Real History and ••

Posted Saturday, January 27, 2001

London, Thursday, January 25, 2001

Queen spurns Holocaust day

BY ANDREW PIERCE

THE Queen declined an invitation from the Home Office to attend Saturday's ceremony to mark the nation's first Holocaust Memorial Day because she did not wish to interrupt her Christmas break at Sandringham.

The Home Office, which has organised the event at Westminster Hall in the presence of survivors of the Holocaust and the conflicts in Bosnia and Rwanda, had requested her presence, but Buckingham Palace declined. She will attend a shooting party hosted by her husband that day. The Prince of Wales will, however, break off from a series of engagements in Cumbria and fly in by helicopter for the 60-minute ceremony.

Tony Blair will lead politicians, church leaders and charity representatives at the ceremony, which is being broadcast on BBC2 and BBC radio. Dr Jonathan Sacks, the Chief Rabbi, and the actor Sir Ian McKellen will also join survivors of the Holocaust in a series of readings and recitals. Buckingham Palace said: "The Queen always remains at Sandringham until February 6, the anniversary of her accession to the throne."