The Princess of Wales hugged and held hands with Holocaust survivors as she attended official commemorations to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. Kate joined her husband the Prince of Wales, who described their attendance as ‘a great honour’, at Guildhall in central London on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
Image Credit: Metro [Heads and representatives of state and other guests listen as Polish historian and Holocaust survivor Marian Turski delivers a speech during commemorations on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau by the Red Army, in Oswiecim, Poland on January 27, 2025. (Photo by Sergei GAPON / AFP) (Photo by SERGEI GAPON/AFP via Getty Images)]
The annual event remembers the six million Jewish people murdered during the Holocaust, as well as the millions of other people killed under Nazi persecution. The day also calls on people to remember those lost in the genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur, according to the official website.
Image Credit: Metro [Britain's King Charles III (C) and King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands (L) arrive to attend commemorations on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau by the Red Army, in Oswiecim, Poland on January 27, 2025. (Photo by Sergei GAPON / AFP) (Photo by SERGEI GAPON/AFP via Getty Images)]
Giving his own speech, Sir Keir said the Holocaust was a ‘collective endeavour” by ordinary people “consumed by the hatred of difference’. The Prime Minister said: ‘We start by remembering the six million Jewish victims and by defending the truth against anyone who would deny it. So we will have a National Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre to speak this truth for eternity.
Image Credit: Metro [POLAND: Harrowed children at Auschwitz, in a still from the Soviet film of the liberation of Auschwitz, January 1945. COLOURISED images show the horrors of the Nazi regime on Holocaust Memorial Day. Sobering photos, some revamped in colour for the first time, capture the horror of genocide in the eyes of a gaunt 18-year-old Russian woman; a concentration camp responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people being ceremonially burnt to the ground by liberating British forces; and malnourished Jewish children peering out at their Soviet rescuers through a barbed wire fence at Auschwitz. Other upsetting colourisations include a smiling portrait of four-year-old, Istvan Reiner, taken just a few weeks before he was murdered at the infamous death camp, and another showing a palpably relieved young Jewish refuge recuperating in hospital after being rescued by appalled Allied Forces. Mediadrumimages/TomMarshall(PhotograFix)2020]
‘But as we remember, we must also act. Because we say never again, but where was never again in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur, or the acts of genocide against Yazidi. ‘Today, we have to make those words mean more. So we will make Holocaust education a truly national endeavour.’.
Image Credit: Metro [In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin attends a wreath-laying ceremony at the monument 'Motherland' at the Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery in Saint Petersburg, on January 27, 2025, marking the 81st anniversary of the liberation of Leningrad from Nazi blockade in World War Two. (Photo by Vyacheslav PROKOFYEV / POOL / AFP) (Photo by VYACHESLAV PROKOFYEV/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)]
Sir Keir said all schools would teach the Holocaust and give opportunities to hear a recorded survivor testimony so that ‘we can develop that empathy for others and that appreciation of our common humanity, which is the ultimate way to defeat the hatred of difference’.
Image Credit: Metro [OSWIECIM, POLAND - JANUARY 27: German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attend the ceremony for the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz camp on January 27, 2025 in Oswiecim, Poland. The Nazis built and operated the Auschwitz complex of concentration camps during World War II initially for slave labor and later for the mass extermination of Jews and other undesirables. Approximately 1.1 million people died at Auschwitz, most of them in the notorious gas chambers of Auschwitz II-Birkenau. The Soviet Army liberated the camp in 1945. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)]
![[Heads and representatives of state and other guests listen as Polish historian and Holocaust survivor Marian Turski delivers a speech during commemorations on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau by the Red Army, in Oswiecim, Poland on January 27, 2025. (Photo by Sergei GAPON / AFP) (Photo by SERGEI GAPON/AFP via Getty Images)]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_237569513-d24b.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
![[Britain's King Charles III (C) and King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands (L) arrive to attend commemorations on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau by the Red Army, in Oswiecim, Poland on January 27, 2025. (Photo by Sergei GAPON / AFP) (Photo by SERGEI GAPON/AFP via Getty Images)]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_237568438-d844.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
![[POLAND: Harrowed children at Auschwitz, in a still from the Soviet film of the liberation of Auschwitz, January 1945. COLOURISED images show the horrors of the Nazi regime on Holocaust Memorial Day. Sobering photos, some revamped in colour for the first time, capture the horror of genocide in the eyes of a gaunt 18-year-old Russian woman; a concentration camp responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people being ceremonially burnt to the ground by liberating British forces; and malnourished Jewish children peering out at their Soviet rescuers through a barbed wire fence at Auschwitz. Other upsetting colourisations include a smiling portrait of four-year-old, Istvan Reiner, taken just a few weeks before he was murdered at the infamous death camp, and another showing a palpably relieved young Jewish refuge recuperating in hospital after being rescued by appalled Allied Forces. Mediadrumimages/TomMarshall(PhotograFix)2020]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_237532727-4c13.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
![[In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin attends a wreath-laying ceremony at the monument 'Motherland' at the Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery in Saint Petersburg, on January 27, 2025, marking the 81st anniversary of the liberation of Leningrad from Nazi blockade in World War Two. (Photo by Vyacheslav PROKOFYEV / POOL / AFP) (Photo by VYACHESLAV PROKOFYEV/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_237560921-ef51.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
![[OSWIECIM, POLAND - JANUARY 27: German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attend the ceremony for the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz camp on January 27, 2025 in Oswiecim, Poland. The Nazis built and operated the Auschwitz complex of concentration camps during World War II initially for slave labor and later for the mass extermination of Jews and other undesirables. Approximately 1.1 million people died at Auschwitz, most of them in the notorious gas chambers of Auschwitz II-Birkenau. The Soviet Army liberated the camp in 1945. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SEI_237568480-6d84-e1737991650516.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
