To mark Holocaust Remembrance Day, 27th January, the History students of Presentation Secondary School Listowel attended a talk run by Carlow College on Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust with speaker Tomi Reichental. This talk was extremely insightful and allowed students to hear Tomi Reichental’s story about his life as a child and his time in Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp. Tomi’s story is extremely powerful and poignant and as one of few survivors left in the world hearing him speak is a great honour.

Our 2B Class, accompanied by Ms. Ahern, Ms. Burke and Ms. McAuliffe also took a walk on Thursday 27th January to visit the Holocaust Memorial in the Garden of Europe here in Listowel. It is Ireland’s only Public Memorial to the Holocaust. We remember all those murdered during the Holocaust, under Nazi persecution. On 27th January 1945 77 years ago the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, we paused to reflect on the lives of the 6 million Jewish people lost. A dark lesson in history: we owe it to each of the victims to ensure it will never happen again. We also remember those who died in other genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

Pictured: 2B class visiting the Holocaust monument in the Garden of Europe, Listowel