LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s Queen Camilla gave a speech to mark Holocaust Memorial Day on Thursday, reminding the audience of the importance of the words “Never forget”, days before the 80th anniversary commemorations for the liberation of Auschwitz take place.
The Jan. 27 service in Poland will be attended by her husband King Charles. He will join French President Emmanuel Macron and other heads of state at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Memorial, which preserves the death camp set up on Polish soil by Nazi Germany.
More than 1.1 million people, most of them Jews, perished in gas chambers at the camp or from starvation, cold and disease.
Camilla, 77, is patron of the Anne Frank Trust UK, a charity which seeks to educate young people about discrimination and which hosted the event at a central London hotel.
Camilla spoke of how Anne’s life and death continue to inspire anti-prejudice movements across the globe.
“Let’s unite in our commitment to take action, to speak up and to ensure that the words ‘Never Forget’ are a guiding light that charts a path towards a better, brighter, and more tolerant future for us all,” she said.
Anne’s diary about life in hiding during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands has been translated into 60 languages. She died in 1945 at another death camp, Bergen Belsen, aged 15.
Camilla said it was crucial to remember the Holocaust given anti-Semitism was at its highest level for a generation and increases in Islamophobia and other forms of racism. She urged people not to be complacent, turn away from injustice or remain silent.
Charles, 76, has also met Holocaust education groups this month ahead of his trip to Poland.
(Reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by Sachin Ravikumar)
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