Charles Bewley
Encyclopedia
Charles Henry Bewley was raised in a famous Dublin Quaker business family, embraced Irish Republicanism
. He was the Irish envoy
to Berlin
who reportedly thwarted efforts to obtain visas
for Jews wanting to leave Nazi Germany
in the 1930s and to move to the safety of the Irish Free State
.
in George’s Street, Dublin. His father was a medical doctor
. The family operated the successful "Bewley's cafés" chain of coffee houses
in Dublin that is still famous today. His mother was Anglican
and his father was a Quaker
; Charles and his brothers were raised as Quakers.
He was educated at Park House, a boarding school in England. In 1901 he won a scholarship to Winchester College
. He became the Library
Prefect
. This honour was withdrawn when he declared in a debate
that “England is not a musical nation” and he ridiculed the anthem
“God save the King
”. He proceeded to New College, Oxford
, where he read Law. In 1910 he won the Newdigate prize for poetry
.
He completed his training as a barrister at King's Inns
, Dublin and in 1914 he was called to the bar
.
Charles' brother Kenneth also attended Oxford University. Kenneth was a career civil servant
in H.M. Treasury. His younger brothers, Geoffrey and Maurice, studied medicine
at Trinity College, Dublin
.
Charles Bewley was seen as an ‘enfant terrible’. He rejected his Anglo-Irish
heritage and embraced Celtic mythology
of the kind popularised by WB Yeats. He spoke against the ‘evils of Anglicization', supported the Boer
s and converted to Roman Catholicism. He rejected Unionist politics and supported the Home Rule movement.
in 1914 he was in Ireland as a defending barrister for many nationalists and republicans. He wrote Seán Mac Eoin
’s death-sentence speech. In the 1918 general election he stood, unsuccessfully, as a Sinn Féin
candidate. During the Irish civil war, he took the treaty side. As a barrister he prosecuted many anti-Treaty prisoners.
Between the civil war truce and the treaty being signed, he was Irish consul in Berlin
with responsibility for trade. He was appointed Irish ambassador to the Vatican
(resident minister to the Holy See
) in 1929. At that time, Irish diplomatic appointments were meant to be made by the British King. Bewley frequently flouted the diplomatic niceties by ignoring the implications of that. The complaints of H.J. Chilton, the British representative, and of Sir R. Clive, his successor, if anything improved Bewley’s reputation in Ireland .
In July 1933 the British Foreign Office got annoyed when the Pope knighted Bewley into the Order of the Grand Cross of St Gregory the Great
, as the King’s agreement had not been sought. They told Bewley, with no effect, that as a King’s representative he was not entitled to wear the decoration without royal permission.
However, the constant bickering between the Irish and British representatives to the Vatican pleased neither Dublin nor London. It paved the way for Bewley to obtain the appointment he really wanted. He went to Berlin
in July 1933. President of Germany
, Hindenburg
, praised his impeccable German
.
His reports from Berlin enthusiastically praised National Socialism
and Chancellor Hitler
. He gave interviews to German papers, which were anti-British. In Berlin he annoyed the British embassy. He ignored the King’s jubilee celebrations in 1935. With the ending of the economic war
and the return of the treaty ports
, there were good relations between Ireland and Britain. Bewley was then frequently reprimanded by Dublin, who were no longer amused at his anti-British jibes .
The first indication that Bewley was anti-Semitic was in Berlin in 1921. The new Irish state was not yet formally recognised. Bewley was the Irish consul for trade. Michael Collins
sent Robert Briscoe
to buy guns. At the time, Briscoe was an IRA quartermaster. In time he would play an important political role and would be the first Jewish Lord Mayor of Dublin
. Bewley and Briscoe went to a Jewish-owned music hall in the Tauenzien Palast
, after Briscoe left, Bewley insulted Judaism and was thrown out . There was a drunken brawl. John Chartres, the head of the Irish Bureau, was going to take action, but the Irish Civil War
broke out. Briscoe took the anti-Treaty side (which lost), while Bewley returned to Dublin, took the pro-treaty side and prosecuted anti-Treaty prisoners in the courts.
In March 1922 George Gavan Duffy
wrote to Ernest Blythe
opposing Bewley's appointment as an Irish envoy to Germany: "...there is a great objection to appointing him to such a post in Germany, because his semitic [sic] convictions are so pronounced that it would be very difficult for him to deal properly with all the persons and questions within the scope of an Envoy to Berlin, where the Jewish element is very strong." Gavan Duffy suggested instead that Munich
or Vienna
might be more suitable, "... as the same considerations would not arise in those places".
[ German] Government ... towards the Jews’. He criticised Irish refugee policy as ‘inordinately liberal, and facilitating the entry of the ‘wrong class’ of people’ (meaning Jews). The Irish legation in Berlin consisted of two people, Bewley and a German secretary called Frau Kamberg. This German lady appeared more concerned than Bewley. Fewer than a hundred Jews obtained Irish visas between 1933 and 1939.
