VOLUME 6 NO. 6 JUNE 2006 When Irish eyes weren't smiling The ninetieth anniversary of the 1916 spoke of the sacred Irish soil that could be Easter Rising in Dublin, in the crucible of liberated by Irish blood - terms reminiscent whose bloodstained suppression modem of Nazi 'Blut und Boden' ideology; and the Msh nationalism was largely forged, raises doomed Rising itself, whose leaders were the somewhat neglected subject of Irish executed by the British with wholly attitudes to the Jews - neglected because counter-productive bmtality, was stylised Jews in Ireland were so few. In the most into an act of martyrdom in the national famous Irish text of the twentieth century, cause, in form (though not in substance) James Joyce's Ulysses, Mr Deasy asks similar to the mythologisation of those Stephen Dedalus if he knows why Ireland Nazis who fell in Hitler's failed beer-hall has 'the honour of being the only country putsch in Munich in November 1923. which never persecuted the Jews', then The Easter Rising and its aftermath also answers his own question: 'Because she permanently advanced the cause of the never let them in.' extremists in Irish politics, for they allowed For a century and a half after the great italo Svevo (Ettore Schmitz), 1861- the men of violence to parade as the purest famine of the 1840s, Ireland was a poverty- 1928, the Italian-Jewish writer and defenders of the Irish national cause, a model for Joyce's Leopold Bloom stricken land that could not support even its tactic employed ad nauseam by the existing population, as the vast emigration war - quaintly dubbed 'the Emergency' in Provisional IRA, a paramilitary, proto- from its shores demonstrated. It was also Ireland - reflected the ambivalence of its fascist organisation whose 'revolutionary' sunk in deeply conservative Catholicism attitude to Nazi Germany. Though nationalistic aims are propagated by its (or, in the north, Protestant bigotry). Both Ireland's neutrality in practice tended to political wing, Sinn Fein. The most famous factors made it unattractive to Jews. After favour the Allies, the very fact of its hne in the most famous of all Irish poems, 'A Ireland won independence from Britain in neutrality, behind the shield of the British terrible beauty is bom', from W. B. Yeats's 1921-22, its inward-looking conservatism war effort (as the British saw it), counted Easter, 1916, reflects precisely the powerful intensified as the government, especially against it, as did its refusal to allow the but ambivalent attraction that violence in under Eamon De Valera, deployed an British to use on its Western coast the the struggle for national liberation has obsessive nationalism and hostility to strategically valuable Treaty Ports, which exercised over Irish politics for nearly a external cultural influences. had been British until 1938; they could century. Consequently, Ireland played host to very have saved Allied ships and lives from The dangers of that ideology were few of the Jews fleeing Nazism after 1933. German submarines. In Jewish eyes, apparent to James Joyce well before the One of the handful who did gain admission neutrality towards Auschwitz was Rising: he made the representative of was Hans Reiss, who arrived as war broke indefensible. This was compounded by extreme Irish nationalism in Ulysses, the out, studied at Trinity College Dublin, and Prime Minister De Valera's bizarre Citizen, his equivalent of the one-eyed went on to enrich British academic life as decision to express his condolences to the Cyclops Polyphemus, who held Ulysses Professor of German at the University of German minister in Dublin on the captive in his cave and devoured his men. Bristol for over 20 years. But Reiss's entry occasion of Hitler's death in April 1945, Brutal, intolerant and ideologically blind to into Ireland was perhaps smoothed by just as the horrors ofthe camps were being all but his own one-eyed perspective, the having the backing of a priest, Dekan revealed to a shocked world. Citizen is also the natural spokesman for Hermann Maas of Heidelberg, who was It is now known that important people in Irish antisemitism. Leopold Bloom deported to a forced labour camp in France the Irish political establishment were pro- encounters him in Barney Kiernan's bar and by the Nazis for aiding Jews and after the German - and not just out of an ingrained has the temerity to state that Christ was a war was the first German to be officially hostility to Britain that proclaimed Jew: 'By Jesus', roars the Citizen, Til brain welcomed to Israel by the Israeli Britain's enemies the friends of Ireland. that bloody jewman for using the holy government. Otherwise, those admitted For the Irish nationahsm that emerged name. By Jesus, I'll crucify him so I will', were mostly people who brought capital from the Easter Rising was not without and he hurls a biscuit tin after Bloom, with them and could benefit the country's ideological elements uncomfortably close as Polyphemus flung a rock at