The Princess of Wales hugged and held hands with Holocaust survivors as she attended official commemorations in London to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.
Kate joined her husband Prince William, the Prince of Wales, who described their attendance at Guildhall in central London on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz as "a great honour”.
King Charles laid a candle in memory of the Holocaust victims who died at Auschwitz-Birkenau at a moving ceremony attended by world leaders at the site of the death camp.
Holocaust survivor Marian Turski urged the world to think of the victims "who will never tell us what they experienced or they felt" as world leaders gathered.
Charles earlier paid tribute to victims and warned of the "dangerous re-emergence of antisemitism" while on a visit to the Jewish Community Centre in Krakow.
More than 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, perished in gas chambers or from starvation, cold and disease at Auschwitz.
Scroll down for the latest updates.
Key Points
- King Charles to visit Auschwitz on Holocaust Memorial Day
- Holocaust survivor calls for tolerance: ‘We all come from same family’
- 'I thought that we all had to die. That it was normal if you are a Jewish child' says Holocaust survivor
Live coverage ends
21:41 , Jacob PhillipsThe Evening Standard’s live coverage of Holocaust Memorial Day has ended.
Read all the latest stories from the Standard here.
King say visit to Auschwitz 'something I will never forget'
20:49 , Jacob PhillipsThe King has described his historic visit to Auschwitz as “something that I will never forget” and said remembering the “horrors” of the concentration camp was a “sacred duty”.
Charles and other world figures joined Auschwitz survivors for a poignant ceremony to remember and mourn all those murdered at the infamous, German-occupied site liberated 80 years ago.
For the King the visit – the first by a British monarch to Auschwitz – was said to be profound and Charles appeared emotional at one point and wiped his eye.
Candles were left by heads of state and government after the survivors had placed their flickering tributes, and Charles placed his light with both hands, before taking a step back and bowing his head.
Read more about the King’s visit to Poland here.
Starmer: Holocaust was ‘collective endeavour’ by ordinary people consumed by hatred
18:25 , Jacob PhillipsThe Prime Minister has said the Holocaust was a “collective endeavour” by ordinary people “consumed by the hatred of difference”.
It is now a collective endeavour for “all of us” to defeat the “hatred we stand against today”, Sir Keir Starmer said in a speech to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.
He spoke of his “harrowing” visit to Block 27 at Auschwitz with his wife Victoria earlier this month to search for members of her family in the Book of Names.
“We turned page after page after page just to find the first letter of a name. It gave me an overwhelming sense of the sheer scale of this industrialised murder.
“And every one of those names, like the names we were looking for – was an individual person. Someone’s mother, father, brother, sister brutally murdered, simply because they were Jewish.”
You can read more about what the Prime Minister said here.
Kate hugs Holocaust survivors at remembrance event in London
18:15 , Jacob PhillipsThe 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.
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.
William, wearing a navy suit and blue tie, and Kate, wearing all black, were greeted on arrival by Olivia Marks-Woldman, chief executive of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, and its chairwoman of trustees Laura Marks.
Photos capture King Charles laying candle
17:30 , Jacob PhillipsAfter a prayer by a group of clerics representing Judaism, the Catholic and Protestant churches, Greek Orthodox and Islam, survivors, accompanied by family members, were invited to leave symbolic candles in memory of those who died at Auschwitz.
The elderly men and women placed the lights on a table and they were followed by the heads of state and Government.
The King was among a group of foreign monarchs, including King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands and Spain’s King Philip VI and Queen Letizia, and placed his light among a growing number with both hands, before taking a step back and bowing his head.
King Charles, world leaders and Holocaust survivors places candle on train car
17:14 , Jacob PhillipsKing Charles has joined world leaders in placing a candle on an empty wooden train car, which sits on the tracks at Auschwitz.
The car carried people to the camps, and is regarded as a symbol of death.
Auschwitz survivors have also laid candles during the commemorations at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland to mark 80 years since the liberation of the concentration camp.
World leaders and Holocaust survivors mark 80 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp
17:02 , Jacob PhillipsWorld leaders, members of royal families from across the world and Holocaust survivors have helped mark 80 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.
