Prince Charles warns against ‘hatred and intolerance’ that led to Holocaust

The Prince of Wales is set to warn how “hatred and intolerance still lurk in the human heart” at an event in Israel marking 75 years since the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz.

Prince Charles was set to tell world leaders in Jerusalem how the lessons of the Holocaust remain “searingly” relevant to this day.

Charles, on his first official visit to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, was delivering a keynote speech at the World Holocaust Forum at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Centre.

Guests were expected to include US Vice President Mike Pence, Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Charles was set to say in his address: “The lessons of the Holocaust are searingly relevant to this day.

"Seventy-five years after the Liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, hatred and intolerance still lurk in the human heart, still tell new lies, adopt new disguises, and still seek new victims.”

He was set to add: “All too often language is used which turns disagreement into dehumanisation.

"Words are used as badges of shame to mark others as enemies, to brand those who are different as somehow deviant.

“All too often, virtue seems to be sought through verbal violence. All too often, real violence ensues, and acts of unspeakable cruelty are still perpetrated around the world against people for reasons of their religion, their race or their beliefs.

“Knowing, as we do, the darkness to which such behaviour leads, we must be vigilant in discerning these ever-changing threats; we must be fearless in confronting falsehoods and resolute in resisting words and acts of violence.

"And we must never rest in seeking to create mutual understanding and respect.”

Polish President Andrzej Duda has refused to attend the event, despite Auschwitz being located in his country. He complained that he had not been allowed to address the audience.

Before making his speech, Charles, who travelled to Jerusalem from the World Economic Forum in Davos, met Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin.

He told Charles that Israel “deeply appreciates” his attendance at the gathering, which he said was aimed at fighting racism and fascism today as well as recalling the past.

Charles’s visit has added significance because the Queen has never made an official visit to Israel or the Occupied Palestinian Territories during nearly 68 years on the throne. Today Mr Rivlin told the prince: “We still expect your mother to come.”

During his two-day tour, Charles will meet Holocaust survivors and be joined by the British Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis.

He is also likely to pay his respects at the resting place of his grandmother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, in Jerusalem’s Church of St Mary Magdalene. She was honoured for hiding and saving the lives of Jews in Nazi-occupied Athens during the Second World War.

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