the economy. to National Socialism. Padraig Pearse, who escaping Ulysses. The Irish policy of neutrality during the with James Connolly led the uprising, (Continued on page 2) AJR JOURNAL JUNE 2006 (Continued from page 1) thrall to the seductive myth of the Easter Beyond camps and Irish nationalism grew out of a small Rising, with its call to violence in the name forced labour nation's struggle for freedom from a of nationally exclusive extremism, should Current research on powerful, oppressive neighbour Irish contemplate other lines by Yeats: survivors of Nazi persecution nationhood, achieved as late as 1922, was Out of Ireland have we come, A major international conference on insecure, aware of the shallowness of its Great hatred, little room. historical roots when compared to the Current International Research on Survivors Maimed us at the start. of Nazi Persecution, organised by Johannes- more settled national identity of the I carry from my mother's womb Dieter Steinert (University of British. That insecurity led it to emphasise A fanatic heart. Wolverhampton) and Inge Weber-Newth national and ethnic homogeneity, (London Metropolitan University), has been inevitably diminishing its tolerance of 'non- (from Remorse for Intemperate Speech) held at the Imperial War Museum. It was a Irish' minorities like Jews. Those still in Anthony Grenville follow-up to the successful conference which took place in 2003, also at the Imperial War Museum. The conference brought together The doll and the hidden child scholars from a variety of disciplines. Twenty-eight panels ran in parallel sessions, when the parents of Berthe Suzanne providing over 100 established and young Rappaport Ripton were taken from academics with a platform to present their their Paris apartment and deported to results and research projects. Auschwitz, Suzanne began a new life The thematic focus of the conference was as a hidden child in the medieval the 'life after', ranging from experiences of French village of Mondoubleau. displacement and uprooting, the reception and resettlement process of survivors in Here she was taken in by the family different countries, to testimonies of Guillon, who had two daughters: survivors and issues of memory and identity. Alice, who died at the age of 26, and The conference was academically Paulette. One day in 1944 Suzanne supported by an international advisory 'disappeared' from her new French board of renowned scholars, and financially home, taken away by two men. But supported by the Koerber Foundation Paulette held on to Suzanne's beloved (Hamburg), the British Academy, the German Embassy, the Austrian Cultural doll. She wrote a note about women were reunited, Paulette Forum, the German Historical Institute and Suzanne's background on a piece of returned the doll, which she had kept Renovabis, a Catholic foundation based in paper and hid it in one of the all this time. Shortly Paulette is to Freising. doll's shoes. receive in Paris a medal from Yad Feedback from participants and sponsors was highly positive. In his closing address, Vashem on behalf of her parents; a Last year Paulette finally tracked Professor David Cesarani remarked: 'Three down Suzanne, now a member of the reception will be held by the mayor years ago you tapped into an emerging Leeds and Harrogate Continental 'Hitler didn't win it all I', says Suzanne. subject and now it is taking a definite shape. Friends groups. As soon as the two HS It will be fascinating to see the landscape at the next conference in three years' time.' Johannes-Dieter Steinert and Notarlsation of German life certificates Inge Weber-Newth With effect from this July, the AJR will be without the necessary paperwork and ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING recognised as an 'official British office' identification. ASSOCIATION OF JEWISH REFUGEES and will be able to notarise for AJR For the purpose of having their forms Tuesday 27 June 2006 at 11.30 pm members life certificates issued by the legalised, members can continue to visit at German pension authority, the Deutsche the German embassy as well as police The Paul Balint AJR Day Centre 15 Cleve Road, London NWS Rentenversicherung Bund, for social stations, financial institutions, security and Altersrente pensions. physicians, rabbinates and notaries For further details please telephone In order to avoid complications and public. 020 8385 3070 delays with payments, members wishing In addition to all lump sum payments to have their life certificates notarised by and pensions from Austria, the AJR is AJR Directors the AJR must present themselves, authorised to sign life certificates issued Gordon Greenfield Finance Carol Rossen Administration and Personnel together with their passport (or some by the Diisseldorf and Hesse German AJR Heads of Department widely accepted form of identification), at compensation authorities and the Marcia Goodman Social Services AJR Head Office, at our Day Centre in Hamburg social security office.