In Memoriam Lily Ebert – Directed by Péter Berecz
A documentary that preserves Lily Ebert’s testimony as living memory for younger generations.
Date: April 20, 2025
Film: In Memoriam Lily Ebert – Directed by Péter Berecz
For me, In Memoriam Lily Ebert is the kind of documentary you cannot just play in the background. You have to sit down and listen, because when Lily speaks you feel she is telling it to you personally so that you will pass it on.
What I loved most is that the filmmakers never tried to sensationalise her life. They simply show who she was and why she kept speaking even at one hundred years old. Her own message comes through crystal clear: she does not repeat these stories to make the pain worse, but so that we understand what happens when we start believing that one person is worth more than another. That is where everything begins. Hearing it from her hits hard.
It also shows more than the camps. We see how life can be rebuilt afterwards: moving forward, working, building a family, and eventually reaching young people. That thread mattered most to me. She did not only want to survive—she wanted to be remembered, and she wanted children to understand. The film captures that beautifully.
The format feels more television than theatrical, but it does not need anything else. Lily’s face, her voice, her words carry the whole piece. And that thought—“We are not the same, only different, but we all want the same thing: to live in peace”—could not be more relevant.
In my own rating system this is a 10/10. Not because it is formally perfect, but because it is so clear, so honest, and because someone is speaking whom we absolutely must listen to. I recommend it without hesitation.
“You see how it has to be, why I do this today, and why I speak? I go into schools, everywhere they call me. Why? Why do we do it? So the world will know. To cause pain? No. What I want is for the world to see what can happen. What can happen if we believe some people are worth more, that their value is different, and that others’ lives are not worth as much. We must learn that we are simply different—we are not the same. Every person is different. But basically we all want one thing: to live in peace in this world.” – Lily Ebert