King Charles has become the first British head of state to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau today after attending a poignant ceremony at the former Nazi concentration camp to mark the 80th anniversary of its liberation
A moved King Charles has made history by becoming the first British monarch to visit Auschwitz for an emotional ceremony to commemorate the 80th anniversary of its liberation.
Charles has headed to Poland to commemorate the milestone with foreign monarchs, presidents, prime ministers and Holocaust survivors invited to a service at the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum and memorial. More than a million people, mostly Jews but also Poles, Soviet prisoners of war and other nationalities, were murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz-Birkenau during the Second World War as part of the Holocaust in which six million Jewish men, women and children were killed.
During the ceremony today, the King looked emotional and appeared to wipe away a tear has he listened to Auschwitz survivors poignantly recall their stories of surviving the Nazi death camp. He sat alongside other moved royals, including the King Frederik of Denmark as well as Queen Mathilde of Belgium.
The ceremony was being held in front of the infamous gates of the former Nazi concentration camp which had the words Arbeit Macht Frei – “work sets you free” – above it. Auschwitz survivors adressed the invited guests who include France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Ukraine’s Vlodymyr Zelenskyy, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands and Spain’s King Felipe and Queen Letizia.
At the end of the service, Charles and other dignitaries walked along the railway where Dr Josef Mengele – the so-called “Angel of Death” – decided which of the new arrivals should live or died, and they place candles at the monument.
After the ceremony Charles will walk through the gates to view personal items confiscated from victims when they entered the camp and lay a wreath at a reconstruction of the Death Wall, the site where several thousand people, mainly Polish political prisoners, were executed.