Prince William and Princess Kate attended a moving ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on Monday, Jan. 27, and during the event, the Prince of Wales shared the incredible story of how his great-grandmother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, helped one Jewish family avoid certain death during the Holocaust.
William took the microphone during a Holocaust Memorial Day service in London, taking a moment to honor "those who risked their own lives to help and save others," including Prince Philip's mother.
"I was recently reminded of my great-grandmother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, who lived in Athens during the Second World War," Prince William said in a video shared by the Daily Mail on Instagram.
During his speech, he quoted from a book Heroes of the Holocaust, reading, "Conditions were particularly severe in Athens and its port, Piraeus. Alice worked tirelessly for the Red Cross, helping to organize soup kitchens, opening shelters for orphaned children, and setting up a nursing system for poor areas of the city."
However, Princess Alice didn't just volunteer publicly.
The Prince of Wales noted that his great-grandmother "gave refuge to a Jewish widow, Rachel Cohen, and two of her five children to save them from deportation to the death camps," noting how it "was an extremely risky undertaking."
The princess, who lived in her brother-in-law Prince George of Greece's palace at the time, "used her deafness to an advantage" and "pretended not to understand their questions" when questioned by the Gestapo.
"It worked, and they soon gave up," William said, noting that thanks to his great-grandmother, "the entire Cohen family survived the war."
The Prince and Princess of Wales lit candles during the ceremony and also met with Holocaust survivors, including Steven Frank and Yvonne Bernstein, who posed for photos Princess Kate took in 2020. Meanwhile, King Charles marked the day by becoming the first British monarch to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland.
