Lily was born in Bonyhád, Hungary on 29th December 1923. She was the eldest daughter in a family of six children.
When the Nazis invaded Hungary in March 1944, Lily’s happy childhood was changed forever. In July 1944, when Lily was 20 years old, she – along with her mother, younger brother and three sisters – was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Lily’s mother Nina, younger brother Bela, and younger sister Berta were immediately sent to the gas chambers whilst Lily and her sisters Renee and Piri were selected for work in the camp.
Four months after arriving in the camp, Lily and her two sisters were transferred to a munitions factory near Leipzig in Germany where they worked until liberation by Allied forces in 1945.
After she was liberated, Lily travelled with her surviving sisters to Switzerland in order to start rebuilding her life. In 1953 Lily was reunited with her older brother, who had survived the Nazi camp system, and the family were able to live near to each other in Israel. In 1967 Lily and her husband moved to the UK.