News
Queen’s historic Belsen visit is evidence of the "complete reconciliation" between Britain and Germany
June 25, 2015 09:47
The Queen has described her visit to Bergen-Belsen as evidence of the "complete reconciliation" between Britain and Germany following the war.
She is due to tour the camp on Friday - her first visit to a former Nazi concentration camp - as the climax to her four-day state visit to Germany.
Speaking at a banquet in Berlin on Wednesday, the Queen reminded guests that her cousin, the Duke of Gloucester, had been to the camp earlier this year.
"These visits underline the complete reconciliation between our countries," she said.
"Since 1945 the United Kingdom has determined to number among Germany's very strongest friends in Europe. In the intervening decades, Britain and Germany have achieved so much by working together. I have every confidence that we will continue to do so in the years ahead."
Addressing German president Joachim Gauck, Chancellor Angela Merkel, and British Prime Minister David Cameron, the Queen added: "In our lives, Mr President, we have seen the worst but also the best of our continent. We have witnessed how quickly things can change for the better.
"But we know that we must work hard to maintain the benefits of the post-war world. We know that division in Europe is dangerous and that we must guard against it in the West as well as in the East of our continent. That remains a common endeavour."
She is due to travel to Belsen alongside the Duke of Edinburgh and was expected to lay a wreath at the memorial to Anne Frank, who was one of the 50,000 people killed there.
Holocaust survivors and former members of the British armed forces who liberated the camp 70 years ago were set to meet the royal couple.
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis was also expected to be in attendance, with other faith leaders.
Camp survivor Rudi Oppenheimer said: "I feel very privileged that I have been invited to meet the Queen at Bergen-Belsen. It is a great honour that she will be paying her respects at a place where our families died.
"It is also a great thing that the liberators are being honoured; we remain grateful to the British Army for liberating the camp in April 1945."
Holocaust Educational Trust chief executive Karen Pollock welcomed the visit as "a fitting tribute to the memory of the thousands of victims and survivors of the camp".
She added: "This significant anniversary year is likely to be the last that we will mark with any great number of survivors and liberators still with us and I am sure that this visit will mean a great deal to them, as it does to us all."
It has emerged that the Queen arrived in Germany in a private jet owned by Tottenham Hotspur chairman Daniel Levy.
According to the Evening Standard, Buckingham Palace chartered the Embraer Legacy 650 aircraft, which is listed as being belonging to Mr Levy and boasts the registration G-THFC (Tottenham Hotspur Football Club).
The Palace would not disclose the cost of the charter.
According to some royal sources, the Queen is a fan of Spurs' arch rivals, Arsenal.
