German Diasporic Experiences: Identity, Migration, and Loss

15 Some Facts and Figures on German-speaking Exiles in Ireland, 1933–1945

FIFTEEN Some Facts and Figures on German-speaking Exiles in Ireland,1933–1945
Gisela Holfter 181 181 This chapter presents a brief introduction to Ireland in the early 1930s, Irish policy toward refugees, and the question of anti-Semitism in Ireland . Research into German-speaking refugees in Ireland has started only recently. For the first time some indications on who came, and on when and where, are presented. This is followed up with four case studies to illustrate the different fates of the refugees: Elsa Höfler, who committed suicide in Limerick; George Clare, author of Last Waltz in Vienna; Nobel Prize winner for physics Erwin Schrödinger; and John Hennig, the foremost researcher in Irish German studies. Introduction Ireland has not so far been a subject of international exile studies.1 In Ireland there has been a far stronger focus on emigration and recording the Irish experience. But with its economic success since the mid 1990s Ireland has increasingly become a country of immigration . And there is—at least in the media—interest in the question whether Ireland let anyone in at all in the 1930s, and, if so, how many. Estimates vary considerably but tend to be on the low side,2 at times even giving the impression that there were no refugees allowed in at all, as in the following Irish Times extract from 2006: Shame, too, for those countries which failed to respond to the pleas of German and Austrian Jews—most of them children—seeking refuge from persecution. Without making great play of it, the author duly 182 GISELA HOLFTER chronicles the fact that Ireland’s door was firmly shut in their faces. It’s one of the most shameful chapters in our history.3 After a glance at Irish policy toward refugees and the question of antiSemitism in Ireland, this chapter presents some preliminary findings about who came to Ireland and when. This is followed up with a number of case studies to illustrate a spectrum of experiences of the refugees: Elsa Höfler, a Jewish woman from Vienna who committed suicide in Limerick; Georg Klaar (George Clare), author of the well-known Last Waltz in Vienna; Erwin Schrödinger, being in a very privileged position as Nobel Prize winner , director of the newly founded Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies, and a friend of Irish Taoiseach Eamon de Valera; and John Hennig, who became the “father of Irish-German studies.” Ireland at the Time Ireland saw its first change of government in 1932 after the hard-won peace following the civil war in 1922–23. In 1937, a constitution was adopted, allowing for a special position for the Catholic church but recognizing the other religions, explicitly among them the Jewish congregation . The economic situation in the 1930s was dire. In 1936 alone, 22,000 people left to seek employment abroad, mainly in Britain,4 and in 1937 emigration numbers reached 26,0005—this in a population of under 3 million. In this context the Irish position of not being able to accommodate any refugees at the international refugee conference in Evian-lesBains in1938 does not sound quite as hollow as it would from today’s perspective and the knowledge of the Holocaust. On 1 September 1939, a state of emergency was declared and a day later de Valera announced that Ireland would remain neutral. The time of the Second World War continues to be called the ”Emergency” in Ireland. The main legislation implemented to deal with the “refugee problem” was the Aliens Act of 1935, which stated that all aliens needed permission to land. Overall, Dermot Keogh’s statement in his study on Jews in Twentieth -Century Ireland applies: “Ireland did not prove to be a safe haven of hope for many fleeing persecution on the continent.” 6 And there was certainly evidence of official anti-Semitism from 1933 onward as the correspondence between Leo McAuley at the Irish Legation in Berlin and J.V. Fahy, the secretary of the Department of External Affairs, in April 1933 shows: “As far as possible the Legation has discouraged such persons from going to Ireland, as they are really only refugees.”7 McAuley received the following as an answer from the Dublin headquarters: I am directed by the Minister to inform you that he approves of the action which you are taking as regards Jewish refugees desiring to come from Germany to the Irish...