Prince William’s touching nod to great-grandmother who helped Jewish family during Holocaust

At a poignant ceremony in London today, the Prince and Princess of Wales paid tribute to a very special member of the Royal Family by observing the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. In a moving speech, the future King spoke with admiration of those “who risked their own lives to help and save others”, including his own great-grandmother, Princess Alice of Battenberg.

Princess Alice, whose remarkable life was touched upon in the hit Netflix drama The Crown, had been living in the Athens palace of her brother-in-law, Prince George of Greece, when World War II broke out. Following an exile, she had come back to Greece. Following the death of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, Greece was occupied by Axis forces in 1941, and By 1942, Athens was completely under Nazi rule. The horrific attack on Jews in Greece grew even more horrifically at this time.

After hearing the tale of a Jewish mother whose five children were in desperate need of protection, Princess Alice, the daughter of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, was able to witness the horrors that unfolded.

According to Holocaust Center North, Haimaki Cohen was a member of the Greek Parliament who was well-known to the Royal Family. Throughout the political turmoil of the 1910s, Haimaki continuously showed his support for Princess Alice’s father-in-law, King George I of Greece.

And when Haimaki sadly passed away, Princess Alice made it her mission to help his widow, Rachel Cohen, and their children, sheltering them in her own home.

The four of the family’s four sons wanted to travel to Egypt and join the exiled Greek government in Cairo, according to The World Holocaust Remembrance Centre. However, the journey would have been too dangerous for Rachel and her daughter, Tilde.

Princess Alice sheltered Rachel and Tilde at the palace, where one of the sons who had been forced to flee to Athens joined them shortly afterward.

Up until the end of the war, the family remained hidden behind the palace’s walls. German officers were suspicious of what the princess was up to at the time, and Gestapo members even interviewed her.

Staying strong, however, Princess Alice used her deafness as a weapon, pretending she couldn’t understand her interrogators ‘ questions until they finally let her be.

Thanks to Princess Alice’s bravery, the Cohen family survived the horrors of the Holocaust, during which some 60, 000 Greek Jews were slaughtered.

Prince William today said: “On this, the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, we also recall those who risked their own lives to help and save others. They risked death, torture and persecution to defy the aggressors. I was recently reminded of my great-grandmother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, who lived in Athens during the Second World War.

” This is an extract from the book Heroes of the Holocaust: ‘ In the early days of German occupation, conditions deteriorated rapidly as food ran out when an estimated 300, 000 people died.

“Conditions were particularly severe in Athens and its port, Piraeus. Alice contributed fervently to the Red Cross, starting shelters for orphans, and establishing a nursing facility for the city’s underprivileged.

Rachel Cohen, a Jewish widow, and two of her five children were saved from deportation to the death camps by Princess Alice at this time.

In Athens’ dense streets, where there was always a risk of spies and gossip, he continued, “This was a very risky undertaking.” On 15 October 1943, Rachel Cohen and Tilde moved into Alice’s home. Mrs. Cohen was the former wife of her children, according to the staff.

“Michel, the youngest of the four brothers, joined them about a month later. The house’s position was a major risk, not the least of which: the front door faced the local archbishop’s residence, which always had a German guard working outside.

She frequently got a call from the Gestapo and used her deafness to get close, blatantly unaware of their inquiries or their concerns.

“‘ It worked, and they soon gave up. The Cohen family, in part, escaped the conflict because of her. Catherine and I have had the privilege of joining you all today. Thank you”.

Princess Alice continued to pursue a good life after the war. The Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary, a nursing order of Greek Orthodox nuns, was established in January 1949 by her husband. Then, in 1967, following the colonels ‘ coup d’etat in Greece, the princess-turned-nun moved to Buckingham Palace to be close to her son, Prince Philip in her final years. Two years later, at the age of 84, she passed away in London.

In 1993, Yad Vashem, Israel’s official memorial to Holocaust victims, bestowed upon the late royal the title of Righteous Among the Nations on Princess Alice. Prince Philip visited the memorial center a year later, where he planted a tree in honor of his mother.

Reflecting on his mother’s legacy, Philip told ceremony attendees: “I suspect that it never occurred to her that her action was in any way special. She would have viewed it as completely human because of her deep religious convictions against other people in need.

The posthumous title of British Hero of the Holocaust was also given to Princess Alice in 2010.

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Source: Mirror