Page 21 - TORCH #18 - May 2021

As tributes poured in following the passing of The Duke of Edinburgh, we were reminded of the close ties Prince Philip
and did what they could in small ways to alleviate the horror.”
had with Israel having been the first member of the Royal Family to visit in 1994.
“God brings everything we do to judgment,” the prince wrote in the visitors’ book at Yad Vashem.
Prince Philip’s mother, Princess Alice of Greece, saved a Jewish family during the Holocaust and is recognised as one of the 30,000 “righteous among the nations” by Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust museum.
Over the years Philip spoke multiple times at Jewish and pro-Israel events.
He came under attack in the 1960s
for speaking to pro-Israel groups, and, famously unyielding to criticism, ignored the attacks.
Philip accepted the honour on her behalf in his visit to Israel. Together with his sister, Philip visited his mother’s burial site at the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, met with members of the Cohen family she had hidden in her Athens palace, and met with Jewish veterans of World War II. At Yad Vashem, Philip planted a maple tree in memory of his mother.
Philip, who had a passion for environmental preservation, spoke multiple times at Jewish National Fund events and lent his royal sponsorship to other Jewish events.
“The Holocaust was the most horrific event in all Jewish history, and it will remain in the memory of all future generations,” Philip said at the time. “It is, therefore, a very generous gesture that also remembered here are the many millions of non-Jews, like my mother, who shared in your pain and anguish
Who was Princess Alice?
Princess Alice, the Duke of Edinburgh’s mother, was married to Prince Andrew of Greece. Alice helped shelter three members of a Jewish
family at her home in Athens – Rachel Cohen, widow of Greek-Jewish politician Haimaki Cohen, and two of her five children – until the end of the German occupation.
not to understand their questions and was successful in protecting the Jewish family.
The Gestapo was suspicious of Alice and even questioned her. But the princess, who was deaf, pretended
The story was not known until 1992, when Michel Cohen, then 78, told officials at Yad Vashem of how he, his mother and sister were saved by the princess.
During WW2, Princess Alice had sons-in-law who were fighting on the German side, with Philip’s four sisters having each married German nobles, at least three of whom became Nazis. However, her son Philip, who was educated in the UK, joined the British Royal Navy
CUFI.ORG.UK
271