The Prince of Wales has described the Holocaust as “not just a Jewish tragedy, but a warning to all of us”.

Addressing survivors and leading political and religious figures at the UK’s national Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony in Westminster, the prince said the Shoah was “an unparalleled tragedy and an act of evil unique in history. It is for these reasons that we must always remember it and honour its Jewish victims and the Nazis’ other victims.

“The memory of this subject, and the unspeakable yet almost incredible details of the Nazis’ diabolical plan, can help future generations to understand not just what happened across Europe, but how it came to happen and why similar terrible things have happened in places such as Bosnia and Rwanda.

"It should also help us to reflect on how we should respond to events in the Middle East today.

“We so often fail to stop these tragedies in time because the circumstances are always different, but this only makes Holocaust Memorial Day more relevant and important than ever. I could have read from the writings of Anne Frank or her like, who wrote so tragically about their experiences.

"But what I find so moving is the three lines scratched in the wall at a concentration camp: ‘I believe in the sun even when it's not shining, I believe in love even when I don’t feel it, I believe in God even when he is silent.’”

In an HMD message, the Duke of Cambridge said that “on the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, we remember all those who suffered so terribly in the monstrous evil of the Holocaust. We must never forget the indescribable suffering, the millions of lives shattered and the human impact behind the statistics.

"The commemorations allow us to honour the victims of one of the darkest chapters in human history and pay tribute to the survivors and their stories of hope. We must keep these memories alive to learn from the past and create a safer future."

Prime Minister David Cameron told the service: "Two years ago on a family visit to Berlin, I sat in the shadow of the memorial of the murdered Jews of Europe, and tried to explain it to my children.

"So many of our incredible Holocaust survivors have been going into schools to share their testimonies, reliving the most harrowing moments of humanity so we may never forget. For years, Holocaust survivors have seen this as their duty to us.

"It is time for Britain as a nation to stand together and take on our duty to them, to say we will remember them, we will not allow any excuses for antisemitism in our country, not let anything destroy the multifaith, multicultural society that we have built, and make sure that they can learn from the stories of our Holocaust survivors before they are gone.

"I am accepting the recommendations of the Holocaust commission. The memory of Holocaust survivors will be faithfully preserved for generations to come. We will get on and do this straight away. The government will kickstart the society-wide fundraising effort to commit £50m.

"We stand in remembrance of those who were murdered in the darkest hour of human history, in memory of what our Holocaust survivors have given us, and united in our goal to fight antisemitism and prejudice in all its forms, today, tomorrow, for all time to come."