My 99-year-old gran is a Holocaust survivor – she now receives death and rape threats on a daily basis

Lily Ebert was just 20 years old when she, her mother and four younger siblings were ripped from their home in Hungary and taken to Auschwitz.

With only Lily and two of her sisters living to tell the tale, 78 years after their unimagineable ordeal, Lily has begun to receive threats of death, rape and torture following the war that has erupted between Israel-Hamas.

The 99-year-old has even been accused of lying about the Holocaust on ‘behalf of the Israeli government’.

For the past three years, Lily, – who has an MBE – and her great grandson Dov Forman have run a TikTok account where they share glimpses into her life and experience during the Holocaust, while giving insight into their Jewish culture.

‘We’ve become very used to receiving antisemitic abuse, given the platform that we have,’ Dov explains to Metro.co.uk.

‘We’ve witnessed terrible comments, but not on the scale that we have at the moment. This is worse than anything I’ve ever seen.’

Since the conflict erupted between Israel and Hamas on October 7, Dov says that threats have become increasingly violent as thousands of hate comments have flooded in.

‘We get replies saying Lily should be bombed. People have said they hope that what happened on October 7 is repeated to both her and me,’ he adds.

‘People saying they want to rape my grandmother, then murder her. Many have said that the Holocaust was a lie, and Lily is lying on behalf of state of Israel when we very rarely post anything political.’

Over the recent years Dov has shared countless heartwarming videos of Lily, including weekly clips of her wishing TikTok a ‘Shabbat Shalom’, or Happy Sabbath.

Other videos on the account feature fellow Holocaust survivors telling their tales of survival.

However, more recently, Dov has been forced to turn off comments for a period due to the increase in violent and antisemitic comments, which have been posted on videos intended to spread awareness of the abuse suffered by those in the Holocaust.

With Dov running the social media accounts for Lily, she remains unaware of the extent of the comments, but he says she has been saddened by the recent increases of antisemitic abuse and Holocaust denial.

In a statement to Metro.co.uk, Lily told us: ‘To know that yet again individuals are remaining silent and not only standing idly but denying the truth and calling for violence against innocent Jewish people on social media and the streets is incredibly worrying and frightening for me.

‘I am part of an exclusive but dwindling community. It is a community that I did not choose: I am a Holocaust Survivor.’

Dov describes how October 7 was ‘incredibly difficult’ for Lily to see, as her sister and many family members still reside in Israel – while Lily lived there after the Holocaust until moving to the UK in 1967.

‘But the first thing that she and other Holocaust survivors said is that fear is a natural reaction to what we’ve seen going on both here in the UK and from what we’ve seen in Israel and it’s ok to be scared,’ he adds.

‘Ultimately, we have to be proud of who we are, proud Jews and we have to stand up and hope that people stand up together with us.’

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