King Charles III of England concluded his historic visit to Germany with a ceremony in Hamburg in honor of the German victims of the Allied bombing raids of 1943. Accompanied by Queen Consort Camilla, the monarch boarded a high-speed train to Hamburg together with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
During the two-hour journey, the sovereign laid a wreath at Dammtor station in memory of the Jewish children sent to the United Kingdom fleeing Nazism. Afterwards, he visited St. Nicholas Church, destroyed by British and American air raids in 1943, in a moment of reflection with the German president.
Charles III’s three-day trip also included visits to environmentally responsible facilities in the port of Hamburg, followed by a performance by a Beatles cover band.
The visit to St. Nicholas Church is regarded in Germany as a gesture of responsibility and reconciliation of “great importance,” more significant than “any speech,” according to the Bild newspaper. The 1943 air raid on Hamburg, known as Operation Gomorrah, killed more than 30,000 people.
Addressing the suffering endured by German civilians during World War II remains a highly sensitive and often taboo subject in a country responsible for the deaths of six million Jews under Nazism.
German-British rapprochement and the future of relations between the two countries were among the main topics of Charles III’s visit. Queen Elizabeth II’s last visit to Germany in 2015 generated excitement in the country. Her son has visited Germany more than 40 times.