Prince Charles likens Putin to Hitler during stop in Halifax: report

Prince Charles, Vladimir Putin, and Adolf Hitler

HALIFAX — The royal visit to Canada has made headlines in Britain’s Daily Mail for what the tabloid reported was a remark in which Prince Charles likened Russian President Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler when talking to a woman who lost relatives in the Holocaust.

The Daily Mail says Charles made the comment during a visit Monday to the Canadian Museum of Immigration in Halifax.

The newspaper reports museum volunteer Marienne Ferguson as saying her Jewish family fled to Canada from Poland when she was 13, but that other relatives failed to flee before the German army arrived in Gdansk in 1939.

It quotes Ferguson as saying she told Charles about her family background and how she came to Canada, and that Charles then said to her: “And now Putin is doing just about the same as Hitler.”

The Canadian Press could not immediately reach Ferguson for comment about the report.

Tensions have grown between Putin and the West since Russia’s annexation of Crimea earlier this year.

Charles is scheduled to wrap up his trip to Canada on Wednesday in Winnipeg.