“Lest We Forget”
Mr. Tomi Reichental, Holocaust survivor, visited the school on 12th October. He spoke to a privileged audience of 5th and 6th year students about his harrowing experiences as a child in the concentration camp of Bergen Belsen.
Mr. Reichental first outlined the background to The Holocaust, describing how the puppet government in Slovakia sold their own Jewish people for 500 marks each to the Nazis.
His own family was deported to Germany towards the end of 1944. Almost all those who were sent to Buchenwald perished. Tomi with his brother Miki, his mother and his grandmother were transported under appalling conditions to Bergen Belsen.
Mr. Reichental did not dwell too long on his experiences in Bergen Belsen but one of his more poignant memories was of the two brothers playing among the rotting corpses piled high outside the windows of their block. These corpses included that of his grandmother who did not survive the horrors of the camp.
Before he left, Mr. Reichental reminded his young listeners that The Holocaust must never be forgotten. The slaughter of Jews “did not start in the gas chambers”, he said. “It started with whispers, then abuse, and the final stage was murder.”
Drop Everything And Read (D.E.A.R)
D.E.A.R week is now a long standing tradition in Jamebo. During D.E.A.R. every member of the school community leaves what he is doing to spend 15 minutes reading for pleasure. The range of reading material includes books, magazines and newspapers- (Thank you to the Irish Daily Star, The Irish Daily Mirror and The Irish Times who very generously donated copies of their newspapers to the students). The week has been a huge success and continues to encourage students to get involved with reading.
Science Week with Astronomy Ireland
We may all think we’re experts on the stars of X_Factor. But Jamebo students got a chance to see real stars shine when Astronomy Ireland visited the schools on 17th November. Students had an opportunity to hear about planets and their moons, comets and other Solar System objects, and our home galaxy, the Milky Way.
This article was originally published in:
Fountain News Digital – December 2010 (Issue 2)
We are re-publishing all articles from our past newsletter, Fountain News Digital, and you can view all completed newsletters here. There were nine issues published in total between 2010 and 2012.
