Her great grandson Dov has helped by publicising her experiences on social media and using Twitter, for example, to identify a particular US soldier who wrote her a message of hope for the future in 1945. If his country as well as the US had believed the “stories” and allowed the refugees enter the country maybe more would have survived. But, none of the books of this genre that I have read over the past 10 years have moved me, nor have really shown me and led me to feel, what true hell their experiences were.

Lily had promised herself that if she survived Auschwitz she would tell everyone the truth about the camp.And when her great-grandson, Dov, decided to use social media to track down the family of the GI, 96-year-old Lily found herself making headlines round the world. For people who read an Holocaust Survivor story for the first time, i hope it will give you the will to read other story like hers, they did go through almost the same thing but they don't remember it the same way and most of all, they don't describe it the same way. She shares details that are so intimate, personal: the moment her mother removes her shoes and passes them over to Lily. I first heard of Lily through TikTok, and to be able to not only read her story, but to hear her voice and witness her beautiful spirit through her online presence is such an honor.

For example, it can prompt us to think about one day in the future and how we can empower future generations to carry forward the lessons we must learn from the Holocaust and the testimony of survivors. This is different to many of the books I have read, split between life during the war and lily's struggles within Auschwitz through to her time afterwards and up to the current day.

Dov, equally committed to sharing Lily’s story, is leading the way as a role-model for young people across the world for Holocaust education and remembrance. Selbst als sie sich mit mehreren Familien eine Wohnung teilen musste und keine Privatsphäre hatte, konnte sie sich nicht vorstellen, dass es noch schlimmer wird. Lily tracks the occasions on which simple moments of kindness from strangers enabled her to cultivate her sense of hope.

Stories of victims trading food for the Torah, or still finding time for regular prayer show us that many people demonstrated immense resilience and determination to keep going, in spite of all the darkness they faced.As more time passes and more survivors die, the horrors of Auschwitz seem to fade into the problems of today's history.