Britain's Prince of Wales has hailed seven portraits of some of the nation’s last remaining Holocaust survivors as a “powerful testament” to their experiences.
Charles commissioned the paintings of the elderly men and women as a lasting reminder of the horrors of the Nazi regime, and was left moved after meeting one subject who showed the prince her concentration camp tattoo, which read A-10572 – A for Auschwitz, 10 her block number and 572 her prisoner number
Auschwitz survivor Lily Ebert, 98, whose picture was unveiled with six others at the Queen’s Gallery in London, also showed the heir to the throne an angel-shaped golden pendant she hid from camp guards in her shoe, then later in her daily bread ration.
“Meeting you, it is for everyone who lost their lives,” Ms Ebert told Charles during the event on Monday.
The prince replied: “But it is a greater privilege for me,” and touched her shoulder.
In the foreword for a catalogue accompanying the exhibition, Charles wrote that we are all “responsible for one another, for our collective history”.
“One of the starkest reminders of this was the Holocaust, when a third of Europe’s Jews were brutally murdered by the Nazi regime as it sought to extinguish not just the Jewish people, but Judaism," he said.
“Seven portraits. Seven faces. Each a survivor of the horrors of those years, who sought refuge and a home in Britain after the war, becoming an integral part of the fabric of our nation.
“However, these portraits represent something far greater than seven remarkable individuals.
"They stand as a living memorial to the six million innocent men, women and children whose stories will never be told, whose portraits will never be painted.”
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Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, speaks to Ike Alter and Diane Stoller aboard a boat on Lake Windermere. The Duchess heard the moving stories of Holocaust survivors who as children were sent to the British beauty spot to recuperate from the horrors of the Nazi regime. Getty Images -
Kate meets family members of the Windermere Children during a visit to the Jetty museum on Lake Windermere. Getty Images -
Kate speaks to Windemere Boy Arek Hersh and his partner Jean during the boat trip. AFP -
Kate took the boat trip on Lake Windermere with the two men who more than 75 years ago were part of a 300-strong group orphaned by the Nazis. Known as the Windermere Children, they went from “hell to paradise”. Getty Images -
Kate with family members of the Windermere Children. Reuters -
Kate travels in the steam launch Osprey on Windermere. PA -
The Duchess of Cambridge waits to board the boat at Wray Castle. Reuters
The prince said the portraits "stand as a permanent reminder for our generation – and indeed, to future generations – of the depths of depravity and evil humankind can fall to when reason, compassion and truth are abandoned".
In July 1944, a 20-year-old Lily Ebert, her mother and five siblings were taken to Auschwitz.
Her mother and some of her siblings were condemned to death in the gas chamber after encountering the infamous Josef Mengele, notorious for his experiments on those in the camp, while the remaining family members were put to work.
“This necklace is very special," Ms Ebert told Charles. "It went through Auschwitz and survived with me. Auschwitz took everything, even the golden teeth they took off people. But this survived.
“I put it in the heel of my shoe but the heel wore out so … I put it every day in the piece of bread that we got to eat. So that is the story of it. I was five years old when I got it from my mother for my birthday.
“My mother did not survive. My little brother and little sister did not survive. They arrived and they saw Dr Mengele. He took them straight away. I have worn my necklace every day since I survived.”
Later, her great-grandson Dov Forman, who has written a book with Ms Ebert about her experience, Lily’s Promise: How I Survived Auschwitz and Found the Strength to Live, said of the encounter with Charles: “The prince was very, very moved.”
Also among the seven survivors whose portraits are hung in the gallery is Helen Aronson who, with her mother and brother, was among a group of about 750 people out of 250,000 liberated from a Nazi-run ghetto in Poland.
The family had been separated from her father who was murdered by the Nazis.
Today Ms Aronson shares her experiences with groups across the country, and she said of her painting: “The portrait was just excellent, absolutely true to life. It has been such an experience.
“I talked to the prince about life in the concentration camp and the exterminations. It is something that I didn’t talk about for a long time but I have gone on to have a very happy life. My family is everything to me.
“It has been a very special and unforgettable day.”
Charles, who is patron of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, also commissioned portraits of Manfred Goldberg, Arek Hersh, Anita Lasker Wallfisch, Rachel Levy and Zigi Shipper.
The prince called on the talents of seven acclaimed artists – Paul Benney, Ishbel Myerscough, Clara Drummond, Massimiliano Pironti, Peter Kuhfeld, Stuart Pearson Wright and Jenny Saville – to take part in the year-long project:
The project is the subject of a 60-minute BBC Two documentary, Survivors: Portraits of the Holocaust, which will be screened on January 27 – Holocaust Memorial Day.
