Duchess of Cambridge’s survivor photographs for JN to be part of IWM exhibit
More than 50 survivors and their families have been photographed for display conceived by Jewish News opening on 6 August
Justin Cohen is the News Editor at the Jewish News
Photographs by the Duchess of Cambridge will be among more than 50 evocative images of Holocaust survivors and their families to go on display at London’s Imperial War Museum this summer.
Following a lengthy delay amid Covid restrictions, the world-famous institution announced that an exhibition will open on 6 August – the final part of a project conceived by Jewish News to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz last year.
Over the last few weeks, the final images have been snapped – some reflecting lingering coronavirus restrictions – by 14 contemporary photographers, all members or fellows of the Royal Photographic Society, which partnered on the project along with the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.
Generations: Portraits of Holocaust Survivors – which will run for five months and is supported by Dangoor Education – is designed to celebrate the resilience and achievements of survivors who after coming through Nazi horrors built new lives in Britain and had children and grandchildren.
Tracy Marshall-Grant, the RPS’s curator for the exhibition, said: “The portraits seek to simultaneously inspire audiences to consider their own responsibility to remember and to share the stories of those who ensured persecution. It creates a legacy that will allow descendants to connect directly back and inspire future generations.”
Most of the subjects are featured with items of significance to them from those years or since. Jillian Edelstein’s darkened photograph of John Hajdu, for example, includes the teddy bear he brought with him to the UK as a refugee from Hungary.
- READ MORE: Justin Cohen – The story behind Kate’s survivor portraits for Jewish News
Smiling from ear to ear, Sir Ben Belfgott is pictured by Frederic Aranda with his grandson Sam in matching hats and part of the former Olympian’s weightlifting gear.
The same photographer photographed Freddie Knoller, meanwhile, is pictured at his 100th birthday party with wife Freida, daughters Susie and Marcia and grandson Nadav.
They will be featured alongside the Duchess’s intimate photographs of Yvonne Bernstein and Steven Frank, which were published by media around the world and conceived as part of a special issue of Jewish News edited by the children and grandchildren of survivors. Kate spent hours painstakingly preparing for the shoot at Kensington Palace, and later described the pair as the most “life-affirming people I’ve ever met”.
Others photographers taking part in the project are veteran Royal photographer Arthur Edwards, Sian Bonnell, Anna Fox, Joy Gregory, Jane Hilton, Tom Hunter, Karen Knorr, Carolyn Mendelsohn, Simon Robert’s, Michelle Sank and Hannah Starkey.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
