Lily's Promise: How I Survived Auschwitz and Found the Strength to Live
Sep 2021 · Pan Macmillan
4.9star
24 reviewsreport
Ebook
288
Pages
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About this ebook
The Sunday Times top 10 bestseller, with a foreword by King Charles III, as Prince of Wales.
The incredibly moving and powerful memoir of an Auschwitz survivor who made headlines around the world. This updated edition includes Lily being awarded an MBE, reaching her hundredth birthday, and the discovery of a long-lost book belonging to her murdered brother – the only tangible link to him that survived the Holocaust.
When Holocaust survivor Lily Ebert was liberated in 1945, a Jewish-American soldier gave her a banknote on which he’d written ‘Good luck and happiness’. Many decades later her great-grandson, Dov, decided to use social media to track down the family of the GI – and 96-year-old Lily found herself making headlines round the world. Lily had promised herself that if she survived Auschwitz, she would tell everyone the truth about the camp. Now was her chance.
In Lily’s Promise she writes movingly about her happy childhood in Hungary, the death of her mother and two youngest siblings on their arrival at Auschwitz in 1944 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. From there she and her sisters became slave labour in a munitions factory, and then faced a death march that they barely survived.
Lily lost so much, but she built a new life for herself and her family, first in Israel and then in London. It wasn’t easy; the pain of her past was always with her, but this extraordinary woman found the strength to speak out in the hope that such evil would never happen again.
'Unforgettable' – Daily Mail
'Utterly compelling, heartbreaking, truthful and yet redemptive, a memoir of the Holocaust, a testimony of irrepressible spirit and an unforgettable family chronicle, written in lucid prose by a truly remarkable woman . . . I couldn't stop reading it' – Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Jerusalem: The Biography
The incredibly moving and powerful memoir of an Auschwitz survivor who made headlines around the world. This updated edition includes Lily being awarded an MBE, reaching her hundredth birthday, and the discovery of a long-lost book belonging to her murdered brother – the only tangible link to him that survived the Holocaust.
When Holocaust survivor Lily Ebert was liberated in 1945, a Jewish-American soldier gave her a banknote on which he’d written ‘Good luck and happiness’. Many decades later her great-grandson, Dov, decided to use social media to track down the family of the GI – and 96-year-old Lily found herself making headlines round the world. Lily had promised herself that if she survived Auschwitz, she would tell everyone the truth about the camp. Now was her chance.
In Lily’s Promise she writes movingly about her happy childhood in Hungary, the death of her mother and two youngest siblings on their arrival at Auschwitz in 1944 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. From there she and her sisters became slave labour in a munitions factory, and then faced a death march that they barely survived.
Lily lost so much, but she built a new life for herself and her family, first in Israel and then in London. It wasn’t easy; the pain of her past was always with her, but this extraordinary woman found the strength to speak out in the hope that such evil would never happen again.
'Unforgettable' – Daily Mail
'Utterly compelling, heartbreaking, truthful and yet redemptive, a memoir of the Holocaust, a testimony of irrepressible spirit and an unforgettable family chronicle, written in lucid prose by a truly remarkable woman . . . I couldn't stop reading it' – Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Jerusalem: The Biography
Ratings and reviews
4.9
24 reviews
Sammi Lapedus
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July 21, 2023
Lily's promise is one of the most exceptional books I have ever read. Being Jewish and having a son I have always been passionate about learning everything I can about the Holocaust. Lilys story was heartbreaking and her strength and courage is truly inspiring. this was one of the best most though evoking books I have ever read.
Edel Howcutt
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October 19, 2023
Beautiful book telling an accurate account of one womans life and her survival. Everyone should read this and remember.
Martine Barnes
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January 27, 2023
an amazing read I couldn't put it down, for someone who doest read books from getting bored, not once did I find this book boring. amazing strong women
About the author
Lily Ebert lived in London near her large and loving family, which includes thirty-four great-grandchildren. She was a founder member of the Holocaust Survivors Centre and was awarded the British Empire Medal for services to Holocaust education. Lily’s Promise is her powerful memoir. Lily passed away in October 2024.
Dov Forman is Lily’s great-grandson. At the age of sixteen he was separated from her during the Covid pandemic for the first time, and became determined to record her story for posterity.
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