Hall of Names, Yad Vashem World Holocaust Centre, Jerusalem, Israel
Untold stories given voice at Holocaust Memorial Day. A man who broke his silence to reveal the horrors he witnessed in the Nazi death camp at Bergen-Belsen will be a special guest at Holocaust Memorial Day commemorations at the University of Sussex on Wednesday 26 January 2011. Slovak-born Tomi Reichental did not speak about his experiences for nearly 60 years, 'not because I didn't want to, but because I couldn't.' As one of just three Holocaust survivors now living in Ireland, he decided it was time to share his memories and speak out as one of the few remaining witnesses to the Nazi atrocities. He began by speaking to students in Ireland about his wartime experiences before being persuaded by film-makers Gerry Gregg and Oliver Donohoe to revisit Slovakia and relive his time in Bergen-Belsen. It was there, as a nine-year-old boy, that he witnessed the annihilation of thousands of Jews through starvation, disease and mass murder. Miraculously, Mr Reichental, his mother and brother survived Belsen and his father survived as a partisan, but many other relatives and friends perished. The film, Till The Tenth Generation tells the story of Tomi's return visit to Slovakia.
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