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William and Kate at Holocaust Memorial Day 2020© Getty

Princess Kate makes last-minute decision to join Prince William on important royal outing

The Princess of Wales will attend a service in London

Danielle Stacey
Online Royal CorrespondentLondon
Updated: January 27, 2025
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The Princess of Wales will step out with the Prince of Wales to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day.

Kate, 43, is set to join Prince William, 42, at an official event in London on Monday, which will also mark 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

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It comes after the Princess made an emotional visit on 14 January to the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, where she received cancer treatment.

The royal mother-of-three is making a gradual return to her public duties amid her recovery.

The Prince and Princess have previously met with Holocaust survivors as they attended the 75th anniversary event in London in 2020, with Kate also capturing poignant photographs of Yvonne Bernstein and Steven Frank at Kensington Palace. 

The images were later included as part of a photography exhibition at the Imperial War Museum in London.

William and Kate seated in front of people holding candles© Getty
William and Kate at the 75th anniversary in London in 2020

The then Duchess of Cambridge was visibly moved by a visit to Stutthof concentration camp near Gdansk during her tour of Poland with William in 2017.

William and Kate walking with Holocaust survivors at Stutthof concentration camp in 2017© Getty
William and Kate speaking with survivors at Stutthof concentration camp in Poland in 2017

Meanwhile, the King will become the first British head of state to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau when he tours the former Nazi concentration camp to mark the 80th anniversary of its liberation in Poland on Monday.

Charles will be joined at the service by foreign monarchs, presidents, prime ministers and Holocaust survivors.

The King at the Jewish Community Centre (JCC) in Krakow, Poland© Shutterstock/POOL/AFP via Getty
The King visited the Jewish Community Centre (JCC) in Krakow, Poland

At a Buckingham Palace reception ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day – held annually on 27 January – the King said: "I feel I must go for the 80th anniversary, (it’s) so important."

More than a million people, mostly Jews but also Poles, Soviet prisoners of war and other nationalities, were murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz-Birkenau during the Second World War as part of the Holocaust in which six million Jewish men, women and children were killed.

The camp was liberated by soldiers of the 60th Army of the First Ukrainian Front who opened the gates on 27 January 1945.

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