Monday marked Holocaust Memorial Day in the United Kingdom, held on the anniversary of the liberation Auschwitz-Birkenau and honours victims and survivors of the Holocaust, Nazi persecution, and the subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.
Ahead of the Memorial Day, the Duchess of Cambridge shared two powerful portraits she took of two Holocaust survivors and their grandchildren as part of the commemorations for the 75th anniversary.
Shared to the Kensington Palace social media accounts, the first image features Steven Frank with his granddaughters Maggie and Trixie. As the Palace explains, Steven was sent to Westerbork transit camp with his mother and brothers and then to Theresienstadt.
Steven and his brothers were only 3 of only 93 children who survived the camp – 15,000 children were sent there.
Duchess Catherine photographed Holocaust survivor Steven Franks and his granddaughters Maggie and Trixie at Kensington Palace. (Image: Twitter/@KensingtonRoyal)
Catherine also photographed Yvonne Bernstein and her granddaughter Chloe. Yvonne was hidden in France as a child and travelled in the care of her aunt and uncle having to frequently change homes and names.
The portraits, taken at Kensington Palace earlier this month, will be part of a new exhibition opening later this year by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, Jewish News and the Royal Photographic Society, of which Catherine is royal patron.
Catherine also photographed Yvonne and her granddaughter Chloe, with the portraits set to be part of a new exhibition to open later this year. (Image: Twitter/@KensingtonRoyal)
Speaking of the experience of photographing the families Catherine said: “I wanted to make the portraits deeply personal to Yvonne and Steven – a celebration of family and the life that they have built since they both arrived in Britain in the 1940s.
“The families brought items of personal significance with them which are included in the photographs.”
Adding, “It is 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 batolink textn to the next generation.”
Duchess Catherine later shared some gorgeous images taken behind-the-scenes of the shoot, including two images of her and Yvonne having a laugh as they look through the images and another of her setting up the perfect shot for Steven, Maggie and Trixie’s portrait.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge also attended the Holocaust Memorial Day Commemorative Ceremony at Central Hall in Westminster on Monday.
During the ceremony, Prince William read an extract from a letter written about his great-grandmother Princess Alice (Prince Philip’s mother), which described how she helped hide her Jewish friends, the Cohens, in her home.
After the ceremony, the Duke and Duchess spoke to Holocaust survivors and survivors of genocides which have happened since.
Last week Duchess Catherine visited a children and parents centre in Cardiff, Wales where she confessed she had felt isolated when her eldest child, Prince George, was a baby.
Speaking to workers from the Ely and Careau Children’s Centre the mum-of-three spoke of her days as a first-time mother when she and Prince William lived in Wales, with William stationed with the Royal Air Force.
“It’s nice to be back in Wales,” Catherine told the staff members.
“I was chatting with some of the mums. It was the first year and I’d just had George – William was still working with search and rescue – and we came up here and I had a tiny, tiny baby in the middle of Anglesey.
“It was so isolated, so cut off. I didn’t have any family around, and he was doing night shifts. So… if only I had had a centre like this.”
The Duchess visited the centre as part of a 24-hour tour around England and Wales that saw her make four stops to promote her landmark UK-wide survey, 5 Big Questions.
The survey has been launched to “bring about lasting changes for children, families and communities in the UK.”
