70th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz: January 27, 2015


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The Prince of Wales went to the Funeral of the King of Saudi Arabia.

No Members of the British Royal Family , even their minor Members either for the Funerals of the late Consort Queen Fabiola of Belgium.

Why are they going far away and not even in Belgium or Poland ?
 
The Prince of Wales went to the Funeral of the King of Saudi Arabia.

No Members of the British Royal Family , even their minor Members either for the Funerals of the late Consort Queen Fabiola of Belgium.

Why are they going far away and not even in Belgium or Poland ?
I'm not saying this doesn't look bad or that they aren't the ones calling the shots. But if I remember correctly it is the government that requests them to attend things. Maybe they (stupidly) didn't want a royal representative?
 
It is a shame no one from the House of Windsor saw fit to go.

This event was commemorated in the UK with the Prince of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Prime Minister and 200 survivors of the Holocaust and many others.

Posters on here may consider the event in Europe a priority but we remembered with victims who survived and made their homes in the UK.

It wasn't ignored or forgotten. IT was a very personal and special event.

There is more than one way to remember, and no one should be criticised for remembering as they choose.

The event is detailed on the Charles and Camilla current events thread.
 
A touched Prince x , Prince y says......
Nothing to me with what I heard and saw about this terrible Tragedy :
1.800.000 people lost their lives , only thousand
survivals



Nobody denies that. But this is, first and foremost, a royal forum about royal people. The horrifying, terrible Shoa and its victims standing in the focus you´ll find somewhere else. A royal social media is hardly the right place for that!
 
And the award for the most tasteless behavior at a solemn occasion goes to a Swedish TV-journalist. Rolf Frederksson, who is employed at the public service SVT.

Here reported in the Danish Jyllands Posten: Journalist spurgte om kronprinsesses nazistiske familiehistorie ved Auschwitz - Europa - International The DK journalist is not impressed, not at all!

While visiting Auschwitz and while Crown Princess Victoria was flanked by two holocaust survivors, the TV-journalist in his infinite wisdom decided to ask for a comment from Victoria, who said: "We must not forget history but we can learn from history".
Then the journalist had a massive brain hemorrhage and asked Victoria: "Has the Crown Princess thought about the family history? There were relatives further back who were sympathetic to the Nazis and then there was Folke Bernadotte who with the white buses saved people from the concentration camps". (*)

Victoria, who must have the patience of a saint, responded: "Nazism is terrifying. It's one of the absolute worst periods of mankind. But it's a long story and there is lot of information about it, which you can look into yourself if you wish".

Unsurprisingly the journalist has got a lot of heat for this, but will he admit that he put both feet in his mouth? Of course not.

Here is the clip from SVT: Kronprinsessan Victoria: ”Nazismen är någonting fasansfullt” - Nyheter | SVT.se
The blonde moments starts at 0:44.

The Swedish court was not amused! The PR chief Margareta Thorgren says: "The purpose of the question is questionable. It's utterly wrong to ask it when the Crown Princess has gone there to show how important she thinks this ceremony is. I's claim it's amateurish journalism from the side of SVT".
http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/ilskan-mot-svts-fraga-till-kronprinsessan/
Judging from the comments the number of people who thought this was brilliant journalism is pretty limited.

The reporter defends himself by claiming it would be hypocritical not to ask the question he asked.

(*) That's a long story. But in short: Count Folke Bernadotte had diplomatic negotiations with top Nazi-leaders to ensure the release of predominantly Danish and Norwegian Jews towards the very end of the war. They were then transported back to mainly Denmark in white busses.
Few, if any, Danish and Norwegian Jews ended up in industrialised extermination camps like Auschwitz but were merely kept in "ordinary" concentration camps. - Not because of their pretty blue eyes, but more because some Nazis needed a bargaining chip. (An: "Look at me, I ain't such a bad guy. I was really against the whole extermination thing and I even rescued some of them Jews, see")
The relative in question was Queen Silvia's maternal grandfather who was a member of the Nazi party and who took over a factory that had previously been owned by a Jew. - The Jew got away and lived.
 
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You're right- Victoria must have the patience of a saint! That person was so inappropriate on so many levels!
I mean disrespectful to Holocaust survivors , and his Crown Princess!
 
I think you can see real emotion on their faces. It is very touching that they care, really, care. You cannot stop things like this from happening again, unless you really care. Victoria is not responsible for her grandfather. Author Eli Weisel said it best. He did not believe in collective guilt. And he suffered under the Nazi's.
 
IMO Victoria handled that moment with great poise.
 
I'm very impressed with the way she handled it.


Sent from my iPhone using The Royals Community
 
(*)
The relative in question was Queen Silvia's maternal grandfather who was a member of the Nazi party and who took over a factory that had previously been owned by a Jew. - The Jew got away and lived.

AFAIK, it was Queen Silvia's father (i.e. Princess Victoria's maternal grandfather) who took over a factory that had been previously owned by a Jew. I was not aware though that he had actually been a member of the Nazi party.
 
