{"id":16279,"date":"2026-01-27T19:07:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T19:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=16279"},"modified":"2026-01-27T19:07:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T19:07:17","slug":"king-and-queen-meet-holocaust-survivors-at-buckingham-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=16279","title":{"rendered":"King and Queen meet Holocaust survivors at Buckingham Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"

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King Charles III met Helen Aronson, who survived the Nazis’ Jewish ghetto in Lodz, Poland as a child<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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King Charles III and Queen Camilla have met Holocaust survivors and lit candles of remembrance at Buckingham Palace to mark the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.<\/p>\n

Survivors honoured for their services to holocaust awareness in a series of portraits commissioned by the King were welcomed to the Palace, including 100-year-old Anita Lasker-Wallfisch and 98-year-old Helen Aronson.<\/p>\n

King Charles said survivors who had died were also present “in spirit” at the reception to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Tuesday, Mala Tribich became the first holocaust survivor to address the cabinet – where she urged the government to “do what needs to be done” to tackle antisemitism today.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Holocaust Memorial Day takes place on 27 January each year and remembers the six million Jewish people murdered during World War Two.<\/p>\n

It also commemorates the millions of people outside the Jewish faith who were murdered through Nazi persecution, and those targeted in more recent genocides.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Survivors and their families were invited to the Palace on Tuesday to mark the anniversary, including the daughter and two-year-old grandson of Zigi Shipper, who died in 2023 aged 93.<\/p>\n

Shipper survived two concentration camps, including Auschwitz-Birkenau in occupied Poland, a death march, and the Lodz ghetto – a Jewish ghetto established by the Nazis which was plagued by disease, starvation and forced labour.<\/p>\n

His daughter Lu Lawrence told the King she wished her father could have been present to see his “magnificent” portrait. King Charles responded that he was there “in spirit”.<\/p>\n

The King, who last year became the first British head of state to visit Auschwitz<\/a>, also told 100-year-old survivor Lasker-Wallfish that it was “wonderful” to have her join the reception.<\/p>\n

“It goes back a long way since I first met you, it must be 20 years,” he told her.<\/p>\n

The King and Queen Camilla were later handed candles to light by Rachel Levy, who survived both Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps.<\/p>\n

They spoke to youth ambassadors and charity workers, including the chief executive of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, and viewed a painting featuring excerpts from Anne Frank’s diary.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Mala Tribich survived Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in northern Germany, where tens of thousands of people were killed<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Meanwhile, 95-year-old Mala Tribich was welcomed to Downing Street by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer as the first holocaust survivor “ever to address the cabinet”.<\/p>\n

Tribich, who survived Bergen-Belsen as a 14-year-old and was made an MBE in 2012 for services to education, asked ministers in a five-minute speech not just to listen, but to become her “witnesses”.<\/p>\n

“We survivors never imagined we would witness antisemitism at the level it is today,” she told ministers, some of whom became visibly emotional during the address.<\/p>\n

She said survivors had been “shaken to the core” by recent deadly attacks on Jewish people at a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish religious calendar, and at a Hanukkah event in Sydney, Australia.<\/p>\n

Tribich asked: “How, 81 years after the holocaust, can these people once again be targeted in this way?<\/p>\n

“Remembering the past is no longer enough. I speak to you, leaders of this country I proudly call home, and I plead that you do what needs to be done.”<\/p>\n

Her remarks received a standing ovation.<\/p>\n

Sir Keir thanked Tribich for her “powerful words” and said his government would do “everything to tackle antisemitism wherever it reared its ugly head”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Holocaust Memorial Day sees people around the UK invited to light a candle in their windows to remember those who were killed and to stand against prejudice and hatred.<\/p>\n

Landmarks, buildings and monuments are set to be lit up in purple as part of the national Light the Darkness moment on Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n

The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust said the day mattered more than ever “in a time when prejudice is alarmingly rising across our communities”.<\/p>\n

Dr Marcel Ladenheim, who was hidden by a French family during the Holocaust after his father was killed at Auschwitz, said he now felt “worried” for his children and grandchildren.<\/p>\n

The 86-year-old said the venue of an event he planned to attend on Tuesday had not been disclosed “until very late for fear of a reaction, of mobs making a noise and making life very difficult for us”.<\/p>\n

He told BBC Radio 5 Live: “It upsets me, for example, if I go to the synagogue… that we need security. It upsets me to see and hear that outside Jewish schools, there is security. We don’t feel safe.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

#King #Queen #meet #Holocaust #survivors #Buckingham #Palace<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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