Lily Ebert

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Lily Ebert

BEM
Lily Ebert & Dov Forman.jpg
Ebert with her greatgrandson Dov Forman in 2021
Born (1923-12-29) 29 December 1923 (age 98)
Bonyhád, Kingdom of Hungary

Lily Ebert BEM (born 29 December 1923) is a Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor, living in London.

Personal life[]

Ebert was born in Bonyhád, Kingdom of Hungary (now Hungary). She was the eldest daughter in a family of six children.[1]

The Holocaust[]

The Nazis invaded Hungary in March 1944, and, in July 1944, when Ebert was 20 years old, she along with her mother, younger brother and three sisters were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau.[1] Ebert's mother Nina, younger brother Bela, and younger sister Berta were immediately sent to the gas chambers by Josef Mengele - the notorious Nazi doctor who became known as the Angel of Death for his brutal experiments on inmates - whilst Ebert and her two other sisters, Renee and Piri, were selected for work in the camp.[1]

Four months after arriving in the camp, Ebert and her two sisters were transferred to a munitions factory near Leipzig, where they worked until liberation from a Death March by Allied forces in April 1945.[1]

Post-Holocaust[]

After she was liberated, Ebert travelled with her surviving sisters to Switzerland in order to start rebuilding their life. In 1953 Ebert was reunited with her other brother, who had also survived the Nazi camp and slave-labour system. The family made aliyah to Israel where she married and had three children, before settling in London in 1967.[2] Ebert now has 10 grandchildren and 35 great grandchildren.[3]

In 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, with her great grandson Dov Forman, Ebert co-authored The Sunday Times Best-Seller Lily's Promise: How I Survived Auschwitz and Found the Strength to Live, which includes a foreword by Prince Charles.[4] Lily's Promise is a three-time Sunday Times Best-Seller and was the Waterstones and Daily Mail UK's best history book of 2021. Lily's Promise is published in more than 10 languages, including - but not limited to - German, Polish, Hungarian, Dutch, Czech, Slovakian, Chinese and French.

In his deeply personal foreword to Lily's Promise, Prince Charles - the heir to the throne - praised the book and paid tribute to Dov Forman, the great grandson of Ebert, for his “engaging and effective use of social media” in sharing her story. Prince Charles recalled lighting memorial candles in 2015 alongside Ebert, saying that by co-writing the book with her great grandson, she “lit her own candle, and recognised the urgent necessity of passing both its light and the responsibility of remembrance between generations.” He said Forman has “shown himself more than capable of carrying forward” the task of remembrance; “Through his engaging and effective use of social media, Dov has demonstrated a determination to share his great grandmother’s story with a global audience.” The Prince of Wales drew on teachings of former Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks who “spoke about the profound difference between history and memory. History is information. Memory, by contrast, is about identity… history is about the past. Memory is about the present,” he wrote. “It is the Holocaust survivors who help us transform history into memory by their ability to humanise the inhumane. It is them and their words that make the past present.” Prince Charles also writes that he considers it “a singular privilege to have met so many survivors” through his patronage of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust. “I have witnessed, and been greatly moved by, their harrowing testimony. I have drawn personal inspiration from the many Righteous Among the Nations, who, like my dear grandmother, Princess Alice of Greece, put their own lives at immense risk to save Jewish men, women and children from certain death.” Calling Ebert’s story “as profoundly moving as she is inspirational”, he says he was “humbled” to contribute to the book.[5]

Also in 2021, Ebert and her great grandson Dov Forman became stars on the TikTok video sharing platform, gaining more than a million followers for clips in which Ebert answers people's questions about surviving the Holocaust, when she was a prisoner at Auschwitz concentration camp.[6] Ebert and Forman's account has over 1.7 million followers, it has received over 25 million ‘likes’ and their top 5 most popular videos have collectively been viewed by over 50 million people.[7]

Ebert and Forman have collaborated with various departments of the UK Government (including the Department for Education, the Foreign Office, the Home Office and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities) and in November 2020, they spoke at the UK Parliament in favour of the UK Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre.[8] Ebert and Forman have also appeared on international radio and television, giving interviews to over 180 news outlets in more than 35 countries.

Ebert's portrait was one of seven commissioned by Prince Charles for the Royal Collection to remember survivors of the holocaust and as a tribute for the survivors who made their life in Britain. When the portraits were released in the Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace Ebert told Prince Charles "Meeting you, it is for everyone who lost their lives." Prince Charles touched her shoulder and replied: "But it is a greater privilege for me.".[9]

Awards[]

In the 2016 New Year Honours, Ebert was awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) for services to Holocaust education and awareness.[10]

Ebert's great grandson Dov Forman received the Points of Light award from the UK Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street, in November 2021, in recognition of exceptional services to Holocaust education.[11][12]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d "Lily Ebert BEM". het.org.uk. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
  2. ^ "'Auschwitz was hell on earth. We must never forget its horrors'". standard.co.uk. 2020. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
  3. ^ Rosa, Joanne. "Auschwitz survivor and great-grandson teach TikTok about realities of Holocaust". ABC News. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
  4. ^ "We must keep memories of the Holocaust alive". The Telegraph. 27 August 2021.
  5. ^ Mendel, Jack (31 August 2021). "Prince Charles 'humbled' to help launch survivor Lily Ebert's memoir". Jewish News UK. Jewish News. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  6. ^ "Nonagenarian TikTok star shares Ausschwitz experiences". dw.com. 2021. Archived from the original on 14 August 2021. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
  7. ^ "A 98-year-old Holocaust survivor built a massive TikTok following to combat deniers: 'It happened'". Washington Post. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
  8. ^ "Lily Ebert & Dov Forman speech". Westminster.gov.uk. UK Government. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
  9. ^ "Holocaust Memorial Day: Portraits of last remaining UK survivors unveiled". BBC News. 2022-01-27. Retrieved 2022-01-27.
  10. ^ "Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood". thegazette.co.uk. 2015. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
  11. ^ "Prime Minister honours teen who co-wrote great-grandmother's Auschwitz memoir". Jewish News UK. 1 December 2021. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
  12. ^ "Lily's Promise; Dov Forman". Points Of Light. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
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