❥ 27 JANUARY 2025 | The Prince of Wales gave a speech during the Holocaust memorial service at London's Guildhall.
During the speech, he paid tribute to his great-grandmother, Prince Philip's mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg.
“I am honoured to join you today to mark Holocaust Memorial Day and to remember the millions murdered during the Holocaust and in subsequent genocides.
We also remember those survivors, who have lived with the scars both mental and physical. Their bravery in sharing with us the most harrowing moments of their lives, are extremely powerful and ensure we never forget. I assure them, we never will.
On this, the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, we also recall those who risked their own lives to help and save others. They risked death, torture and persecution to defy the aggressors.
I was recently reminded of my great-grandmother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, who lived in Athens during the Second World War.
This is an extract from the book ‘Heroes of the Holocaust’:
'In the early days of German occupation, conditions deteriorated rapidly as food ran out when an estimated 300,000 people died…Conditions were particularly severe in Athens and its port, Piraeus. Alice worked tirelessly for the Red Cross, helping to organise soup kitchens, opening shelters for orphaned children, and setting up a nursing system for poor areas of the city.
It was at this time that Princess Alice gave refuge to a Jewish widow, Rachel Cohen, and two of her five children to save them from deportation to the death camps.
This was an extremely risky undertaking in the close-packed streets of Athens where there was always the danger of spies and gossip….On 15 October 1943, Rachel Cohen and Tilde moved into Alice’s home. The staff were told that Mrs Cohen was the former governess to her children…Michel, the youngest of the four brothers, joined them about a month later…. There were great risks, not least the position of the house – the front door faced the residence of the local Archbishop, which always had a German guard on duty outside.
She was sometimes interviewed by the Gestapo and used her deafness to an advantage, pretending not to understand their questions or what they were talking about.
It worked and they soon gave up. Thanks to her, the entire Cohen family survived the war.'
It has been a great honour for Catherine and I to join you all today.
Princess Alice was honoured as 'Righteous Among the Nations' for hiding the Cohens in her house in Athens during the War and was posthumously named a Hero of the Holocaust by the British Government in 2010.
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