Prince William and Kate 'intensely moved' by visit to Holocaust camp
Prince William and Kate met survivors of the Stutthof camp in Poland, where 65,000 people were killed during the Second World War.
Tuesday 18 July 2017 17:53, UK
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge met Holocaust survivors and visited a concentration camp on an emotional second day of their visit to Poland.
Prince William and Kate spent more than an hour at the Stutthoff camp, just outside of Gdansk, where 65,000 people were killed by the Nazis.
They toured the site, which is now a museum, meeting senior staff and signing a visitors book before being taken to a barracks and shown shoes left by Holocaust victims.
The couple left a message, saying: "We were intensely moved by our visit to Stutthof, which has been the scene of so much terrible pain, suffering and death.
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![Prince William and Catherine, The Duchess of Cambridge at the museum of former German Nazi concentration camp Stutthof in Sztutowo, Poland]()
Image: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have visited a former German Nazi concentration camp as part of a tour of Poland and Germany -
![Catherine, The Duchess of Cambridge at the museum of former German Nazi concentration camp Stutthof in Sztutowo, Poland]()
Image: William and Kate heard first hand about the horrors of Stutthof camp, which is now run as a museum -
![The Duchess of Cambridge with survivor Manfred Goldberg and the Duke of Cambridge with survivor Zigi Shipper]()
Image: The Royal couple spoke to survivors Manfred Goldberg (front) and Zigi Shipper -
![Prince William and Catherine meet with Holocaust survivors during their visit at the museum]()
Image: They also met with other Holocaust survivors during their visit -
![Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge Cambridge signs the book of visitors at the museum of former German Nazi concentration camp Stutthof in Sztutowo]()
Image: Both William and Kate signed the book of visitors at the museum -
![The Stutthof concentration camp in Gdansk, Poland]()
Image: Stutthof was the first Nazi camp set up outside German borders in September 1939 -
![Prince William and Catherine talk with former prisoners from the Stutthof concentration camp]()
Image: The couple said they were 'intensely moved' by their visit -
![Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge at the Stutthof concentration camp]()
Image: The said the camp was 'a terrible reminder of the cost of war'
"This shattering visit has reminded us of the horrendous murder of six million Jews, drawn from across the whole of Europe, who died in the abominable Holocaust.
"It is, too, a terrible reminder of the cost of war. And the fact that Poland alone lost millions of its people, who were the victims of a most brutal occupation."
Afterwards, the Royal couple met survivors of the camp, including .
They listened while Zigi Shipper and Manfred Goldberg, both 87, led a prayer.
The survivors became lifelong friends after being detained aged 14 and rescued together in 1945. They later resettled in north London.
Mr Goldberg said before the visit that it would be a "seismic event" because, having never set foot in Germany or Poland since the camp's liberation, "I decided that I really had to face the past".
After the camp visit, the Royals travelled to Gdansk to join a street party, before going on a short tour of the city's Shakespeare Theatre.
Prince George, three, and Princess Charlotte, two, travelled to Poland with their parents for the five-day tour but did not join them at the camp.
On Monday, Kate made international headlines with a joke about having more children.
Offered a cuddly toy designed to sooth babies at an event for tech start-ups in Warsaw, the Duchess said with a smile: "We will just have to have more babies."