FESTIVAL SCREENINGS
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE Irish Film Festival Boston (2011)
The first major documentary about the Holocaust made in Ireland, Till the Tenth Generation tells the story of Dublin resident Tomi Reichental, who for nearly 60 years remained silent about his boyhood in Bergen-Belsen. One of three remaining Holocaust survivors in Ireland, Tomi travels back to Slovakia with veteran filmmaker Gerry Gregg to recall the life, and death, of Slovakia’s Jews.
For nearly 60 years Slovak-born Tomi Reichental remained silent about his experiences as a boy in the Bergen-Belsen death camp, "not because I didn't want to, but because I couldn't." Tomi was nine-years old in October 1944 when he and 12 other members of his family were taken to a detention camp run by Nazi Alois Brunner. Tomi, his mother Judith, brother Miki, grandmother Rosalia and two other relatives were sent by cattle car to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp; the others were sent to Buchenwald. Miraculously, Tomi, his brother and mother survived Belsen and his father survived as a partisan. 35 members of the Reichental family—grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins—however, died in the Holocaust.
After the war, Tomi moved from Slovakia to Israel and then to Germany (for engineering training) and eventually to Ireland, where, in 1961, he married a Jewish woman from Dublin.
During the war, Ireland’s behavior towards Jewish refugees was, in the later words of Justice Minister Michael McDowell, “antipathetic, hostile and unfeeling." By the late 1940s, the Jewish population of Ireland was 5,500. Today the number is around 1,800. One of only three Holocaust survivors left in Ireland, “Tomi realized that, as one of the last witnesses, I must speak out." And so he began speaking to middle school students throughout Ireland about his war-time experiences.
Charming and compelling, Tomi, now in his 70s, travels back to Slovakia with veteran filmmaker Gerry Gregg. Tomi recalls the history of Slovakia’s Jews and wounds are reopened as Tomi recalls his torment at the hands of the Nazis and their Slovak collaborators.
Director Gerry Gregg: "Everyone that made the film felt it was a privilege, principally because Tomi's story is so important for future generations to reflect on. It is not often that you meet living history, and you appreciate how fragile historical memory is. We were desperately anxious to record his story and the contribution Tomi is making to a greater understanding between religions and races in Ireland."
As Till the Tenth Generation is the first major documentary about the Holocaust made in Ireland, the film will play a central role in educating the Irish about the Holocaust and in promoting racial and religious tolerance. Irish Minister of Integration John Curran has funded the distribution of the film to all secondary schools in Ireland.
Gerry Gregg is one of Ireland’s most accomplished documentary filmmakers. He joined the Irish State Broadcast outlet RTE in 1978 and produced the current affairs program Today Tonight for eight years before establishing his own production company. Since then, he has directed, produced and written many award winning documentaries and series for both Irish and British Television broadcasters. Several of his films have been aired on American television and released theatrically.
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