Taoiseach
Éamon de Valera
was a close friend of Isaac Herzog
, then Chief Rabbi of Ireland. During the Irish War of Independence
, the Rabbi hid de Valera in his own home when he was a fugitive from the Black and Tans
. De Valera consulted with the Rabbi before drawing up the new constitution
. The constitution later removed the "special place" of the Catholic church in recognition of other faiths in the modern Irish state. It asserted Jewish civil rights so that no succeeding government could easily abolish them, as the Nazis had done in Germany. De Valera also hoped for reunion with, mainly Protestant, Northern Ireland. But in the atmosphere of 1937 Europe, it made an important statement. De Valera finally dismissed Bewley in August 1939.
In 1942, Rabbi Herzog told de Valera of the Holocaust. He sought help for a group of German Jews, who had hoped to go to South America, being held at Vittel
in Vichy France
. The Irish ministers in Berlin, Vichy and the Vatican were instructed to assist them and Irish visas were issued. There was a mistaken belief that Jews with Irish visas might be imprisoned, but would not be sent to the death camps, a belief the Vittel episode destroyed. Later other efforts were made to help Italian, Dutch, Hungarian, and Slovakian Jews, all without success. In no case were the Nazis willing to let such groups depart for Ireland or leave occupied Europe under Irish auspices.
Professor Keogh points out that de Valera, although willing to help, was reactive rather than proactive and he was often hindered by his own civil service.
was breaking out, and never received a pension. However, Joseph Goebbels
gave him a job writing propaganda. For a time he worked for a Swedish news agency, which was part of Goebbels' propaganda machine.
He was next heard of at the end of the War, being held by British troops. He was picked up in Meran, Northern Italy in May 1945 and held in Terni
. He was carrying Irish diplomatic papers identifying him as the Irish minister to Berlin and to the Vatican. Joseph Walshe
, Secretary of the Department of External Affairs and Sir John Maffey the British diplomatic representative in Ireland, decided on a most appropriate solution, given Bewley’s ego.
At that time, passports had an entry “trade or profession”. Charles Bewley was issued with a new Irish passport, which had, for that entry “a person of no importance”. At the end of the war, checkpoints were frequent. It was necessary to produce passports. He never produced this passport. He was released in Rome, and apparently never left. He wrote some newspaper articles and a biography of Hermann Göring
1956.
In his final years he and Mgr Hugh O'Flaherty
, ‘the Vatican Pimpernel’ who had rescued thousands of Jews and escaped POWs from the Nazis, became great friends. Charles Henry Bewley died unmarried in Rome in 1969.
were very supportive of the Jewish refugee
s who did make it to Ireland. Many first appeared at the Irish Red Cross
offices in Merrion Square
. They were brought to Bewley's
of Grafton Street
, where they ate a full breakfast
, gratis.
Irish Republicanism
Irish republicanism is an ideology based on the belief that all of Ireland should be an independent republic.In 1801, under the Act of Union, the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
. He was the Irish envoy
Diplomacy
Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states...
to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
who reportedly thwarted efforts to obtain visas
Visa (document)
A visa is a document showing that a person is authorized to enter the territory for which it was issued, subject to permission of an immigration official at the time of actual entry. The authorization may be a document, but more commonly it is a stamp endorsed in the applicant's passport...
for Jews wanting to leave Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
in the 1930s and to move to the safety of the Irish Free State
Irish Free State
The Irish Free State was the state established as a Dominion on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed by the British government and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand...
.
Family and early life
He was born into a wealthy privileged family, the eldest of four brothers. His mother was Evelyn Pim. Her family owned a large department storeDepartment store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
in George’s Street, Dublin. His father was a medical doctor
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
. The family operated the successful "Bewley's cafés" chain of coffee houses
Coffeehouse
A coffeehouse or coffee shop is an establishment which primarily serves prepared coffee or other hot beverages. It shares some of the characteristics of a bar, and some of the characteristics of a restaurant, but it is different from a cafeteria. As the name suggests, coffeehouses focus on...
in Dublin that is still famous today. His mother was Anglican
Anglicanism
Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...
and his father was a Quaker
Religious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...
; Charles and his brothers were raised as Quakers.
He was educated at Park House, a boarding school in England. In 1901 he won a scholarship to Winchester College
Winchester College
Winchester College is an independent school for boys in the British public school tradition, situated in Winchester, Hampshire, the former capital of England. It has existed in its present location for over 600 years and claims the longest unbroken history of any school in England...
. He became the Library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
Prefect
Prefect
Prefect is a magisterial title of varying definition....
. This honour was withdrawn when he declared in a debate
World Schools Style debating
World Schools Style debating is a combination of the British Parliamentary and Australia-Asian debating formats, designed to meet the needs of the World Schools Debating Championships tournament. Each debate comprises eight speeches delivered by two teams of three members, representing the...
that “England is not a musical nation” and he ridiculed the anthem
National anthem
A national anthem is a generally patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes the history, traditions and struggles of its people, recognized either by a nation's government as the official national song, or by convention through use by the people.- History :Anthems rose to prominence...
