98 year-old Holocaust survivor Lily Ebert and her great-grandson Dov Forman will speak to students ahead of this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day.

Hosted by the University’s Institute of Continuing Education, Catz fellow and member of the International Holocaust Remberence Trust (the organisation set-up to promote Holocaust education), Dr Gillian Carr, will interview Ebert and Forman online on Thursday 20th January – a week before the memorial day on 27th January. Registration is free and open to all.

Holocaust Memorial Day is the UK’s national commemoration of the Holocaust. Starting in 2001, the day marks the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp by the Soviet Union in 1945.

This year’s theme is “One Day”. A day where “we come together to remember, to learn about the Holocaust, Nazi Persecution and the genocides that followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur, in the hope that there may be One Day in the future with no genocide.”

Over the last year, Lily Ebert, who was awarded a British Empire Medal for services to Holocaust education, gained a large social media following with the help of her 18 year-old great-grandson, Dov Forman.

Forman told Varsity that he and Lily “try to educate people all the time. We currently have over 1.5 million followers on TikTok and we use social media to teach the next generation, my generation. In 2020, Lily and I wrote our book, Lily’s Promise so that even more people could read Lily’s story and learn from the past.”

A Sunday Times bestseller, the book details Ebert’s story leading up to the Holocaust, but also the effect it had on generations following it.

Forman added that “it is now more important than ever that we listen to people like my great grandmother. We must remember these stories and testimonies of the Holocaust and take time to remember those who are not able to speak for themselves.