King and Queen meet Holocaust survivors at Palace

King Charles III and Queen Camilla have met Holocaust survivors and lit candles of remembrance at Buckingham Palace to mark the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Survivors honoured for their services to holocaust awareness in a series of portraits commissioned by the King were welcomed to the Palace, including 100-year-old Anita Lasker-Wallfisch and 98-year-old Helen Aronson.

King Charles said survivors who had died were also present "in spirit" at the reception to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.

Earlier on Tuesday, Mala Tribich became the first holocaust survivor to address the cabinet - where she urged the government to "do what needs to be done" to tackle antisemitism today.

Holocaust Memorial Day takes place on 27 January each year and remembers the six million Jewish people murdered during World War Two.

It also commemorates the millions of people outside the Jewish faith who were murdered through Nazi persecution, and those targeted in more recent genocides.

Survivors and their families were invited to the Palace on Tuesday to mark the anniversary, including the daughter and two-year-old grandson of Zigi Shipper, who died in 2023 aged 93.

Shipper survived two concentration camps, including Auschwitz-Birkenau in occupied Poland, a death march, and the Lodz ghetto - a Jewish ghetto established by the Nazis which was plagued by disease, starvation and forced labour.

His daughter Lu Lawrence told the King she wished her father could have been present to see his "magnificent" portrait. King Charles responded that he was there "in spirit".

The King, who last year became the first British head of state to visit Auschwitz, also told 100-year-old survivor Lasker-Wallfish that it was "wonderful" to have her join the reception.

"It goes back a long way since I first met you, it must be 20 years," he told her.

The King and Queen Camilla were later handed candles to light by Rachel Levy, who survived both Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps.

They spoke to youth ambassadors and charity workers, including the chief executive of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, and viewed a painting featuring excerpts from Anne Frank's diary.

Meanwhile, 95-year-old Mala Tribich was welcomed to Downing Street by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer as the first holocaust survivor "ever to address the cabinet".

Tribich, who survived Bergen-Belsen as a 14-year-old and was made an MBE in 2012 for services to education, asked ministers in a five-minute speech not just to listen, but to become her "witnesses".

"We survivors never imagined we would witness antisemitism at the level it is today," she told ministers, some of whom became visibly emotional during the address.

She said survivors had been "shaken to the core" by recent deadly attacks on Jewish people at a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish religious calendar, and at a Hanukkah event in Sydney, Australia.

Tribich asked: "How, 81 years after the holocaust, can these people once again be targeted in this way?

"Remembering the past is no longer enough. I speak to you, leaders of this country I proudly call home, and I plead that you do what needs to be done."

Her remarks received a standing ovation.

Sir Keir thanked Tribich for her "powerful words" and said his government would do "everything to tackle antisemitism wherever it reared its ugly head".

Holocaust Memorial Day sees people around the UK invited to light a candle in their windows to remember those who were killed and to stand against prejudice and hatred.

Landmarks, buildings and monuments are set to be lit up in purple as part of the national Light the Darkness moment on Tuesday evening.

The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust said the day mattered more than ever "in a time when prejudice is alarmingly rising across our communities".