DOV:
Dov Forman, a 20-year-old author and social media influencer, has significantly impacted Holocaust education across the world. Inspired by his great-grandmother Lily Ebert’s Holocaust testimony, Dov dedicated the first UK lockdown to uncovering her experiences as a survivor of the Hungarian ghetto, Auschwitz, Nazi-enforced slave labour, and the Death March.

Dov first shared Lily’s testimony on Twitter, amassing hundreds of millions of views, and even located the family of the US soldier who liberated Lily in April 1945. In February 2021, Dov launched a TikTok account to raise awareness about Lily’s testimony, attracting over 2 million followers and 24 million likes. "Lily’s Promise," co-authored by Dov and Lily, published by Pan Macmillan in September 2021, became a three-time Sunday Times bestseller, featuring a foreword by King Charles III.

Dov and Lily have collaborated on Holocaust education projects with UK Government departments, including the Department for Education and the Foreign Office. They spoke at the UK Parliament in November 2020, advocating for the Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre. Their efforts have been featured in over 100 news outlets in 30 countries. In November 2021, Dov received the Points of Light award from the UK Prime Minister for his exceptional service in preserving his great-grandmother’s Holocaust memories.

LILY:
Lily Ebert was born in Bonyhád, Hungary, in 1923. She was the oldest of six siblings, where she lived a happy life in a loving family. Soon after the German invasion of Hungary in March 1944, Jews in her town were rounded up and herded into ghettoes.

Lily, along with her mother and younger siblings, were later transported in a cattle truck to Auschwitz concentration camp. On arrival, Lily’s mother, her sister and younger brother were selected by Dr Mengele to be gassed and cremated. Lily and her sisters, Renee and Piri, were selected for work. She never saw her mother or her younger siblings again.

After a hellish period in the camp, Lily and her sisters were transported to work as slave labourers in a munitions factory near Leipzig where they managed to survive until the end of the war. They were liberated by Allied troops while they were on a death march and were transferred to Buchenwald Concentration Camp in the American zone of occupation. Lily and her sisters were then taken by train to Switzerland before making their way by ship to Palestine (as it was then).

In Israel, Lily married Samuel and had three children. In 1967 she moved with her family to London. Lily’s husband passed away in 1985 and since then Lily has devoted herself to teaching about the Holocaust in Schools, work places and in many other organisations.

Lily is a founder member of the Holocaust Survivors Centre and in 2015 was awarded an MBE for services to Holocaust education. Lily had 3 children and now has 10 grandchildren, 38 great grandchildren and 1 great great grandchild.