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(l-r) Minister Creighton, Francis Jacobs, Head of the European Parliament Information Office in Ireland Holocaust survivor, Tomi Reichental, Peter Cassells, Chairperson of the Holocaust Education Trust Ireland, Minister Quinn,Mary Banotti, founding trustee, HETI.

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn and European Affairs Minister Lucinda Creighton today marked the anniversary of the liberation of the Bergen- Belsen concentration camp in an event organised by the European Parliament Office in Ireland together with the Holocaust Education Trust Ireland.

Holocaust survivor Tomi Reichental relateed his personal experiences at the event.

Tomi Reichental was born in Piestany, Slovakia in 1935 and was nine years old when he was captured by the Nazis in 1944. He was deported to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp along with his mother, brother, grandmother, aunt and cousin. His parents, brother, aunt and cousin survived the war, but his grandmother passed away in Belsen. Thirty five members of Tomi’s family perished in the Holocaust.

‘I Was A Boy in Belsen’, Tomi’s memoir, was published in 2011 and his story made into an award winning film by director Gerry Gregg. Tomi has lived in Ireland since 1959 and regularly talks to Irish schools about his wartime experiences.