The Duke of Cambridge has described the sight of shoes left behind by Jews killed in a Nazi extermination camp as "terrifying".
Prince William, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and chairman of Yad Vashem Avner Shalev pay tribute to Holocaust victims on the royal's first visit to Jerusalem. Photo: AFP
On a visit to Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Centre in Jerusalem, he said he was "trying to comprehend the scale" of the atrocity.
He said that upon viewing a display of shoes taken by the Nazis from Jews, of which tens of thousands were killed along with other victims, at the Majdanek death camp.
Speaking at a reception, Prince William said his visit Yad Vashem had been a "profoundly moving experience."
"I had a very moving tour around Yad Vashem this morning, which really taught me quite a lot more than I thought I already knew about the true horrors of what happened to the Jews over the war," Prince William said.
At Yad Vashem, he met descendants of Jews hidden from the Nazis by his great-grandmother.
The Duke of Cambridge laid a wreath at Yad Vashem's Hall of Remembrance, where the names of extermination and concentration camps are engraved in the floor.
After the tour, the prince was greeted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, at their official residence.
There, the prince met relatives of the late Rachel Cohen who was hidden from the Gestapo by Princess Alice, the mother of Prince Philip, in her palace in Greece.
"You must be very proud of your great-grandmother, who saved defenceless Jews," Mr Netanyahu told Prince William.
Princess Alice was recognised as one of the "righteous among nations", gentiles who rescued Jews, by Yad Vashem in 1993. A devout Christian, she is buried on the slopes of Jerusalem's Mount of Olives. Prince William is due to visit her tomb on Thursday.
Prince William meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara in Jerusalem. Photo: AFP
The Duke told dignitaries including Mr Netanyahu that as older generations were fading away, it was up to him and other younger people to carry on the commemoration of the Holocaust.
"I am well aware that the responsibility falls now to my generation to keep the memory alive of that great crime as the Holocaust generation passes on. And I commit myself to doing this," Prince William said.
"Israel's remarkable story is partly one of remembering its terrible past but also looking forward to a much more hopeful future ... the modern story is one of inventing, creating, innovating and striding confidently into its future."
His visit to Israel comes as a historic step because until now it had been British policy not to make an official royal visit until the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was resolved. British officials have given no detailed explanation for the change in policy.
At a meeting with Israeli president Reuven Rivlin, the prince said he hoped "peace in the area can be achieved". Israeli-Palestinian peace talks collapsed in 2014.
Later in his visit he will meet Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank after which he is scheduled to meet Palestinian youngsters.
- BBC / Reuters