Kate Middleton.Photo: Kensington Palace
AsKate Middletonset out tophotograph two Holocaust survivorsand their families, she spent time getting to know them and their stories.
Kate is seen smiling and chatting with Bernstein, who was photographed with her 11-year-old granddaughter Chloe Wright. The black and white photos also show the mom of three speaking with Frank and his granddaughters Maggie and Trixie Fleet, 15 and 13.
Yvonne Bernstein and Kate Middleton.Kensington Palace
Yvonne Bernstein and her granddaughter Chloe Wright.The Duchess of Cambridge
Justin Cohenof theJewish News,who came up with the idea for the project, wrote that it was “important people know this was far from a ‘point and click’ job” for Kate. Instead, she was “at pains to ensure the survivors were comfortable with the vision and that the spotlight was on the heroes to be pictured and not the Duchess herself.”
Steven Frank, his granddaughters and Kate Middleton.Kensington Palace
“And the thing I really loved is Maggie’s little teddy bear lying there, so peacefully, in her lap,” he said. “It’s sort of made the whole photograph.”
The Duchess of Cambridge
Frank’s granddaughter Trixie said Princess Kate “was really interested in our family and in Opa’s story, and the items we brought with us.”
Her sister Maggie added, “I think it helped put into perspective that he’s just our Opa — he’s our grandpa as well as a Holocaust survivor. It’s important to tell the story so it doesn’t happen again.”
Kate Middleton.
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Kate added in her statement accompanying the photos, “One of the most moving accounts I read as a young girl wasThe Diary of Anne Frank,which tells a very personal reflection of life under Nazi occupation from a child’s perspective. Her sensitive and intimate interpretation of the horrors of the time was one of the underlying inspirations behind the images. 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.”
source: people.com
