Genocide cannot become just a fact of history, Prince tells world leaders
Each encounter with a survivor of the worst chapter in human history has left its mark upon the Prince of Wales. So too, his own grandmother’s personal bravery in shielding a Jewish family from the clutches of the Nazis. Yesterday, on his first official visit to Israel, the Prince of Wales joined world leaders on Jerusalem’s Mount of Remembrance in a collective vow to stand in defiance against a rising tide of anti-semitism and promise the Holocaust will never be forgotten.
The Prince was among nearly 50 world leaders at the World Holocaust Forum at Yad Vashem, the memorial to the six million victims of what is known in Hebrew as the Shoah. He delivered a speech that declared “the Holocaust must never be allowed to become simply a fact of history” and warned its lessons remained “searingly relevant to this day”.
He also paid tribute to the “selfless actions” of Princess Alice, his grandmother, who in 1943 while living in Nazi-occupied Greece sheltered a Jewish family in her own home.
In 1993, Yad Vashem bestowed the title of Righteous Among the Nations on Princess Alice, who is buried at the nearby Mount of Olives.
Vladimir Putin, Emmanuel Macron and Frank-walter Steinmeier, the presidents of Russia, France and Germany, were among other leaders to deliver speeches to the forum, the largest international event ever held in Israel, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by Soviet troops.
The rise in anti-semitism was a common theme. Speaking before the event, Dr Moshe Kantor, the Londonbased president of the World Holocaust Forum Foundation, warned anti-semites across Europe were increasingly seeking political power and singled out the recent failed election bid of Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, whose party has been engulfed in an anti-semitism crisis.
Mr Steinmeier acknowledged: “Seventy-five years after the liberation of Auschwitz, I stand before you all as president of Germany and laden with the heavy historical burden of guilt.” He wished he could say Germans had learnt from history. “But I cannot say that when hatred is spreading.”
It comes as the head of the memorials at two former Nazi concentration camps in Germany revealed a disturbing rise in visits by the far Right and Holocaust deniers.
Prof Volkhard Knigge, the head of the memorial foundation for Buchenwald and Mittelbau-dora concentration camps, warned of entries discovered in visitor books that describe National Socialism and the camps as “useful and good for Germany” as well as Holocaustdeniers disrupting guided tours.
The organisers of the forum had been insistent that politics should not overshadow the event. Still, with so many world leaders in attendance some diplomatic furore was inevitable.
Mike Pence, the US vice president, urged leaders to “stand strong” against Iran, which he said was the “leading state purveyor of anti-semitism” in comments echoed by Benjamin
Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister.
Meanwhile, Mr Putin called for an urgent meeting of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (China, US, UK, Russia and France) to demonstrate a common desire for peace. “Russia is willing to engage in a serious conversation and without further ado,” he said.
One notable absentee was Andrzej Duda, the Polish president, after Mr Putin recently accused his country of being partially responsible for the start of the Second World War and its government at the time of being anti-semitic.
During his speech, the Prince of Wales spoke of the “singular privilege” of having met so many survivors of the Holocaust throughout his life.
Earlier in the day, after meeting Reuven Rivlin, the Israeli president, he spent nearly half an hour engrossed in conversation with two Holocaust survivors at the Israel Museum, including Marta Wise, who as a 10-year-old girl was sent to Auschwitz where she was the victim of experiments by Josef Mengele, the notorious Nazi doctor.
During his speech, the Prince cited Anita Lasker-wallfisch, who survived Auschwitz and co-founded the English Chamber Orchestra, of which he is patron.
Addressing the 100 or so survivors in the audience he praised their “strength of spirit, unparalleled courage and determined defiance of the very best of humanity when confronted with the very worst”.
The event concluded with two Holocaust survivors lighting a memorial torch before the Prince joined world leaders in laying a wreath at the foot of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising monument. It finished with the El Maleh Rahamim memorial prayer followed by the recitation of the Kaddish, the mourner’s prayer.
‘I stand before you as the president of Germany and laden with the heavy historical burden of guilt’