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I think you can see real emotion on their faces. It is very touching that they care, really, care. You cannot stop things like this from happening again, unless you really care. Victoria is not responsible for her grandfather. Author Eli Weisel said it best. He did not believe in collective guilt. And he suffered under the Nazi's.

Very moving photos- especially the first one of Maxima. I was watching Oprah Winfrey's Selma 50 Legends who paved the way special, and there was a similar moment with David Olyello - what did she call it, broken in the spirit- when you feel the pain of spirits on the other side who have suffered. I think that's what happenend with Max. Call me crazy, but I think the victims - the murder victims were nearby, and she was feeling their pain.
I was most impressed with her yesterday- she was regal - a true Queen, yet there was a warmth about her- a caring- that came from her heart. Out of all the Royals- she along with Prince William, and Victoria impressed me most.
I don't want to start anything- and I totally love Maxima, she's a wonderful human being- but allegations about her father's past must have made this difficult.

@ Countess- I love EW, and I think he's right. I don't blame anybody- I just see it as a lesson, and honor the survivors and victims. I marvel at his loving, forgiving spirit. Was he there?
BTW, anyone else catch the documentary One Day in Auschwitz?
 
Wartenberg, I must confess that I regret what I wrote before.
The Royal Attendence was a Honor of the Survivals.
 
Wartenberg, I must confess that I regret what I wrote before.
The Royal Attendence was a Honor of the Survivals.
And it's a shame that there was no British royal attendance. Surely, it's the FCO's fault.
 
That was so moving and Meryl Streep was the perfect choice as narrator.
 
(*) That's a long story. But in short: Count Folke Bernadotte had diplomatic negotiations with top Nazi-leaders to ensure the release of predominantly Danish and Norwegian Jews towards the very end of the war. They were then transported back to mainly Denmark in white busses.
Few, if any, Danish and Norwegian Jews ended up in industrialised extermination camps like Auschwitz but were merely kept in "ordinary" concentration camps. - Not because of their pretty blue eyes, but more because some Nazis needed a bargaining chip. (An: "Look at me, I ain't such a bad guy. I was really against the whole extermination thing and I even rescued some of them Jews, see")
The relative in question was Queen Silvia's maternal grandfather who was a member of the Nazi party and who took over a factory that had previously been owned by a Jew. - The Jew got away and lived.


How true is a story I heard that Denmark, realising that they had no hope of withstanding a Nazi invasion, sent a lot of there Jewish citizens to Sweden for safety?
 
How true is a story I heard that Denmark, realising that they had no hope of withstanding a Nazi invasion, sent a lot of there Jewish citizens to Sweden for safety?

It's a true story. Practically all of the then around 7.000 Jews living in DK were evacuated to Sweden.
With the exception of some 500 who were rounded up and sent to a concentration camp, not an extermination camp.
These Jews were checked on by Danish civil servants and organisations throughout the war and they were allowed to receive Red Cross parcels just like POW's.
I believe up to around 100 died, the rest were picked up by the "white buses" organised by Bernadotte towards the end of the war.

Then there were additional Jews who went underground in DK itself, mainly resistance fighters and smaller children who were "adopted" by local Christian Danes. Often in rural areas where a German was hardly seen and those who were didn't want to rock the boat because they had a merry time acquiring agricultural products people back in Germany could only dream about in 1943.

But and this deserves to be mentioned: Danish resistance (they knew perfectly well how to contact the Germans and vice versa), Danish organisations and prominent persons were warned by a number of high ranking Germans, so there was enough time to warn and evacuate the Jews.
And just as importantly, the German military and not least the German navy was astonishingly "incompetent" during the weeks the Jews were evacuated to Sweden.

Also, Danish Jews never wore the yellow star. They were ordinary Danish citizens fully protected by Danish law until the summer of 1943, when the government resigned. That meant that attacks on Jews and Jewish property was rare and investigated as a crime when they did occur.
 
It was a very moving and emotional ceremony. I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't a British Royal representation, though it makes more sense that Philip Hammond went rather than Eric Pickles. However, as cepe has pointed out, Charles did attend a memorial service for the Holocaust in London and there were lots of other memorials throughout Britain.

I thought the question about Victoria's grandfather was very inappropriate and inconsiderate given the fact she was standing next to two survivors, but I also thought she handled the situation very well.

Also, Danish Jews never wore the yellow star. They were ordinary Danish citizens fully protected by Danish law until the summer of 1943, when the government resigned. That meant that attacks on Jews and Jewish property was rare and investigated as a crime when they did occur.

I've read that in Denmark, it's a popular myth that the reason why the Danish Jews didn't wear yellow stars during WWII was because Christian X had said that if the Jews had to wear them, then he would wear one too (or something similar).

When the Danish government resigned in 1943, what happened? Did the Nazis take over or did a new Danish government take over? WWII is my stronger point in history, but I'm not very knowledgable about Danish history which is why I asked.
 
The Nazi's took over, except for Domestic Matters, as they capitulated quickly. And, probably, because of that the Danes were able to spirit most of the Jews out of the country. Out of approximately 8,000, 70 died. The Danish did their best.
 
thank you for the reply. It gladdens me to learn that there were people and countries willing to do what they could for the people in danger. It interests me that the Germans were willing to give warning etc.
 
