King Charles Makes History with Emotional Visit to Auschwitz for Holocaust Memorial Day: 'A Sacred Moment'

King Charles is leading the royal family’s commemorations of the victims of the Holocaust on Holocaust Memorial Day.

On January 27, King Charles, 76, traveled to Poland to visit the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp on what was described as a "deeply personal pilgrimage." The date marks the anniversary of the camp’s liberation by Allied forces on Jan. 27, 1945 and is observed globally as Holocaust Memorial Day.

Marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation, King Charles’s visit carried profound significance as he is the first British monarch to visit the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Meanwhile, in London, Prince William, 42, and Kate Middleton, 43, attended a poignant ceremony where they joined survivors of the atrocities that took place at the concentration camp and elsewhere under Germany’s Nazi regime.

A royal source emphasized the significance of the visit for King Charles, saying, “While His Majesty has found many ways over the years to engage with survivors of the Holocaust, I know this visit to Auschwitz will be a particularly poignant one for him."

“That’s not only because of the significance of the anniversary, but as an opportunity for him to reflect on the many stories of suffering and courage he has heard from those who bore witness in the very location where they took place," the palace source added. “As anyone who has visited the camp can avow, it has a profound impact on the soul, bringing home both the scale of the horrors and the lessons that must be learned for eternity.

“In that sense, it will be a deeply personal pilgrimage for The King - paying tribute both as man and monarch," the source said.

Holocaust Memorial Day also honors the victims and survivors of other genocides that have occurred since, including those in Rwanda, Cambodia, and Bosnia.

In Poland, King Charles began the day at the Jewish Community Centre (JCC) in Krakow, where he met Holocaust survivors and heard from volunteers and members about the organization's support for people of all ages and backgrounds as part of its mission to rebuild Jewish life in the city.

Then, he will join world leaders at Auschwitz-Birkenau. He will also hold a meeting with the country’s President Andrzej Duda.

In a moving speech at the JCC, the King said, "To be in Poland on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, as we commemorate eighty years since the liberation of Auschwitz, is both a sombre and indeed a sacred moment."

"It is 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 said. "And it is a moment when we recall the powerful testimonies of Survivors such as Lily Ebert, who so sadly passed away in October, and who collectively taught us to cherish our freedom, to challenge prejudice and never to be a bystander in the face of violence and hate."

"In a world that remains full of turmoil and strife, and has witnessed the dangerous re-emergence of antisemitism, there can be no more important message – especially as the United Kingdom holds the Presidency of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance," he continued.

"As the number of Holocaust survivors regrettably diminishes with the passage of time, the responsibility of remembrance rests far heavier on our shoulders, and on those of generations yet unborn. The act of remembering the evils of the past remains a vital task and in so doing, we inform our present and shape our future," the King said.

Prince William and Princess Kate began the day’s events with a heartfelt meeting with British Holocaust survivors in London.

The royal family regularly recognizes the suffering and sacrifices made by those victimized by genocides throughout history and has been holding events in the buildup to this year's historic commemorations.

On Jan. 13, King Charles hosted a Holocaust education event at Buckingham Palace, where he met 94-year-old Manfred Goldberg, a survivor of multiple concentration camps, including Stutthof. Charles also shared a close bond with Holocaust survivor Lily Ebert, whom he honored at Windsor Castle in 2023 for her contributions to Holocaust education. Following her death in October 2024, Charles paid a heartfelt tribute, saying, "It was with the greatest sadness that I heard this morning the news of Lily Ebert’s death."

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In 2020, on the 75th anniversary of Holocaust Memorial Day, Prince William and his wife, Kate Middleton, 43, paid a poignant tribute by lighting candles at the U.K. commemorations. Among the survivors present was 82-year-old Yvonne Bernstein, one of the individuals featured in powerful portraits taken by Princess Kate to mark the occasion.

Ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day on Jan. 27, Queen Camilla delivered remarks at a reception hosted by The Anne Frank Trust on Jan. 23, saying, in part: "Today, more than ever, with levels of antisemitism at their highest level for a generation and disturbing rises in Islamophobia and other forms of racism and prejudice, we must heed this warning. The deadly seeds of the Holocaust were sown at first in small acts of exclusion, of aggression and of discrimination towards those who had previously been neighbors and friends.

"Over a terrifying short period of time, those seeds took root through the complacency of which we can all be guilty: of turning away from injustice, of ignoring that which we know to be wrong, of thinking that someone else will do what’s needed — and of remaining silent.

"Let’s unite in our commitment to take action, to speak up and to ensure that the words 'Never Forget' are a guiding light that charts a path towards a better, brighter and more tolerant future for us all," she added.