King Charles Leads Powerful Holocaust Memorial Event at Buckingham Palace

King Charles III lights candles at a Holocaust Memorial event in Buckingham Palace. (X Screenshot) (X Screenshot)

King Charles is expected to join other world leaders at Auschwitz on January 27 in honor of the 80th anniversary of the infamous death camp’s liberation.

By Jewish Breaking News

King Charles III welcomed organizations dedicated to educating the next generation on the Holocaust to Buckingham Palace this week.

During the emotional event on Monday, his Majesty witnessed innovative initiatives being developed in the UK to preserve and transmit survivors’ experiences.

Among them was a groundbreaking AI-powered virtual reality program called Testimony 360, which enables students to interact with Holocaust survivors’ stories in a lifelike way.

The King, who tried out the technology, remarked how it gave a “particularly good impression of the horror” of the camps.

The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT), of which the King serves as patron, presented their “80 Candles for 80 Years” project. Complete with musical notes and broken glass, it paid tribute to the women who survived Auschwitz.

His Majesty also took time to view artistic portraits of Holocaust survivors lining the walls outside the palace’s Bow Room.

But perhaps the highlight of the night came when he spoke with 94-year-old survivor Manfred Goldberg.

Manfred’s father was able to escape Nazi Germany in 1939, but the rest of the family were unable to join him.

In 1941, Manfred, his mother, and younger brother were deported to the Riga Ghetto in Latvia. Just three months before the ghetto was fully liquidated, he was sent to a nearby labor camp where he was forced to work laying railway tracks.

As the Red Army approached, Manfred was evacuated together with other surviving prisoners to Stutthof concentration camp near Danzig in 1944. After liberation, he emigrated to Britain to be reunited with his father.

Speaking to the Jewish Chronicle, Manfred noted that the King appeared to “fully understand the colossal injustice and atrocity that was perpetrated against Jewish people during the Holocaust” and has made Holocaust awareness an “active component of his life.”

“He was very complimentary to me, and it was nice to hear it coming directly from His Majesty,” he said.

King Charles is expected to join other world leaders at Auschwitz on January 27 in honor of the 80th anniversary of the infamous death camp’s liberation.