Holocaust Memorial Commemoration – Mr Tomi Reichental

Local reservists and cadets attended a Holocaust Memorial Commemoration: Defence Engagement Event with Mr Tomi Reichental at Hydebank Army Reserve Centre, home of 204 (NI) Field Hospital. On the evening Tomi was welcomed by Her Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant Fionnuala Jay-O’Boyle and the Commanding Officer of 204 (NI) Field Hospital.

Tomi is a Holocaust survivor. He was born in Czechoslovakia in 1935 to Jewish farmers and lived with his family on their farm until he was the age of eight. At this age laws started coming in that prohibited the movement and rights of Jewish people and that is when he and his family went into hiding. Unfortunately he, his mother, his brother and his grandmother were caught and taken to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1944 where they stayed until the camp was liberated by the British in 1945. He is the author of ‘I was a Boy in Belsen’. Tomi regularly gives talks around the country and internationally to ensure that the horrors of World War II are never forgotten and that the mistakes of the past are never repeated.

Tomi took the packed audience on a journey through his childhood and recalled his traumatic experiences, leaving the audience with a message of hope, peace and reconciliation.