King will be first ever British monarch to visit Auschwitz as he makes ‘deeply personal’ trip on Holocaust Memorial Day
KING Charles will become the first-ever British monarch to visit Auschwitz as he makes a "deeply personal" trip.
The monarch, 76, will tour the former Nazi concentration camp to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.
Charles has been invited to Poland for the 80th anniversary of its liberation alongside foreign monarchs, leaders and Holocaust survivors.
He will attend a service at the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum and memorial.
It comes after the King hosted a reception ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day at Buckingham Palace on January 27.
At the event, he told attendees: "I feel I must go for the 80th anniversary, (it's) so important."
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Queen Camilla also vowed to “never forget” the atrocities as she spoke at the annual lunch of the Anne Frank Trust in central London last week.
More than a million people were murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz-Birkenau during the Second World War
They comprised mostly of Jews, but also Poles, Soviet prisoners of war and other nationalities were killed as part of the Holocaust.
In total, more than six million Jewish men, women and children were killed.
The camp was finally liberated by soldiers of the 60th Army of the First Ukrainian Front, who opened the gates on January 27, 1945.
The ceremony marking the anniversary will be held in front of the infamous gates which had the words Arbeit Macht Frei - "work sets you free" - above it.
Auschwitz survivors will address the invited guests at the event.
Dignitaries are expected to include President Emmanuel Macron, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands and Spain's King Philip VI and Queen Letizia.
Survivors will place a light in front of a freight train carriage as symbol of the event.
King Charles, along with other heads of state and Government, will also lay lights in memory of those who died during the Holocaust.
After the ceremony, Charles will walk through the gates to view personal items confiscated from victims when they entered the camp.
He will also lay a wreath at a reconstruction of the Death Wall, the site where several thousand people were executed.
Camilla also met survivors during an event in London last week.
It included a minute's silence and a candle lighting ceremony.
The Queen said: "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 neighbours and friends.
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“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.”