Kate reunited with Holocaust survivor at royal garden party
The Duchess of Cambridge has said she will “never forget” the story of a Holocaust survivor she met at a Buckingham Palace garden party.
The Duchess of Cambridge has said she will “never forget” the story of a Holocaust survivor she met at a Buckingham Palace garden party.
Manfred Goldberg, 92, was one of the first guests Kate greeted on Wednesday as rain descended on the third garden party to take place at the palace this year.
She first met Mr Goldberg in 2017 on a visit to Stutthof, the concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland where he spent eight months, and spoke to him by videolink last year.
“As she came along, she said, ‘Oh hello Manfred, how lovely to see you’,” said Mr Goldberg, who works for the Holocaust Education Trust.
“She also thanked me for all the hard work I have been doing over the years, speaking to thousands of school children, mainly of A-level grades, who are old enough to really understand.
“Then I complimented her on remembering our previous conversations years back. She said, ‘I will never forget’.
“So I think it made an impact. Yes, absolutely.”
Mr Goldberg, who was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in Kassell, Germany, was sent to a Nazi labour camp in Latvia at the age of 11.
In 1944, he was moved to Stutthof – where tens of thousands of Jews were murdered – and was set free days after his 15th birthday the following year.
He met the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at the camp 72 years later, having a conversation that Kate later said “remained absolutely clear in my mind”.
Mr Goldberg said: “They had never set foot in a concentration camp and they actually had the – I wouldn’t say foresight – but the clarity that they needed to speak to people who actually experienced it as it was then.
“There is a walk-through museum now… to an outsider it would still be cruel, but it has all been sanitised.
“The questions they asked us clarified to them how much worse it actually was.”
As he spoke, Mr Goldberg held the hand of his wife Shary, to whom he has been married for six decades.
Also at the party were the Duke of Cambridge, the Earl and Countess of Wessex, Princess Beatrice and roughly 8,000 guests.
Among those met by Sophie, Countess of Wessex, were representatives from the disability charity Mencap, for whom she ran part of the London Marathon in 2020.
The royals appeared on the palace terrace at 4pm as the National Anthem was played under an overcast sky.
They produced umbrellas shortly afterwards when the rain began to fall in earnest, with a band striking up There’s No Business Like Show Business in the distance.
The weather eventually brightened up and palace staff began moving among the crowd offering ice creams on silver platters.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
