Auschwitz survivor's revenge... holding her great-great grandson

TENDERLY cradling her beloved great-great-grandchild in her arms was the greatest act of revenge for Holocaust survivor Lily Ebert.

- GILES SHELDRICK

After being rounded up and deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp by the Nazi regime during the Second World War, the joyous moment she got to meet Raphael was one she never imagined living to see.

Lily was born on December 29, 1923, in Bonyhád, Hungary.

In July 1944, aged 20, she was sent to the extermination factory in Nazi-occupied Poland, where her mother and younger siblings were murdered.

Somehow prisoner A-10572 survived and Lily went on to have three children, 10 grandchildren, 38 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild in a post-war life guided by the principles of hope and forgiveness.

Raphael was born six months before Lily's death on October 9 last year, aged 100. As the pictures show, it was a moment to savour and rejoice, encapsulating her courage, resilience and fortitude in the eternal hope that good will overcome evil.

Despite her scarcely imaginable ordeal, Lily's remarkable strength, courage and ability to find the good in all she met, marked her out as a beacon of hope. She was honoured by King Charles as a "trailblazing advocate for Holocaust education".

Great-grandson, Dov Forman, 21, said: "She survived Auschwitz and went on to thrive. In her 101st year she welcomed her first great-great-grandson, which she said was the greatest revenge against the Nazis.

"We need her light in today's world more than ever."