By, Sandy Rashty
2 min read
BySandy Rashty, Sandy Rashty
After meeting the Duchess of Cornwall at a Holocaust memorial event in 2015, Henrietta Kelly sent her a handwritten invitation to visit the Holocaust Survivors' Centre in Hendon.
And on Tuesday, Mrs Kelly, a Bergen-Belsen survivor, was among 40 HSC members who took tea with the duchess at the Jewish Care-administered centre in north-west London.
Royal assistants discreetly transferred the duchess's teacup from table to table - each decorated with patriotic-coloured napkins - as she moved to sit with different survivors.
She nodded attentively as Polish-born Mrs Kelly confided that she had once been advised to not talk about her wartime experiences. "My father told me it would bring me too much pain. Either people would not believe me, or they would ask me silly questions." She said afterwards: "I was able to tell her how lucky we are to have ended up in this country."
The duchess went on to meet Freddie Knoller, 94, who promised to post her a copy of his book and documentary film. "Being an optimist keeps you young," she told him.
I just hope people will know how incredible you have all been
She then sat beside Vienna-born Ester Friedman, 91, who became a state-registered nurse and midwife after fleeing to Britain on the Kindertransport in 1938. She told the duchess how but for conflicting arrangements, she would have been involved at the birth of Prince Charles. "The Home Secretary's wife was a patient of mine at the time," she recalled afterwards. "The Home Secretary recommended me to the then Princess Elizabeth to deliver her baby in Buckingham Palace.
"But then a patient of mine went into labour at the same time and I couldn't leave. I missed the opportunity, but it still makes a story. When I told the duchess, she laughed and said: 'I must tell my husband'."
After spending an hour with the survivors, the duchess told the gathering: "What a huge honour it has been for me to come here and listen to all these amazing stories. What you have gone through I don't think we can even imagine.
"But to be here and to be so cheerful and to be able to tell these stories now I think is so important - to you and to my generation and to the next generation and to the next generation down. I just hope these stories will continue so people know how incredible you have all been. I also am proud that this country has looked after you so well."
Afterwards, Auschwitz survivor Lily Ebert lifted up her sleeve to reveal the concentration camp number 10572 inked on her left inner-arm. She had given a copy of her story to one of the royal assistants to pass on to Prince Charles.
"When I met Prince Charles last year, he asked me to send it to him," said Mrs Ebert, one of 10 survivors to have been recognised in the New Year's Honours.
Mrs Ebert, who received the British Empire Medal, said: "The honours make me happy because it means the Holocaust is recognised. In a few years, there will be no more survivors and so many people still deny it ever happened. So what will happen when we are not here anymore?"
Fellow BEM recipient Renee Salt, 86, added: "It is important that the royal family know our stories, but it's a shame that they do not make an effort to go to Israel. I would have liked to ask the duchess if they are planning to go to Israel but I do not think it's my place."
Mr Knoller said it was "significant that we live in a country where Her Royal Highness can come and say 'hello' in Hendon".