A Holocaust survivor who met Kate Middleton on a tour of a concentration camp in Poland has told how the duchess was ‘not prepared’ for the traumatic visit and ‘wiped her eyes several times’.
Manfred Goldberg, 89, born in Kassel, Germany, accompanied the mother-of-three, 38, and her husband Prince William, 37, as they walked through the so-called death gates on their poignant tour of the Stutthof concentration camp in July 2017.
He and fellow survivor Zigi Shipper chaperoned the couple – despite him having not been there himself for 72 years.
Speaking yesterday at the Holocaust Memorial Day service in London, where he and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were reunited, he said Kate was very emotional during the trip.
‘I recall Princess Kate telling me that once they had decided to visit the camp, they had done a lot of Holocaust-related reading, but she said, “Nevertheless, we were not prepared for what we saw and what we heard from you two”,’ he told People.
Holocaust survivor Manfred Goldberg, 89, born in Kassel, Germany, was reunited with the Duke (pictured) and Duchess of Cambridge yesterday
Mr Goldberg and fellow survivor Zigi Shipper chaperoned the couple on a tour of a concentration camp in Poland in 2017, despite having not been there himself for 72 years
‘Although it had been sanitised, it was still, for innocents like they were, a fairly traumatic experience. Princess Kate wiped her eyes several times.’
He added that his decision to travel to the camp, where he was imprisoned at the age of 14, was ‘traumatic’ to make, but he felt he ‘had to face it’.
‘In retrospect, I feel proud to have had the opportunity of enlightening the royal couple. It was their first glimpse of a concentration camp,’ Mr Goldberg said.
The brave pensioner remarked that having the royal couple participating in the service yesterday made it very special and added impact.
Mr Goldberg said the Cambridges’ involvement in keeping the story of the Holocaust relevant today is ‘priceless’.
Speaking yesterday at the Holocaust Memorial Day service in London, Mr Goldberg said Kate had been very emotional during the trip
Mr Goldberg said the Cambridges’ involvement in keeping the story of the Holocaust relevant today is ‘priceless’
‘This young royal couple are held in such esteem worldwide,’ he told the publication.
‘People use them as their standard on how to behave and the example they are showing is priceless. Long may they will continue – and I’m sure they will.’
He added that they remembered his name, which Kate greeting him by saying: ‘Oh, hello Manfred!’
Mr Goldberg and Mr Shipper were among 110,000 prisoners from 28 countries held at the Nazi death camp, where more than 65,000 were murdered. Over a third of those victims were Jewish.
Mr Goldberg recalled how for Kate, visualising each symbolic pair of shoes at the Nazi death camp meant one human being who had to walk into the gas chamber — and it ‘tugged her heartstrings’
At the Stutthof, there were tens of thousands of pairs of shoes which have been reproduced on a smaller scale.
Mr Goldberg recalled how for Kate, visualising each pair meant one human being who had to walk into the gas chamber — and it ‘tugged her heartstrings’.
‘I saw her wiping her eyes,’ he added.
The friends were liberated in May 1945 by British tanks surrounding the barge on which they were about to be loaded – it was to be towed out to sea and then blown up with Jews packed into it.
Mr Shipper and Mr Goldberg survived and arrived in Britain in just their clothes without speaking any English.
The Duchess of Cambridge looked delighted to be reunited with Yvonne Bernstein, one of the Holocaust survivors she photographed to mark the 75th Auschwitz liberation anniversary
Mr Shipper said he ‘most probably’ wouldn’t have returned to Stutthof if it wasn’t for the royal visit but said he realised how ‘important’ it was to come back now he has returned.
He has returned to Auschwitz-Birkenau several times, where he was also held.
Yesterday the Cambridges helped survivors light six candles at Westminster Abbey, which were among 75 that shone to mark the 75 years passed since Auschwitz was liberated.
Mr Goldberg told the Duchess people found it hard to comprehend how six million Jewish people were killed.
Kate looked resplendent in a grey round neck skater dress, cinched in at the waist with a belt, as she walked into Central Hall in Westminster with Prince William holding her umbrella to keep off the rain
‘When you hear the stories of an individual it becomes easier to understand this better.’ ‘And it has taken a while for everybody to be able to speak,’ said Kate. ‘It’s hard to stand up there and do that.
‘I’m really interested in intergenerational trauma and how it affects a family. It’s so important.’
To mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Kate – who is patron of the Royal Photographic Society – photographed survivors at Kensington Palace, drawing inspiration from the Dutch artist Vermeer.