Holocaust survivor and author to give talk to Kinsale Peace Project

By Peter Allen

A HOLOCAUST survivor and WWII biography author is to take part in a talk hosted by the Kinsale Peace Project.

Tomi Reichental is a Slovakian-born holocaust survivor, who was captured by Nazi Gestapo officers and sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany in October 1944. 

The camp is infamous for, among other things, being the place where Anne and Margot Frank died. Tomi wrote a book about his ordeal during the holocaust in 2011, called I was a boy in Belsen.

The book has been described as a tale that is ‘interesting and inspiring’ and a ‘disturbing tale of survival.’

Tomi was nine years old when he was first taken from Slovakia to the concentration camp, which he has previously described as ‘hell on earth.’ Thousands of prisoners of war, and people whom the Nazi government deemed unhuman, died of malnutrition and diseases, such as typhus, in the overcrowded complex.

Tomi has lived in Ireland since 1959, having lost 35 family members during the holocaust, save for his brother, mother, an aunt and a cousin. He will be giving the talk in Kinsale to share  both his traumatic past and speak about recent events in Europe surrounding mass-migration and the revival of far-right ideology.

The talk will take place at Kinsale Community School on Wednesday, April 25th at 8pm. For more information visit the Kinsale Peace Project website and Facebook page.