The Princess of Wales will join her husband to attend official Holocaust Memorial Day commemorations to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
Both William and Kate will pay their respects at a service in London on Monday, while prime minister Keir Starmer will attend and speak at a service, alongside faith and civic leaders, and survivors of the Holocaust.
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 and those who died in subsequent genocides.
Both the prince and princess, then the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, attended a service marking the 75th anniversary in 2020, while Kate also took photographs of Holocaust survivors at Kensington Palace.
Kate, 43, made a surprise return to public appearances earlier this month when she gave thanks to medical teams at The Royal Marsden hospital in London, where she received her cancer treatment.
She later said it was “a relief to now be in remission” and that she was “looking forward to a fulfilling year ahead”.
The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust has encouraged people across the UK to join in a ‘national moment’ by lighting candles and placing them in their windows at 8pm on Monday.
Famous buildings and landmarks will also be lit purple as a show of solidarity.
The King has travelled to Auschwitz in Poland for the anniversary, where he will join survivors and other dignitaries at the site of the former concentration camp for his own service on Monday afternoon.
Ahead of the ceremony, Charles met Holocaust survivors at the Jewish Community Centre (JCC) Krakow he opened in 2008 and greeted dozens of well-wishers outside the building. Some people held out their hands for the King to shake, while others held up their smartphones to capture his visit.
In a speech a the centre, the British monarch described Holocaust Memorial Day as “a moment when we recall the depths to which humanity can sink when evil is allowed to flourish, ignored for too long by the world”.
He warned: “In a world that remains full of turmoil and strife and has witnessed the emergence of antisemitism, there can be no more important message…
“The act of remembering the evil of the past remains a vital task.”
