Kate Middleton photographs Holocaust survivors to mark 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz

Both came face to face with evil as children, lost loved ones and now want to ensure the truth is never forgotten.

Steven Frank, 84, was among only a handful of children to make it out alive from the last of the many concentration camps he was sent to. 

By then his father had been gassed to death for speaking out against the Nazis.

Yvonne Bernstein, 82, was hidden as a child in France throughout most of the Second World War and her uncle was seized and murdered for shielding her.

To mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Mr Frank and Mrs Bernstein, who both settled in Britain after the war, have been photographed by the Duchess of Cambridge at Kensington Palace earlier this month in moving family portraits for a new exhibition.

In one of the pictures Mr Frank is seen holding a pan, this had been one of his mother's items that he had kept from during his time at Westerbork transit camp. He was later sent to Theresienstadt with his brothers and mother.

He survived multiple concentration camps, Mr Frank and his and his brothers are three of only 93 children who survived the camp, out of 15,000 children sent there 

Kate, who is patron of the Royal Photographic Society and had produced a thesis on photography during her art history degree, said “despite unbelievable trauma at the start of their lives' they were 'two of the most life-affirming people that I have had the privilege to meet”, the Daily Mail reports.

Kate's official profile on the Monarchy's website includes a list of hobbies which features 'photography and painting', and explains: 'The Duchess's enthusiasm for photography saw her taking photographs as part of her role during her time working within Party Pieces, a family company owned and run by her parents.' 

In 2018 Kate opened its Victorian Giants: The Birth of Art Photography exhibition, and penned the foreword to its catalogue, in which she discussed her passion for the medium. 

The new photographs are reminiscent of the works of Johannes Vermeer, whose 17th century Dutch paintings Kate enjoyed during a trip to The Hague in 2016.