Jerusalem: Prince William began his visit to Israel on Tuesday with an emotional visit to Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and a meeting with two survivors who escaped Nazi Germany for the safety of Britain.
Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev, who guided the Duke of Cambridge through the museum’s exhibitions detailing Nazi Germany’s genocide of 6 million Jews during World War II, said the prince was visibly moved as he stopped to inquire about various elements of the Holocaust.
“The theme that repeated itself throughout the entire visit was his wondering of what kind of deep hatred could have driven people to commit such horrific acts,” Shalev told The Associated Press. “He kept saying: ‘How did they get to such a place?’ … He really identified with the victims.”
The hour-and-a-half visit included a ceremony in which he placed a wreath on a concrete slab containing the ashes of Holocaust victims and a brief meeting with a pair of survivors from the Kindertransport, a rescue effort for some 12,000 children who were sent from Germany to Britain on the eve of World War II.
Read the article at The Sydney Morning Herald (AP).