Analysis: are there lessons we can take from the experience of the hundreds who came to Ireland as refugees in the 1930s and 1940s?
What do Albert Einstein's first assistant, Berlin’s first professor in Finnish-Ugric languages and one of the foremost scholars on St Patrick have in common? They all came to Ireland as refugees, trying to escape Hitler and Nazi ideology. They all settled and died here - and they weren’t alone.
Some 400 refugees from Austria, Germany and Czechoslovakia came to Ireland in the 1930s and early 1940s and these arrivals had a considerable impact. Given recent controversies about asylum-seekers, it might be timely to remember their legacy and to wonder whether there are any lessons we can take from their experience.
While most of the refugees are largely forgotten, there is a persistent feeling that Ireland did not do enough at the time, most often voiced at the annual Holocaust memorial days. This is hard to argue with, as the number of people finding refuge was small (albeit greater than generally known), though they did include many fascinating people. Ludwig Hopf, Einstein’s first assistant, went with Einstein from Zurich to Prague and found mistakes in his calculations. They remained in contact and it likely that any associations Einstein might have had with Ireland included Hopf and his fellow émigré Erwin Schrödinger, who has rarely been perceived as a refugee and indeed was in a special position as he was basically headhunted by Eamon de Valera for the newly founded Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland, Will Goodbody reports on a 2018 conference in Dublin to celebrate the works of theoretical physicist Erwin Schrödinger
Ernst Lewy was the first professor in Finnish-Ugric languages at Berlin University. He influenced Walter Benjamin and later became one of only a handful of professors of the Royal Irish Academy. Anther arrival was Ludwig Bieler, who eventually became professor of Paleography and Late Latin at University College, Dublin. Bieler developed into of the leading specialists on St Patrick and did the lion's share of researching and assembling the Manuscript Sources for the History of Irish Civilisation which was called "undoubtedly...the most ambitions work of reference ever to have been undertaken by Irish scholars".
Our research at the Centre for Irish-German Studies at the University of Limerick has uncovered the remarkable impact created by the influx of people in many areas. This includes founding factories in places such as Castlebar, Longford, Galway and Tralee as well as Dublin (providing considerable employment for Irish workers) and the contribution to religious developments (some of the refugees were instrumental in founding the Progressive Jewish Congregation). They also added to the diversity of cuisine with new eating places or simply living here, meeting and falling in love with Irish men and women and starting families.
We probably need to remind ourselves that, unlike today, Ireland was not perceived as a desirable destination. It was hardly known and was seen as a poor and unstable country on the periphery of Europe. When told that Ireland was being considered as an exile destination, people tended to be incredulous: "are you crazy? People there have in their right coat pocket the liquor bottle, rosary beads in the left and in the hip pocket the revolver."
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From RTÉ Radio 1's History Show, Gisela Holfter, from the University of Limerick and Mark Maguire from Maynooth University discuss refugees in Ireland in the 20th century
In Ireland at the time, there was occasional appreciation of the new immigrants. In April 1940, the Irish Times informed its readers that "Special Lectures" were to be given at University College Dublin, by "distinguished Continental professors, refugee scholars, who are obtaining in Ireland the opportunity denied to them in their native countries. As we remarked earlier in the year, when Professor Erwin Schrödinger delivered lectures on wave mechanics, the fact that we are one of the nations turned to for sanctuary in itself makes us proud, but later on, when the influence of such men as these is fully felt, we will be not so much proud but grateful."
But there were critical voices at the time as well. These warned against the "influx of foreign males (mainly Jews)" and called on the government to "have them deported to where they come from" and stating that "charity begins at home".
To some extent the situation is now reversed. In the late 1930s, it was the Department of Justice that was very opposed to letting in anyone who could become a burden to the young Irish Free State. Now, it stands accused of forcing asylum-seekers into communities unwilling to have them (and of less than ideal communication strategies).
In Ireland at the time, there was occasional appreciation of the new immigrants
Then as now, there are many groups trying to support and help immigrants fleeing to Ireland. In the late 1930s, they consisted mainly of groups representing the different religious denominations, brought together in November 1938 under the umbrella of the Irish Coordinating Committee for Refugees, to which the government devolved some of its authority with regard to selection and vetting. Like the refugees themselves the individuals and groups involved tend to be largely forgotten. Nowadays, they tend to be locally based welcome committees. Direct provision did not exist in the 1930s and 1940s and work permits could be issued if requested by an employer. And, of course, the economic situation at the time was a very different one than it is nowadays.
Dr Gisela Holfter is the co-author (with Dr Horst Dickel) of An Irish Sanctuary – German-speaking Refugees in Ireland 1933-1945. (de Gruyter 2017)
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