Here are some of the best photos from the day so far.
Princess of Wales, to attend Holocaust Memorial Day event with Prince William in London
16:46 , Jacob PhillipsThe Princess of Wales will join her husband to attend official commemorations to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.
William and Kate will pay their respects at a service in London on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on Monday.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is also expected to attend and speak at the service, along with faith and civic leaders and survivors of the Holocaust and more recent genocides.
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.
You can read more about the event here.
'The prayers of so many desperate women permeated my soul and haunt me to this day'
16:44 , Jacob PhillipsOne of the most powerful moments form the commemoration event at Auschwitz has been a speech from one of its youngest survivors Tova Friedman.
Ms Friedman spoke for the children and told guests she was six years old when she was liberated from the Nazi death camp.
She described her journey to the concentration camp: “Hungry, thirsty and very terrified I held on tightly to my mother’s hand in the dark cattle car for countless hours while the cries and the prayers of so many desperate women permeated my soul and haunt me to this day.
“Finally, we arrived at Auschwitz, a gloomy Sunday with a sky obscured by smoke and a terrible stink hung in the air, and there were rows and rows of naked women all around me.”
During her time in the camp she thought it was “normal” to die if you were a Jewish child.
She went on to urge the guests: “We all, all of us, must reawaken our collective conscious to transform this violence, anger, hatred and malignancy, that has so powerfully gripped our society, into a humane and just world. Before this terrible, terrible negative forces will destroy us all.”
October 7 attacks and Auschwitz have 'common thread' says Ronald Lauder
16:31The President of the World Jewish Congress Ronald Lauder has now made an address on behalf of the major donors of the Memorial and Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau.
He said: “It is hard for us to believe what we see today. The sudden violence of hatred against Jews.
“The singling out of the one Jewish state. Huge demonstrations shouting antisemitic slurs everywhere.
“This is hard for us to watch, any of us but I can not imagine what this must be like for the almost 50 survivors who are here today.”
He later added: “We know that 1.5 million children were killed in the Holocaust. The most heartbreaking number in an ocean of heartbreak.
“But 15 months ago, not 80 years ago, we saw Jewish children slaughtered once again. For one reason - because they were born Jewish.”
He pressed on: “What happened in Israel on October 7 and what happened here in Auschwitz have one common thread - an age old hatred of Jews.”
'I thought that we all had to die' says survivor
16:07 , Jacob PhillipsTova Friedman, an 86-year-old Auschwitz survivor has revealed some of the heartbreaking feelings she had while she was held as a young child at Auschwitz.
“I thought that we all had to die. That it was normal if you are a Jewish child - that we had to die.
“I wasn’t even sure what ‘Jewish’ was because I never saw any celebrations.
“But death, child, Jewish, seemed a normal thought.”
She later added: “At that time we were victims in a moral vacuum but today however we have an obligation, not only to remember - which is very, very important.
“But also to warn and to teach that hatred brings more hatred, killing more killing. Instead our revenge has been to build a strong Jewish country and raise our families in peace.”
She pressed on: “80 years of the liberation the world is again in crisis. Our Jewish-Christian values have been overshadowed worldwide by prejudice, fear, suspicion and extremism.
“The rampant antisemitism that is spreading among the nations is shocking. It is shocking to all of us.”
Survivor: 'I thought to myself - Am I the only Jewish child left in the world?’
15:57Survivor Tova Friedman has now been speaking at the ceremony.
She said: “I remember as a five-and-a-half year old child watching form my hiding place... as all my little friends were rounded up and driven to their deaths.
“While the heartbreaking cries of their parents fell on deaf ears.
“After all their children were gone and the courtyard was empty I thought to myself ‘Am I the only Jewish child left in the world?’”
She later described how she arrived at Auschwitz on a gloomy Sunday with the “sky obscured by smoke and a terrible stink hung in the air.”
She added: “There were rows and rows of naked women all around me.
“What are they looking for?’ I asked my mother as I too was naked and I tried to avoid the gleam of the German Shepherd’s teeth and their eyes.
