Concentration-camp survivor gives students real-life history lesson [Independent.ie]
- Published: 04 February 2011
A SURVIVOR of the Holocaust is bringing living history into Irish classrooms.
At the age of nine, Tomi Reichental was incarcerated in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany.
Miraculously, he survived one of the worst atrocities in history.
For years, Irish teenagers depended on the harrowing memoir, 'The Diary of Anne Frank', for an account of the horrors of the Holocaust.
Now, 65 years later, Tomi (75) vividly recalls the story, firsthand, for transition-year and Leaving Certificate students.
Although six million Jews died during the systematic persecution and murder carried out by the Nazis, Tomi, his mother Judith and brother Miki were among the survivors.
Tomi later qualified as an engineer, and subsequently took up an invitation to work at a zip factory being set up in Dublin.
In 1961, he married Evanna Blackman and they had three sons, and now, several grandchildren.
A widower, Tomi lives in Rathgar, Dublin, and has a new partner, Joyce.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
