The announcement by Clarence House that the Prince of Wales will visit Israel in January is another significant milestone for the country but also for our community in Britain and for Holocaust-related causes.
On his last visit to the country three years ago for Shimon Peres’ funeral, the Prince made a point of visiting his grandmother’s grave on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
Princess Alice of Greece saved Jews during the Holocaust and is regarded as one of the Righteous among the Nations.
The Prince and other Royals are immensely proud of the action she took, and often refer to it in their public pronouncements.
Indeed, at the recent reception for the Jewish community at Buckingham Palace, the Prince recounts that, towards the end of her life, when the family questioned Princess Alice about how they would visit her grave, she quipped: “that’s perfectly alright, there’s a very good bus service from Athens.”
Prince Charles has a track record of supporting Holocaust-related causes, and recent years have seen an intensification of this work.
Whether it’s motivated by his grandmother’s story, the realisation that the number of survivors is thinning out, or the impact of meeting and getting to know survivors such as Sir Ben Helfgott is anyone’s guess.
What is beyond doubt is the commitment by the Prince to Holocaust commemoration and education. In 2016 he replaced his mother as Patron of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and has held a number of engagements with survivors’ groups (this strand of work has also been weaved into some of his overseas engagements such as the visit to the Jewish Museum in Vienna two years ago).
His long-term association with WJR, which he is also now patron of, has also exposed him to survivors. Through the charity, he was particularly involved in the building of a community centre in Krakow. His first visit to the horrors of a concentration camp occurred some years earlier when he visited Majdanek in Poland in 1993.
The fact that the Duchess will be attending the commemorations at the former Auschwitz-Birkenau camp on January 27, the exact 75th anniversary of the liberation of the camp, should also not go unnoticed.
It follows the interest that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have taken on Holocaust matters, following their own visit to Stutthof concentration camp in Poland two years ago.
This recent work and the forthcoming double engagement in January illustrates the importance attached to Holocaust commemoration and the Royals’ steadfast commitment to it.
Zaki Cooper worked at Buckingham Palace 2009-12 and is the founder of a leadership advisory business