“I was their height so I could see them completely. I can still see their eyes to this day.”
'Let us not fear demonstrating the same courage today' says survivor
15:45 , Jacob PhillipsHolocaust survivor Marian Turski has spoken about the “huge rise in antisemitism” sweeping across the world.
He told crowds: “Today and now we see a huge rise in antisemitism and that is precisely the antisemitism that led to the Holocaust.
“Deborah Lipstadt called it ‘The Tsunami of antisemitism’ and it was her courage, her tenacity in fighting Holocaust denial...that put an end to it.”
He continued: “Let us not fear demonstrating the same courage today when Hamas attempts that denial of the massacre of October 7.
"Let us not fear discussing the problems that torment the so-called last generation".
Holocaust survivor: 'Now there is only a handful'
15:33Marian Turski, who survived Auschwitz, has spoken about how there is only a handful of survivors left.
The 98-year-old, whose brother and father were murdered at Auschwitz, told crowds: "Those who lived to see freedom, there were hardly, hardly, none. So few. And now, there is only a handful."
Mr Turski said he believed thoughts should go towards the millions of victims "who will never tell us what they experienced or they felt, just because they were consumed by that mass destruction."
He then mentioned a poem that has survived, which he says "goes beyond anything that the mind can imagine."
He reads a bit of the letter that the poet wrote to her friend before she was killed.
It said: "'I'm going to a very distinct place, a station which is unknown for it is not on any map.
“There is the sky hanging over the station like a huge black lid.
“The engine shrieks with the voice of a beaten man.”
King Charles joins monarchs from around the world at ceremony
15:21King Charles has been pictured sat with monarchs from across Europe.
He is sat with King Philippe of Belgium, Queen Mathilde of Belgium, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and King Frederik X of Denmark and Queen Mary of Denmark at the ceremony.
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King Charles and Emmanuel Macron arrive at ceremony at Auschwitz-Birkenau
15:02 , Jacob PhillipsKing Charles and French President Emmanuel Macron have arrived at a ceremony taking place to mark 80 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.
Next generation must learn of ‘catastrophic moral failure’ of Holocaust – David Lammy
14:56 , Jacob PhillipsThe next generation must not be allowed to focus on online “clickbait” and ignore the grim lessons of the Holocaust, David Lammy said.
The Foreign Secretary said youngsters needed to understand “how the seeds of such a catastrophe are still around us”.
Speaking at a reception co-hosted by the Israeli embassy in the UK, Mr Lammy said: “‘Never again’ is a solemn promise which we owe to the victims, but also which we must uphold for our own sake, and for the sake of future generations.
“We need Holocaust remembrance. Holocaust education. Action against antisemitism – it is how we build a better future for us all together.”
Read more about what Mr Lammy had to say here.
Prince and Princess of Wales to attend ceremony in London
14:46 , Matt WattsThe Princess of Wales will join her husband to attend official commemorations to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.
William and Kate will pay their respects at a service in London on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on Monday.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is also expected to attend and speak at the service, along with faith and civic leaders and survivors of the Holocaust and more recent genocides.
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.
King: Never be a bystander in the face of hate
14:30 , Daniel KeaneThe King has said the testimony of Holocaust survivors teaches us to "never be a bystander in the face of violence and hate" as he met those who lived through one of humanity's darkest hours.
He told those gathered at the Jewish Community Centre (JCC) that remembering the "evils of the past remains a vital task", and knowledge should be used to inspire people to "build a kinder and more compassionate world".
The King told guests that to be in Poland to mark 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz was "sombre and indeed a sacred moment".
He went on to say: "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.
"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."
Four survivors scheduled to speak at Auschwitz ceremony
14:06 , Daniel KeaneFour survivors are scheduled to speak later this afternoon at the remembrance ceremony in Auschwitz.
Journalist and historian Marian Turski, 98, was sent to Auschwitz in 1944 and survived the westward 'death march' to Buchenwald in 1945.
Author and academic Tova Friedman, 86, whose book 'The Daughter of Auschwitz' describes her experiences, was transported with her mother to the camp at just five.
