A Holocaust survivor has been giving primary and secondary school children in Ireland the opportunity to have history lessons from a first-hand perspective by making regular visits to educational establishments around the country.

Tomi Reichental, 75, visits two schools every week to give his account of what his experience at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany was like, reports the Irish Independent.

He tells the students of being incarcerated at the age of nine, surviving the persecution by the Nazis during the second world war, before setting up life in Ireland.

His stories bring the history lessons taught in schools around the country to life, as children have largely relied on the memoir The Diary of Anne Frank for a first-person account of the war.

According to the Holocaust Education Trust Ireland, Frank died in the wooden barracks next to Reichental after she was transferred from Auschwitz.

The charity is now creating an 80-minute DVD recording Mr Reichental's testimony, which will be made available to all schools so that "this horrific event will never be forgotten".

Written by Donal Walsh 

Comments