De Valera's condolences for Hitler in 1945
Ireland was
neutral in World War Two.
At the end of the war in 1945,
Ireland
famously offered condolences to Nazi Germany on the death of Hitler.
Both the Taoiseach
Eamon de Valera
and the President
Douglas Hyde
offered condolences on the death of Hitler.
There are a lot of myths told about this event.
So here is a page of primary sources at the time.
It is best to read what the newspapers (and other sources) said in 1945,
rather than excuse-making decades later.
Taoiseach
Eamon de Valera
calls to the German Ambassador in Dublin,
Eduard Hempel,
2 May 1945,
to offer condolences on the death of
Adolf Hitler.
Irish Times,
May 3, 1945.
Posted by the
National Archives of Ireland.
Belfast Newsletter, May 3, 1945.
De Valera's visit made international headlines.
Here on the front page of the
"Pensamiento alavés" newspaper, Spain,
3 May 1945.
It says Dev visited the German ambassador
"para darle el pésame"
and "para testimoniarle el pésame" for the death of Hitler,
both of which mean "to offer condolences".
President
Douglas Hyde
expresses his condolences on the death of Hitler.
Irish Press,
May 4, 1945.
Posted by the National Archives of Ireland.
Belfast Newsletter, May 4, 1945.
President
Douglas Hyde visited the Nazi ambassador at his home.
From "Hyde (and de Valera) offered condolences on Hitler's death",
Irish Independent, 31 Dec 2005.
President Hyde nearly sent "an official letter of condolence".
What a document that would be!
The Stars and Stripes,
4 May 1945.
Roscommon Herald, Saturday, May 5, 1945.
The Kerryman, Saturday, May 5, 1945.
Complaint by US ambassador to Ireland to President Douglas Hyde, June 1945,
for his condolences visits.
The Secretary to President Hyde confirms these were visits of sympathy:
"Messages of sympathy were accordingly conveyed personally to the German Minister by the Taoiseach on behalf of the Irish Government, and by the Secretary to the President on behalf of the head of the State".
Letter from Leopold H. Kerney (Irish Ambassador to Spain)
to Joseph P. Walshe
(Secretary of Department of External Affairs),
7 May 1945.
He went to the German embassy in Madrid
and expressed sympathy to Germany on the death of Hitler, on Ireland's behalf.
"At 1.15 p.m. I called at the German Embassy ... I expressed sympathy and made this applicable also to the German people as a whole, stating that Ireland's sympathies always went out to those who suffered
...
On Friday, 4th May, I received a letter from the Charge d'Affaires a.i. thanking me for my visit of sympathy".
Private letter from de Valera
to the Irish ambassador to the USA, 21 May 1945,
explaining his reasoning.
From
UCDA.
See
transcript.
Dev does not
deny it was a visit of condolences. He just says it was the right thing to do.
He says it
does not imply approval of everything Hitler did.
But we know that. He is not being accused of
approving of Hitler.
He is being accused of paying a
visit of condolences. Because he did.
Oddly, the Dail did not discuss the visit until July 1945.
James Dillon
criticises the visit
in the Dail, 17 July 1945.
See full page
cols 2603-2604 and
cols 2605-2606.
See
transcript.
It is clear that the Dail members thought the visit was to express condolences:
"expressing condolences to a State the leader of which was dead
...
The visit of our Taoiseach to the German Minister in this country to sympathise with him on the death of Herr Hitler".
Note by the way the vicious antisemite
Oliver J. Flanagan
saying he hopes Hitler is alive!
De Valera replies
in the Dail, 19 July 1945.
See full page
cols 2753-2754 and
cols 2755-2756.
See
transcript.
As in his earlier private letter,
Dev does not deny it was a visit of condolences. He just says it was the right thing to do.
He says it
does not imply approval of everything Hitler did.
But we know that. He is not being accused of approving of Hitler.
He is being accused of paying a visit of condolences. Because he did.
- "Pro-Dev" myths and claims:
-
Some people
claim that the de Valera visit was not to express condolences on the death of Hitler,
but had some other purpose.
- Some of these people use as sources interviews with
Eduard Hempel's
wife and daughter,
where Hitler was apparently irrelevant to the visit.
Dev visited Hempel just to reassure him he would not be handed over to the Allies,
or some such story.
-
This is basically excuse-making after the fact, often decades later.
It is not what was said at the time, as can be seen above.
It is not even what Dev said at the time.
-
It should go without saying that the wife and daughter of a Nazi ambassador,
keen to uncouple their husband and father's name from Hitler,
are not the best sources.
- "Anti-Dev" myths and claims:
- On the "anti-Dev" side, some people go too far and claim de Valera signed a "book of condolence".
There was no such book, otherwise we would see an image of it.
- As shown above, President Hyde nearly wrote a letter of condolence.
What an incredible disgrace to Ireland forever that would have been!
- Some other people use the Hitler visit to claim de Valera was pro-Nazi or antisemitic.
Bizarrely, he was not.
He was just a kind of eccentric, autistic neutral,
who followed protocol even against the advice of his colleagues.
- My thoughts:
-
Eamon de Valera, a man with no moral compass,
called to the Ambassador of Nazi Germany in Dublin in 1945
to offer condolences on the death of Hitler.
He threw away all goodwill from the victors of WW2 for years after the war.
From a moral point of view it was unforgivable.
And from a selfish, self-interest view it was also unforgivable.
A total own goal.
What an idiot.
