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Home Page > News > Irish Minister says Ireland’s neutrality on Hitler was morally bankrupt

Irish Minister says Ireland’s neutrality on Hitler was morally bankrupt

Says De Valera ‘lost the moral compass’ during the Second World War

CATHY HAYES,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Friday, January 27, 2012, 7:37 AM

Updated Friday, January 27, 2012, 9:43 AM

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Arrested Jews in Jasionowka - Ireland's neutrality in WWII deemed morally bankrupt

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Ireland’s Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter, has apologized for the way the 10,000 Irishmen who fought Hitler were treated after World War II. The minister also said Ireland’s stance of “neutrality” during the war was morally bankrupt.

Shatter, who is Jewish, gave a landmark speech just days before the Holocaust Memorial Day (Friday, 27th January). His speech was part of the launch of “The Shoah in Europe” exhibition in the Department of Justice and Equality, in Dublin.

He admitted that the Irish regime in the 1930s denied visas to Jews desperately trying to flee Nazi occupied Europe.

Shatter said, “the doors to this state were kept firmly closed to German Jewish families trying to flee” commenting on the anti-Semitic Berlin ambassador Charles Bewley.

He explained “The advice of the anti-Semitic then Irish Ambassador in Berlin, Charles Bewley, that Ireland should be protected from the contamination that would result from granting residential visas to Jewish refugees resulted in practically all visa requests being refused.”

He also apologized for how the Irish soldiers who returned from fighting in World War II were treated. He suggested that as many as 10,000 were barred from getting jobs and state pensions. They were condemned to poverty and stigma. It is likely that these men will now receive a full pardon.

“I believe it is also appropriate that we revisit the manner in which they were treated whilst also remembering that those who served in our Defence Forces throughout that time performed a crucial national duty. It is untenable that we commemorate those who died whilst continuing to ignore the manner in which our State treated the living, in the period immediately after World War II, who returned to our State having fought for freedom and democracy. This is an issue to which I hope to return in my role as Minister for Defence later this year,” the Minister said.”

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The Minister stated that the administration at the time, led by Eamon de Valera, has “lost its moral compass”.

He said, “This position was maintained from 1939 to 1945 and we should no longer be in denial that, in the context of the Holocaust, Irish neutrality was a principle of moral bankruptcy. This moral bankruptcy was compounded by the then Irish Government who, after the war, only allowed an indefensibly small number who survived the concentration camps to settle permanently in Ireland whilst refusing entry and permanent residence to many more and also by the visit of President De Valera to then German Ambassador Edouard Hemple in 1945 to express his condolences on the death of Hitler. At a time when neutrality should have ceased to be an issue the Government of this State utterly lost it’s moral compass.”

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owainglyndwr16 | Jan 31, 2013, 02:24 AM EST

Alan Shatter was talking out of his Hat http://archive.jta.org/article/1944/10/26/2865213/irish-minister-in-berlin-intervenes-for-jews-imprisoned-in-oswiecim-camp

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donwreford | Nov 23, 2012, 06:30 AM EST

To demonize Ireland with reference to neutrality is ironic, the British Establishment whom have treated its brotherhood in terms geography and what should have evolved towards a benefit to both countries, the violence perpetrated by in the main a group of men as in the institute of Parliament, those in principle those in the House of Lords, I suggest are criminally negligent in the evil inflicted on a nation that had not the same resources and power of this sector mentioned of Britain. The WW2 become a enigma, did the British Establishment expect loyalty that had treated the Irish as a enemy as in war? it is time to be truthful as to the relationship of history between the British and Irish, I expect this vindictive and hateful character of the British Elite will pass into a history of darkness and some light will emerge in time to heal the wounds inflicted upon a great nation, Ireland.

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Sparklet | May 24, 2012, 12:47 PM EDT

Ireland didn't behave like a neutral country. Dev played it perfectly imo...officially neutral but behind the scenes assisting the allies.

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esatdigiwank | Feb 01, 2012, 07:20 AM EST

While we're on the topic of Irish newspapers, Joycean try reading Examiner, Times, Star (if you really have to), regional rags but not a conservative mouthpiece paper which panders to devotees of the Soldiers of INFAMY (FF). That which has cast a negative aspersion on attempts by the Educ. Minister to diminute the power of the RC church over the education system for example. And for its foreign news articles copies and pastes from the London Telegraph. I don't need to name it, its more than conspicuous by its absence from my rant.

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wizardofoz | Jan 31, 2012, 05:53 PM EST

And pray tell, how does the Jew propose Deve could have defended the Free State from the German Luftwaffe? I doubt shouting insults would have been much of a defense! And that’s about all they could have done. The British could hardly defend themselves never mind the Free State. Deve made the correct call.

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seanomelb | Jan 31, 2012, 05:44 PM EST

I wonder does Mr Shatter have the same concerns for the rape and pillage of the Palestinian people.