Physician Leon Weintraub, 99, lived in the Lodz ghetto and was separated from his family and sent to Auschwitz in 1944.
And retired pharmacist Janina Iwanska, a Polish Catholic, was taken to Auschwitz in a freight train in 1944, after being expelled from her home during the Warsaw Uprising against the Nazis.
Zelensky attends ceremony in Kyiv
13:35 , Daniel KeaneUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who leads a nation defending itself against Russia's brutal invasion, placed a candle at the Babyn Yar Holocaust memorial a day before in Kyiv, where tens of thousands of Jews were executed during the Nazi occupation.
On Monday he arrived in Poland to attend the commemorations.
"The evil that seeks to destroy the lives of entire nations still remains in the world," he wrote on his Telegram page.
King Charles delivers speech and meets Holocaust survivors in Krakow
13:17 , Daniel KeaneKing Charles III gave a speech during his visit to the Jewish Community Centre (JCC) Krakow, to meet Holocaust survivors and hear from volunteers and members about the centre's support for people of all ages and backgrounds as part of its mission to rebuild Jewish life in the city.
The King is in Poland to attend commemorations at Auschwitz-Birkenau, marking 80 years since the liberation of the concentration camp.
Pictured: German ambassador to Russia lays flowers at memorial
12:52 , Daniel Keane
'We remember and say never again', says Irish premier
12:28 , Daniel KeaneIrish taoiseach Micheal Martin has said the world will “remember and say never again” ahead of the Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony.
“Today, we remember the unique horrors of the Holocaust, in particular the extermination of six million jews from across Europe in the Nazi death camps,” he said.
“We remember also the Roma, the disabled, the political dissidents, the members of the LGBTQ community and all who were persecuted and murdered without mercy in the camps.
“It is a particular honour to be here at what is probably the last significant anniversary at which survivors of the camps will be present in person.
“Though they are now all advanced in years, their memories of what happened in the camps – the profound loss of their family members and the destruction of Europe’s vibrant Jewish communities – remain crystal clear and vivid.
“We owe it to them to ensure that now, and for all generations to come, we remember and say never again.”
‘We all come from the same family’: Holocaust survivor on need for tolerance
10:41 , Michael HowieA Holocaust survivor has stressed the importance of being tolerant towards minority groups, saying all people “come from the same family”.
Janine Webber, 92, hid under a wardrobe with her family before working as a shepherdess and living in a convent under a false identity to avoid Nazi persecution during the Second World War.
She also lost both of her parents within months of each other by the age of nine.
Now an experienced public speaker, Ms Webber, who lives in north-east London, said she was unable to talk about her story for 50 years and only decided to share her experience after encouragement from her own children.
She was due to speak at the Israeli embassy, Foreign Office and Southampton University on Holocaust Memorial Day on Monday, with this year marking the 80th anniversary of the event.
Asked what the day means to her, Ms Webber said: “It means to respect people.
“My message is always to be tolerant towards the minorities, to respect and be kind to people even if they look different, speak differently or have a different religion or different colour of skin.
“I hope that people will give this message.”
She added: “We are all human beings. We all come from the same family.”
King Charles to visit Auschwitz on Holocaust Memorial Day
10:27 , Michael HowieThe King will become the first British head of state to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau when he tours the former Nazi concentration camp on Monday to mark the 80th anniversary of its liberation.
Charles was heading to Poland to commemorate the milestone with foreign monarchs, presidents, prime ministers and Holocaust survivors invited to a service at the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum and memorial.
More than a million people, mostly Jews but also Poles, Soviet prisoners of war and other nationalities, were murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz-Birkenau during the Second World War as part of the Holocaust in which six million Jewish men, women and children were killed.
The camp was liberated by soldiers of the 60th Army of the First Ukrainian Front who opened the gates on January 27 1945.
The ceremony will be held in front of the infamous gates of the former Nazi concentration camp which had the words Arbeit Macht Frei - "work sets you free" - above it.
Auschwitz survivors will address the invited guests who are expected to include France's President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands and Spain's King Philip VI and Queen Letizia.
The ceremony is expected to get under way at 3pm UK time.
