A 100-year-old Auschwitz survivor has emotionally declared that the Nazis “didn’t win” as she celebrates becoming a great-great-grandmother.
Lily Ebert, who was recognized for her services to Holocaust education and was awarded an MBE in the New Year’s Honors list last year, went from “being on the brink of death at Auschwitz to creating five generations of Jewish life” .
His great-grandson, Dov Forman, 20, adopted X, formerly known as Twitterto share an emotional image of Lily with her daughters and grandchildren.
The wholesome snaps, which have already racked up more than 20,000 likes, showed Lily beaming as she held her newborn great-great-grandson.
The caption read: “This week, my great-grandmother, Lily Ebert, a 100-year-old Auschwitz survivor, became a great-great-grandmother.”
Lily Ebert, 100-Year-Old Auschwitz Survivor, Becomes Great-Great-Grandmother, Reveals ‘The Nazis Didn’t Win’
”I never expected to survive the Holocaust. Now I have five beautiful generations. The Nazis Didn’t Win!” From near-death at Auschwitz to five generations of Jewish life.’
Many rushed to the comments to congratulate Lily on the special family moment.
One person said: ‘Wonderful. Congratulations to Lily, her great-great-grandson, and her proud parents. The joy on her face is uplifting.
Another said: ‘What an uplifting story! Blessings to the extraordinary Lily Ebert and all generations of her family.’
Someone else wrote: ‘Real tears watching this. Please tell your great-grandmother that her smile gives us hope. Shabbat shalom.’
A fourth wrote: ‘This is wonderful!!! The most beautiful story I have read in recent months. It brings hope, and hope is what we need most in these dark hours. Mazal Tov to Grandma Lily, may God grant her many more years of good health see ahavah.’
Lily, who became a founding member of the UK Holocaust Survivors Centre, and her grandson have racked up billions of views on TikTok in an effort to educate the younger generation about the Holocaust.
After receiving his MBE at Windsor Castle, he said: ‘Not long ago, there were people who wanted to kill me for my religion, and today I received this honour. Words cannot explain how much this means to me.
Lily Ebert, who was recognized for her services to Holocaust education and was awarded an MBE in the New Year’s Honors list last year, went from the brink of death in Auschwitz to creating five generations of Jewish life.
Her great-grandson, Dov Forman, 20, took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to share an emotional photo of Lily with her daughters and grandchildren.
“I promised myself that if I survived, I would tell the whole world what had happened to us in Auschwitz: that there were people murdered solely for their beliefs, because it was believed that we were not worthy of life.”
He said he has always tried to be a positive force in the world and encourage others to “appreciate our differences, learn from each other and be kind to everyone.”
‘Something terrible like that should never happen again. As long as I am alive I will teach the world to be tolerant,’ she added.
He also spoke about the importance of educating people through social media, particularly TikTok.
“I think it’s very important (to educate people through TikTok) because young people really want to learn and they should learn,” he said. “I don’t just speak what I learn: I went through it.”
Lily was 20 years old when she and her family were taken to Auschwitz on one of the last trains bringing Hungarian Jews to the camp in 1944, enduring months in Birkenau, before being transported to Altenburg, a subcamp of Buchenwald.
Many rushed to the comments to congratulate Lily on the special family moment.
His parents and some of his siblings were sentenced to death in the gas chamber after encountering the infamous Josef Mengele, known for his experiments on those in the camp, while the remaining family members were put to work.
After being liberated from Auschwitz 78 years ago, Ms. Ebert spent a year in Switzerland before moving in 1946 to Israel, then under British rule in Palestine.
She emigrated to the UK in 1967 with her husband, Samuel, and began a life educating the world about the horrors of the Holocaust.
Ms Ebert now lives in North London, is a mother of three, grandmother of 10 and became a great-grandmother for the 36th time in 2022.
The King wrote a foreword to his book, Lily’s Promise, as Mrs Ebert spoke of her appreciation for the monarch whom she met on a number of occasions, including at one of his Christmas parties.
“He’s a very special human being,” Mrs. Ebert said of Charles. ‘It must be a very difficult job and you do it with such love and understanding that I am very grateful. I never thought he would have the chance to thank him personally.’
He added that the news of his MBE came through a letter and that the recognition is “very special”.
“People are still here in this world and (showing) their respect, which (we should) try to have for the entire community.”
Lily (pictured) was recognized for her services to Holocaust education at Windsor Castle last year after being included in the New Year’s Honors list, the first overseen by King Charles since his accession to the throne .
With great-grandmother as she accepted the award was her great-grandson, Dov Forman, 20 (pictured).
Lily photographed with her siblings for the last time: This photograph taken in 1943 shows the siblings (ID) Piri, Berta, Imi, Lily and René (another brother, Bela, is not pictured).
King Charles (then Prince of Wales) speaks with Lily Ebert at an exhibition of Seven Portraits: Surviving the Holocaust, which were commissioned by Charles to pay tribute to Holocaust survivors, at The Queens Gallery, Buckingham Palace, on 24 January 2022.
Forman told the PA news agency it was “humbling” to see his grandmother become an MBE.
‘It is humbling to be here today, along with four generations of my great-grandmother’s family, as she accepted her MBE.
“It was very moving to see the tears streaming down his face as he told the King that he never expected to survive the Holocaust, let alone receive an honor from the King of England.”
He added that the next thing they’ve gained on TikTok is in part “taking the torch and passing it on to others.”
“When you listen to a Holocaust survivor, when you listen to a witness, you become a witness,” Forman told PA. ‘And so, every person who listens to our story on TiKTok… learns the lessons of the past.
‘So I feel incredibly honored and humbled to have helped my great-grandmother go viral and give her a platform and every day we receive thousands of comments from all over the world, even from countries where they are prohibited from learning and teaching about the Holocaust.’
Forman spoke about visiting the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial site for the first time on January 19.
“I really tried to imagine my great-grandmother being there, in the same place I was then… I couldn’t understand how she survived such an experience,” he said.
‘We must not hesitate to hold accountable perpetrators who had anything to do with enabling the terrors suffered by people like my great-grandmother… That said, this is not the biggest risk we face today.
‘Our greatest concern concerns the third category of ordinary people within the scope of those involved in the Holocaust: the bystanders.
“We cannot allow ourselves to become spectators: my work with my great-grandmother and this trip (Auschwitz) have instilled in me that it is up to us, those of the more recent generations, my generation, to ensure that we do not stand idly by as long as there is hate in this world.