Princess Kate will join Prince William at a Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony in London, marking her first official engagement since announcing her cancer remission. The event commemorates the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
Prince William’s attendance was already scheduled, but Princess Kate’s participation is a significant and unexpected addition. The ceremony honors the six million Jewish people murdered during the Holocaust and millions more killed under Nazi persecution and in subsequent genocides. January 27th marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp.
This will be Princess Kate’s first royal appearance since revealing her cancer remission on January 14th. She shared the news in a social media post after visiting The Royal Marsden Hospital in London, where she had received treatment. The Princess and Prince William have now become patrons of the hospital.
The royal couple previously attended the UK Holocaust Memorial Day Commemorative Ceremony in 2020 for the 75th anniversary. During that service, Prince William read a letter written by a friend of his great-grandmother, Princess Alice, who is recognized for saving a Jewish family during the Holocaust. William and Kate also participated in a candle lighting ceremony with Holocaust survivors, including Yvonne Bernstein, whom Kate later photographed.
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Princess Kate, a keen photographer, captured portraits of two Holocaust survivors with their grandchildren on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day in 2020. These images were part of a broader exhibition organized by the Holocaust Memorial Trust, Jewish News, and the Royal Photographic Society, of which Princess Kate is a patron. The exhibit featured 75 photographs of survivors and their families to commemorate 75 years since the end of the Holocaust.
In a statement accompanying the 2020 exhibit, Princess Kate said, “The harrowing atrocities of the Holocaust, caused by unthinkable evil, will forever lay heavy in our hearts. Yet, remarkable people often flourish amidst unimaginable adversity.” She praised survivors Yvonne Bernstein and Steven Frank as “two of the most life-affirming people” she had met.
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She emphasized the importance of preserving their stories: “While I’ve been fortunate to meet two survivors, I recognize not everyone in the future will hear these stories firsthand. It’s vital their memories are preserved and passed on to future generations, so what they endured will never be forgotten.” King Charles is currently in Poland to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Auschwitz liberation, making history as the first British monarch to visit the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
