Page 16 - TORCH Magazine #15 - February 2020

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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.
Their stories will stay with me forever.
Whilst I have been lucky enough to meet two of the now very few survivors, I recognise not everyone in the future will be able to hear these stories first hand. It is vital that their memories are preserved and passed on to future generations, so that what they went through will never be forgotten.
One of the most moving accounts I read as a young girl was ‘The 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.
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.”
Prince William pays tribute to great grandmother, Princess Alice
The royal couple also have their own personal connection to the Holocaust that serves as a legacy in keeping the memory of
the Holocaust alive. Speaking at the Holocaust Memorial Day service, where the royal couple also met survivors, Prince William paid tribute to his great-grandmother, Princess Alice, who saved a Jewish family from the Nazis in 1943.
William read a letter by a friend of his great-grandmother (mother of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh) explaining how the princess helped the Cohen family, saying: “(She) put a
small two-room apartment on the third floor at the disposal of Mrs Cohen and her daughter.
“It was thanks to the courageous rescue of Princess Alice that the members of the Cohen family were saved.
“The members of the Cohen family left the residence three weeks after liberation, aware that by virtue of the princess’s generosity and bravery had spared them from the Nazis.”
Together, William and Kate helped light 75 flames in the hall, signifying the number of years since Auschwitz-Birkenau was finally liberated.