The King has delivered a speech to Holocaust survivors on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
“It is a moment when we recall the depths to which humanity can sink when evil is allowed to flourish, ignored for too long for the world,” he said on a visit to the Jewish Community Centre of Krakow, which he opened in 2008.
The King’s visit marks the first time that a British monarch visits Auschwitz, the concentration camp where more than a million people were murdered at the hands of the Nazi regime.
Charles will join survivors and other dignitaries at the site, where a ceremony will be held at 3pm UK time.
“The act of remembering the evils of the past remains a vital task, and in so doing, we inform our present and shape our future,” the King said.
“Here in Krakow, from the ashes of the Holocaust, the Jewish community has been reborn.”
He went on to say there is “no greater symbol” of that rebirth than the centre he is speaking in itself.
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“In a post-Holocaust world projects such as this, this centre is how we recover our faith in humanity,” he said.
“They also show us there is much work still to be done,” he says, adding that it’s important not just to remember the past, “but to use it to inspire us to build a kinder and more compassionate world for future generations”.
“This remains the sacred task of us all.”
More than a million people were murdered at the camp during World War Two, most of whom were Jews but also Poles, Soviet prisoners of war and other nationalities.
Six million Jewish men, women and children died during the Holocaust.
Commemorations at the former death camp began earlier when Poland’s president Andrzej Duda joined Auschwitz survivors laying wreaths and candles at the site.
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Their tributes were left at a reconstruction of the Death Wall, the site where several thousand people, mainly Polish political prisoners, were executed.
In a speech, Mr Duda said “we Poles are the guardians of memory today” and had a duty to maintain the life stories of the survivors.
