pass the light on to others including faith leaders. William also told of his great-grandmother Princess Alice, who hid the Cohen family in her Athens home after the Nazis invaded in 1943.
The Duchess appeared emotional as he read: ‘The greatgranddaughter of Rachel Cohen, Evy Cohen, said this two years ago: “My family would not exist without the courageous act of Princess Alice. Her story of incredible courage must keep being told in her memory. My generation, the past generation and the future generation are, and will eternally be, grateful... for the great act of bravery, risking her own life to take in a family in need.”’
Laura Marks, chairman of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust said: ‘We’ve had the Prince of Wales at Yad Vashem and the Duchess of Cornwall at Auschwitz and having the Duke and Duchess here, the message it sends out is how important they consider it to be.’
Prime Minister Boris Johnson was also on hand to pay his respects and vowed he would build a national memorial to ensure the horrors of the Holocaust are never forgotten.
Mr Johnson said he felt ‘a deep sense of shame’ at the ‘resurgence of the virus of antiSemitism’ in Britain and said he would ‘do everything I can to stamp it out’.
‘Deeply moving scenes’