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Sparklet | Jan 31, 2012, 03:46 PM EST

Years ago Britain had a vile empire and rode roughshod over the rest of the world. Those days - and people - are gone. I think the USA carries that mantle these days. Lostgold comes across as yet another wannabe Irish who can't drag himself into the 21st century. If he's American, he hasn't got a clue. If he's Irish, he doesn't speak for the majority of the Irish people.

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DanOLoingsigh | Jan 31, 2012, 06:19 AM EST

sirpete - I like your hindsight quote...undermined a little by your hindsight take on Versailles...not sure how neutral we are now? With military deployed in Afghanistan in support of ISAF? DeV was right in '39, but could/should have reviewed his decision when USA came into war...opened the west coast ports airfields for US use...would have been a great boost to development, if nothing else...still he wasn't the most far sighted of people...Shatter, like everyone else, is entitled to his view on this...

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seanomelbourne | Jan 30, 2012, 06:10 PM EST

lostgold should have mentioned that the USA was stolen from its original inhabitants,or is he in denial.Joycean "th" in gaelic has a soft "H" sound and does not exist as it is pronounced in english.Your claim "dat" it is a matter of educaion is a little "intellectual snobbery. When Dutch or Germans who use english as their second language fail to pronounce the "w" sound are they uneducated?

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sirpeter | Jan 30, 2012, 03:34 PM EST

Hindsight is a fools foresight.If anyone was morally right to stay out of WW2 it was Ireland.Treaty of Versailles Article 231, commonly known as the "Guilt Clause" or the "War Guilt Clause", is the first article in Part VIII, "Reparations" of the Treaty of Versailles.By blaming only Germany for causing the war,Article 231 has been cited as one of the causes that led to the rise of national socialism in Germany.Like Saddam whoever helped put him in power should get him out.~Nawin'to do with us Irish biy.We have our own problems.Keep your hands off Irish neutrality Alan Shi*ter.It's not for sale at any price.Ye have sold the country out.Government of this State utterly lost it’s moral compass.”So right on that one.

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Kilsally | Jan 30, 2012, 02:11 PM EST

lostgold - you are misinformed if you think Britian is blocking a United Ireland. 2012 is the centenary of the signing of the Ulster Covenant and the pre cursor of Ulster Protestants forming the Ulster Volunteer Force under the command of Dubliner Edward Carson to fight either England or the South - the outbreak of WW1 saw the UVF and YCV as well as nationalist Irish volunteers subsumed into the British Army to fight with the Allies as the 36th Ulster Division and the 16th Irish Division respectively which effectively averted civil war albeit the IRA went for the Easter Rising in 1916 whilst everyone else was preoccupied with the war. The Good Friday Agreement places the sovereignty of Northern Ireland solely in the hands of the Northern Irish people with provisions for a referendum.

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eiriamach | Jan 30, 2012, 09:49 AM EST

Joycean writes, "Probably most Irish-Americans who follow Irish Central are my age and follow it for the same reason." Probably right, Joycean. You could be my twin, same profession, same age range, same trudging through boggy Irish cemeteries looking for ancestors' tombstones, same searches for records and descendants of family, same genealogy/history interests. The only difference is the recession sent me back to work. Visits to Ireland have introduced me to much Irish culture, however, the kind that endures, that changes over time but is not just a stereotype. My father used to scoff at the tin-pan alley songs that passed for "Irish" in America, while he hummed Irish language folk tunes he learned from his mother (he never learned Gaeilge, so he couldn't sing the words, but he knew what was authentic). Americans have a role to play in supporting Irish culture, whether we can say something meaningful about Irish history in Ireland, Shatter, current events, etc., or not.

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IrelandNorth | Jan 30, 2012, 09:00 AM EST

Desertion is desertion, even if one did so to assist Mother Theresa in Calcutta. Pardoning 5,000 Defence Force Deserters to the British Army during The Emergency will incriminate the 35,000 service personnel who stayed behind to defend the state. Mr. Shatter should not confuse his role as Irish Min. for Defence and his understandable reaction to the Holocause as an Irish Jew.

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joycean | Jan 30, 2012, 08:03 AM EST

ciara,I am 65 years old, a retired teacher and university instructor, a business owner, with a daughter your age. The only reason I've gone to Ireland has been to search family records in the National Registry Office, wander through churchyards looking at gravestones, and in church records, and meet with some of the descendants of smy grandpaarents'siblings. I am into geneology, not Irish current events. Probably most Irish-Americans who follow Irish Central are my age and follow it for the same reason.

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ciaradexy | Jan 30, 2012, 05:36 AM EST

Joycean, its the culture of your Irish relatives from generations ago! if you want to know whats happening in Ireland NOW rather than the twee 1950s version of Ireland run by the church, if you are even remotely interested in Ireland, read an Irish newspaper. If I wanted to read about fake America Id read Fox news.

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