King Charles' first overseas trip of 2025 announced as cancer treatment continues
The monarch will travel to Poland this month
Buckingham Palace has confirmed that King Charles will make his first overseas visit of 2025 to Poland later this month.
The king, 76, will attend the commemoration service marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the notorious concentration camp where over one million people died during World War II.
King Charles to visit Poland in January
The king will attend a service at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Memorial on January 27, Holocaust Memorial Day.
It commemorates the day in 1945 when Soviet forces liberated the camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.
On the latest episode of HELLO!‘s A Right Royal Podcast, The Telegraph’s royal editor Hannah Furness noted: “This is such an important event, and the British royal family are so entrenched in the Holocaust Memorial project.
“The king has been really personally involved. He had those portraits done for the Royal Collection. And the Prince and Princess of Wales have done a lot of engagements with Holocaust survivors.”
Royals joining King Charles in Poland
King Charles will be joined by several European royals in Poland. King Frederik and Queen Mary of Denmark have both confirmed their attendance.
The Dutch royal family – King Willem-Alexander, Queen Maxima, and Princess Catharina-Amalia – will also pay tribute in Poland.
Representing Sweden, Crown Princess Victoria will attend the service, while King Carl XVI Gustaf, Queen Silvia, and Prince Daniel will participate in memorial events in Stockholm.
King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain are also expected to attend.
The event at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum will include a ceremony near the camp’s iconic gates, with a symbolic freight car representing the trains that transported victims to the site.
The king will join international leaders and Holocaust survivours to honour those who passed and those who survived.
Ahead of the visit, King Charles is hosting an event at Buckingham Palace for organisations dedicated to educating about the Holocaust.
Among the attendees is Manfred Goldberg, a 94-year-old survivor. Mr. Goldberg has since devoted his life to educating others about the Holocaust.
The king will also meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda during his visit.
King Charles cancer latest
The monarch is continuing his cancer treatment following his diagnosis last year. In February 2024, the king announced he had cancer and would undergo treatment.
He initially stepped back from public-facing royal duties and began to build them up again throughout the year.
At the end of last year, it was revealed that the king’s treatment would continue into 2025.
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