At a poignant ceremony held to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day, Prince William told the remarkable story of his great-grandmother who risked death to protect a Jewish family
Today, the Prince and Princess of Wales marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz at a poignant ceremony in London, and Prince William made sure to pay tribute to a very special member of the Royal Family. In a moving speech, the future King spoke with admiration of those “who risked their own lives to help and save others”, including his own great-grandmother, Princess Alice of Battenberg.
Princess Alice, whose remarkable life was touched upon in the hit Netflix drama The Crown, had been living in the Athens palace of her brother-in-law, Prince George of Greece, when World War II broke out. She had returned to Greece following a period of exile. By 1941, Greece was occupied by Axis forces, and by 1942, Athens fell completely under the control of the Nazi regime following the death of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. It was at this point that the horrific attack on Jews in Greece intensified.
Princess Alice, the mother of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, saw first-hand the horrors that unfolded and was moved to action after hearing the story of a Jewish mother desperate to protect her five children.
As per Holocaust Centre North, Haimaki Cohen was a Greek member of Parliament and well-known to the Royal Family. Throughout the political turmoil of the 1910s, Haimaki continuously showed his support for Princess Alice’s father-in-law, King George I of Greece.
And when Haimaki sadly passed away, Princess Alice made it her mission to help his widow, Rachel Cohen, and their children, sheltering them in her own home.
According to The World Holocaust Remembrance Centre, the four sons of the family had wanted to cross over into Egypt, where they would join the exiled Greek Government in Cairo. However, the journey would have been too dangerous for Rachel and her daughter, Tilde.