Lily's Promise
SynopsisPlot
On Yom Kippur, 1944, fighting to stay alive as a prisoner in Auschwitz, Lily Ebert made a promise to herself. She would survive the hell she was in and tell the world her story, for everyone who couldn’t. Now, at ninety-eight, this remarkable woman—and TikTok sensation, thanks to the help of her eighteen-year-old great-grandson—fulfills that vow, relaying the details of her harrowing experiences with candor, charm, and an overflowing heart. In these pages, she writes movingly about her happy childhood in Hungary, the death of her mother and two youngest siblings on their arrival at Auschwitz, and her determination to keep her two other sisters safe. She describes the inhumanity of the camp and the small acts of defiance that gave her strength. Lily lost so much, but she built a new life for herself and her family, first in Israel and then in London.
Story
About this book
Lily Ebert grew up in a Jewish family in Hungary. In 1944, she was deported to Auschwitz, where her mother and two youngest siblings were killed on arrival. Still a teenager, she resolved to protect her two remaining sisters and to survive so she could one day bear witness. The memoir recounts her childhood before the war, the conditions inside the camp, and the small acts of defiance that helped her endure.
After liberation, Lily gradually rebuilt her life, eventually settling in London and raising a family. Decades later, at ninety-eight, she co-wrote this book with her great-grandson Dov Forman, who also helped her reach a wide audience through TikTok. The result is an intergenerational account that pairs Lily's firsthand testimony with a younger perspective on why that testimony still matters.
The book traces a path from prewar Hungary through the camp and into the long aftermath of survival. Lily's promise, made to herself on Yom Kippur 1944, was to tell the world what happened on behalf of those who could not. This memoir is the fulfillment of that commitment.
