Remembering Kristallnacht: A Reckoning. Jews, Germans & The Holocaust

Holocaust Awareness Ireland and the Office of Public Works are pleased to present an event to mark the anniversary of Kristallnacht. Entitled  A Reckoning: Jews, Germans & The Holocaust, it is a panel discussion between Tomi Reichental, Oliver Sears and Alexandra Senfft, the granddaughter of Hanns Elard Ludin, Hitler’s envoy to Slovakia who was responsible for the deportation of 70,000 Jews including Tomi Reichental and his family. Conor O’Clery, author and eminence gris of Irish foreign journalism will moderate.

Alexandra Senfft’s grandfather Hanns Ludin was Hitler’s envoy to Slovakia, responsible for deporting Tomi Reichental and his family to Belsen. Together with Oliver Sears and Conor O’Clery they discuss the complicated Holocaust legacies of perpetrators and victims.

Tomi Reichental

Tomi Reichental is a Holocaust Survivor. Born in 1935 in Slovakia, he was sent to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1944. Tomi has lived in Dublin since 1959 & has received honorary doctorates including from Trinity College Dublin. He is the recipient of the International Person of the Year Award, Global Achievement Award as well Germany’s highest honour, The Order of Merit. He is the author of I Was a Boy in Belsen.

Alexandra Senfft

Alexandra Senfft is a German journalist & author. Her grandfather was a high-ranking Nazi. Her books about her family’s Nazi history include Silence is painful. A German Family History. She has talked to other descendants of Nazi perpetrators & bystanders in her book "The Long Shadow of the Perpetrators. Descendants Face Their Nazi Family History. She featured with Tomi Reichental in the Irish documentaries Close to Eviland Condemned to Remember.

Oliver Sears

Oliver Sears is a London-born Dublin-based art dealer & gallery owner. He is the son of a Holocaust survivor & founder of Holocaust Awareness Ireland. His exhibition ‘The Objects of Love’ which tells his family story through a collection of objects, documents & photographs that survived the war is currently on view at Dublin Castle. In collaboration with Trinity College Dublin and HAI, Oliver participated in the series Why Talk About the Holocaust?

Conor O’Clery

Born in Belfast, Conor O’Clery worked for The Irish Times for over 30 years, mainly as foreign correspondent in London, Moscow, Washington, Beijing & New York. He is the author of several non-fiction books, the most recent being The Shoemaker and his Daughter, about the travails of the family of his Russian-Armenian wife, Zhanna, during Soviet times.

You can view a recoding of the event here