I've read that in Denmark, it's a popular myth that the reason why the Danish Jews didn't wear yellow stars during WWII was because Christian X had said that if the Jews had to wear them, then he would wear one too (or something similar).

When the Danish government resigned in 1943, what happened? Did the Nazis take over or did a new Danish government take over? WWII is my stronger point in history, but I'm not very knowledgable about Danish history which is why I asked.

The story about Christian X saying he would want to wear the yellow star too if the Jews were ordered to do so is true. And Christian X's standing in the eyes of the public was so that it is certain that within a couple of day all Danes except the most die hard Nazis would have worn the yellow star as well. Because anyone who didn't would label themselves Nazi and in favor of deporting the Jews.

By the summer of 1943 the co-operation between the Danish government (and that was a by-partisan coalition government representing most of the political spectrum) and the Germans was getting more and more strained. The resistance reinforced by strikes here and there was getting annoying. the tide of war was changing and the Germans had overstayed their welcome, so to speak. The telegram-crisis didn't exactly help either! (*)
The government who always had an eye for the foreign political issue. i.e. not being seen as too co-operative with the Germans was pressured to impose harder sanctions of the population as a whole and on captured saboteurs in particular. Joining the pact against the Soviet Union was a difficult pill to swallow for Danes as well. But the final straw was that the Germans demanded that the death penalty being reintroduced for some captured saboteurs. The government flatly refused. (It would have been political suicide as well to have been responsible for the execution of Danes on behalf of a foreign power). So the government refused and the civil servants took over the administration of Denmark, directed by the German governor. I.e. a business ministry. (**)
Shortly after the Germans rounded up what was left of the Danish military leading to fightings around military barracks and installations all over the country, including at Amalienborg, where the Royal Lifeguard fought the Germans and in fact several bullets went into Christian X's office, one could have hit him had he been sitting at the table.
Around the same time an attempt was made to round up all the Jews, but as you know the vast majority got away.
Of course the German heavy handedness backfired, the resistance went up big time!

Interestingly there was an unofficial live and let live agreement between the Resistance and the German Wehrmacht. German soldiers could walk the streets safely armed with nothing more than a bayonet literally until the end of the war. In return German soldiers tended to be less than vigilant unless they had to. Because the soldiers were more safe in Denmark than even back in most of Germany and who would want to rock that boat?!?
But there were instead a lot of clashed between the resistance and German security services, i.e SD, Abwehr and Gestapo and first and foremost Danish collaborators who did most of the dirty work. With sabotage, liquidations and counter-liquidations being the order of the day and by the summer of 1944 there were indiscriminate shootings in the streets, where tings really got bad and when the Germans had to back down in the face of a civil uprising.
It was in many ways a completely surreal world! There is an account from a British airman who sat at a cafe in Copenhagen waiting to be shipped over to Sweden and at the table next to him sat basically unarmed German soldiers enjoying the latest American jazz music, (such degenerate music was strictly verboten back in Germany) eating strawberries with genuine cream (an almost forgotten luxury back in Germany)!

(*) The telegram-crisis started with Hitler sending Christian X a long telegram on the King's birthday praising the King to the skies. The King responded with three words: "Min bedste tak = My best thanks". The Germans were furious and the government had to smooth things out but the Danes loved their King for it.

(**) Constitutionally speaking that meant that all laws introduced after the summer of 1943 were invalid, unless okayed by a legally elected government after the war.
 
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It's a true story. Practically all of the then around 7.000 Jews living in DK were evacuated to Sweden.
With the exception of some 500 who were rounded up and sent to a concentration camp, not an extermination camp.
These Jews were checked on by Danish civil servants and organisations throughout the war and they were allowed to receive Red Cross parcels just like POW's.
I believe up to around 100 died, the rest were picked up by the "white buses" organised by Bernadotte towards the end of the war.

Then there were additional Jews who went underground in DK itself, mainly resistance fighters and smaller children who were "adopted" by local Christian Danes. Often in rural areas where a German was hardly seen and those who were didn't want to rock the boat because they had a merry time acquiring agricultural products people back in Germany could only dream about in 1943.

But and this deserves to be mentioned: Danish resistance (they knew perfectly well how to contact the Germans and vice versa), Danish organisations and prominent persons were warned by a number of high ranking Germans, so there was enough time to warn and evacuate the Jews.
And just as importantly, the German military and not least the German navy was astonishingly "incompetent" during the weeks the Jews were evacuated to Sweden.

Also, Danish Jews never wore the yellow star. They were ordinary Danish citizens fully protected by Danish law until the summer of 1943, when the government resigned. That meant that attacks on Jews and Jewish property was rare and investigated as a crime when they did occur.

just got back to the thread. thank you for including the history bits: I remember some it when Frederik went to Israel and saw the exhibit on the boats that were use.
Danish Crown Prince Frederik Andre Henrik Christian stands next to a... News Photo | Getty Images
 
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