Holocaust. Auschwitz concentration camp
Holocaust. Auschwitz concentration campiStock

Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, officially opened a new Holocaust exhibit at the UK’s Imperial War Museum.

At the event, she was reunited with two Holocaust survivors whose portraits she took with their grandsons in 2020. The photos were taken to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day. They were part of a project of the Royal Photographic Society and the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.

The future queen consort’s photos spurred high profile British photographers to take additional photos of the country’s remaining survivors with their children and grandchildren.

The “Generations: Portraits of the Holocaust” exhibit is centered around survivors who made new lives for themselves in Britain after the Holocaust. It will continue until January, when it will go on a country-wide tour.

“To come together across the generations to celebrate this wonderful project felt so special, particularly knowing the Maggie, Trixie and Chloe will be witnesses long after we’ve no longer here,” said Olivia Marks-Woldman, CEO of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, at the gala.

“Today’s visit to the ‘Generations: Portraits of the Holocaust’ exhibition at the Imperial War Museum brought back many memories of incredible people that the Duchess has met in recent years including two images captured by the Duchess. Holocaust survivors, Zigi and Manfred, who the Duchess first met in Stutthof in 2017 and spoke to again to mark Holocaust Memorial Day this year, appear in the exhibition as do the stories of the Windermere Children,” said The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge Twitter account.

The occasion also marked the opening of the Second World War gallery.

Imperial War Museum director Diane Lees said that “formally opening these galleries, which are dedicated to improving understanding of two of the most devastating conflicts and genocides in human history, a day before the world stands together to remember those who have fallen in war, is incredibly poignant for us.”

She added: “Given that this period will sadly soon pass out of living memory, we want these galleries to preserve the stories of our veterans, our eyewitnesses and our survivors, and ensure that we never forget what they experienced.”