Kate Middleton shares powerful photographs of Holocaust survivors to mark anniversary of liberation
Duchess describes survivors as “two of the most life-affirming people" she had ever met
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Your support makes all the difference.The Duchess of Cambridge has taken a series of powerful images of Holocaust survivors to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
The images taken by the Duchess of Cambridge will feature in an exhibition marking 75 years since the end of the genocide and show survivors pictured alongside their children and grandchildren.
Kate was among those behind the lens for the project and described the survivors in her portraits as “two of the most life-affirming people that I have had the privilege to meet”.
Each of the portraits, four of which were released on Monday to mark Holocaust Memorial Day, depicts the special connection between a survivor and younger generations of their family.
The duchess, a keen photographer and patron of the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), spent time with her two subjects, Yvonne Bernstein, 82, and Steven Frank, 84, before photographing them.
Frank, originally from Amsterdam, survived multiple concentration camps as a child and is pictured alongside his granddaughters Maggie and Trixie Fleet, aged 15 and 13.
Kate’s other portrait features Bernstein, originally from Germany, who was hidden in France throughout most of the Holocaust. She is pictured with her granddaughter Chloe Wright, aged 11.
The families chose items of personal significance for inclusion in the photographs.
Frank held a pan that his mother kept with them in the camps and a tomato from his garden to reflect the time he spent in the Theresienstadt Ghetto where he helped another prisoner grow tomatoes.
Meanwhile, Bernstein is pictured holding her German ID card, which is dated March 3 1939 and stamped with the letter J, one of the many ways Jewish people were identified.
On the table is a brooch bought for her by her daughter and made by the jewellery firm founded by her great-grandfather whose factories were seized by the Nazis.
The Duchess of Cambridge has said she took inspiration from Anne Frank's “sensitive and intimate” interpretation of the horrors of the Holocaust for the photographs she took of the two survivors for the new exhibition.
The images were captured at Kensington Palace earlier this month, and because both survivors have strong links to the Netherlands, Kate says she was inspired by 17th century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer.
The pictures were also taken next to a window facing east, in the direction of Jerusalem.
“The harrowing atrocities of the Holocaust, which were caused by the most unthinkable evil, will forever lay heavy in our hearts,” Kate said.
“Yet it is so often through the most unimaginable adversity that the most remarkable people flourish.
“Despite unbelievable trauma at the start of their lives, Yvonne Bernstein and Steven Frank are two of the most life-affirming people that I have had the privilege to meet. They look back on their experiences with sadness, but also with gratitude that they were some of the lucky few to make it through.”
The duchess added that she wanted the portraits to serve as a “celebration of family” and the lives that survivors have built since.
“It was a true honour to have been asked to participate in this project and I hope in some way Yvonne and Steven’s memories will be kept alive as they pass the baton to the next generation,” Kate said.
On Monday, Kate and Prince William will join high-profile figures and survivors at the UK Holocaust Memorial Day commemorative ceremony in Westminster.
Elsewhere, the Duchess of Cornwall will attend commemorations in Poland to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of former Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.
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