Auschwitz survivor who recovered from Covid-19 urges others to 'never give up the fight for life'

  • Video report by ITV News Correspondent Sejal Karia


A 97-year-old Auschwitz survivor who has recently recovered from Covid-19 has urged the public to have hope and "never give up the fight for life".

Lily Ebert, who contracted the virus in January, told ITV News: "I appreciate life, because I know I get a second chance to be alive."

She was treated at her home in north London by her relatives who were able to use oxygen supplies, according to The Guardian.

Ms Ebert said: "What normally happens to humans, when you get very ill and don't see that you will get better, then you ask the question I'm sure everyone asks, 'Why me?'"

She urged others to think positively about life, saying: "Hope, as long as you have hope, you will have life."

Ms Ebert, a survivor of the Nazi death marches, was liberated in April 1945 and began her new life in June that year.

She left for Switzerland after she was liberated from Buchenwald concentration camp, having previously been at Auschwitz where her mother, brother and sister were murdered by the Nazis. 

Just last week, her great-grandson Dov Forman, 17, celebrated her first walk outside in a month on social media.

He praised her strength, saying that she was a "fighter and survivor".

The photograph of Lily - which has been liked more than 250,000 times - showed her beaming while wearing a leopard print hat.