“God save the King
God Save the Queen
"God Save the Queen" is an anthem used in a number of Commonwealth realms and British Crown Dependencies. The words of the song, like its title, are adapted to the gender of the current monarch, with "King" replacing "Queen", "he" replacing "she", and so forth, when a king reigns...
”. He proceeded to New College, Oxford
New College, Oxford
New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.- Overview :The College's official name, College of St Mary, is the same as that of the older Oriel College; hence, it has been referred to as the "New College of St Mary", and is now almost always...
, where he read Law. In 1910 he won the Newdigate prize for poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
.
He completed his training as a barrister at King's Inns
King's Inns
The Honorable Society of King's Inns , is the institution which controls the entry of barristers-at-law into the justice system of Ireland...
, Dublin and in 1914 he was called to the bar
Call to the bar
The Call to the Bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party, and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received a "call to the bar"...
.
Charles' brother Kenneth also attended Oxford University. Kenneth was a career civil servant
Civil service
The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
in H.M. Treasury. His younger brothers, Geoffrey and Maurice, studied medicine
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
at Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...
.
Charles Bewley was seen as an ‘enfant terrible’. He rejected his Anglo-Irish
Anglo-Irish
Anglo-Irish was a term used primarily in the 19th and early 20th centuries to identify a privileged social class in Ireland, whose members were the descendants and successors of the Protestant Ascendancy, mostly belonging to the Church of Ireland, which was the established church of Ireland until...
heritage and embraced Celtic mythology
Celtic mythology
Celtic mythology is the mythology of Celtic polytheism, apparently the religion of the Iron Age Celts. Like other Iron Age Europeans, the early Celts maintained a polytheistic mythology and religious structure...
of the kind popularised by WB Yeats. He spoke against the ‘evils of Anglicization', supported the Boer
Boer
Boer is the Dutch and Afrikaans word for farmer, which came to denote the descendants of the Dutch-speaking settlers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 18th century, as well as those who left the Cape Colony during the 19th century to settle in the Orange Free State,...
s and converted to Roman Catholicism. He rejected Unionist politics and supported the Home Rule movement.
Career
At the outbreak of the Great WarWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in 1914 he was in Ireland as a defending barrister for many nationalists and republicans. He wrote Seán Mac Eoin
Seán Mac Eoin
Seán Mac Eoin was an Irish Fine Gael politician and soldier. He was commonly referred to as the "Blacksmith of Ballinalee".-Early life:...
’s death-sentence speech. In the 1918 general election he stood, unsuccessfully, as a Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
candidate. During the Irish civil war, he took the treaty side. As a barrister he prosecuted many anti-Treaty prisoners.
Between the civil war truce and the treaty being signed, he was Irish consul in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
with responsibility for trade. He was appointed Irish ambassador to the Vatican
Vatican City
Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...
(resident minister to the Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
) in 1929. At that time, Irish diplomatic appointments were meant to be made by the British King. Bewley frequently flouted the diplomatic niceties by ignoring the implications of that. The complaints of H.J. Chilton, the British representative, and of Sir R. Clive, his successor, if anything improved Bewley’s reputation in Ireland .
In July 1933 the British Foreign Office got annoyed when the Pope knighted Bewley into the Order of the Grand Cross of St Gregory the Great
Order of St. Gregory the Great
The Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great , was established on September 1, 1831, by Pope Gregory XVI, seven months after his election.It is one of the five orders of knighthood of the Holy See...
, as the King’s agreement had not been sought. They told Bewley, with no effect, that as a King’s representative he was not entitled to wear the decoration without royal permission.
However, the constant bickering between the Irish and British representatives to the Vatican pleased neither Dublin nor London. It paved the way for Bewley to obtain the appointment he really wanted. He went to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
in July 1933. President of Germany
President of Germany
The President of the Federal Republic of Germany is the country's head of state. His official title in German is Bundespräsident . Germany has a parliamentary system of government and so the position of President is largely ceremonial...
, Hindenburg
Paul von Hindenburg
Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg , known universally as Paul von Hindenburg was a Prussian-German field marshal, statesman, and politician, and served as the second President of Germany from 1925 to 1934....
, praised his impeccable German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
.
His reports from Berlin enthusiastically praised National Socialism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
and Chancellor Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
. He gave interviews to German papers, which were anti-British. In Berlin he annoyed the British embassy. He ignored the King’s jubilee celebrations in 1935. With the ending of the economic war
Anglo-Irish Trade War
The Anglo-Irish Trade War was a retaliatory trade war between the Irish Free State and the United Kingdom lasting from 1932 until 1938...
and the return of the treaty ports
Treaty Ports (Ireland)
Following the establishment of the Irish Free State, three deep water Treaty Ports at Berehaven, Queenstown and Lough Swilly were retained by the United Kingdom as sovereign bases in accordance with the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 6 December 1921...
, there were good relations between Ireland and Britain. Bewley was then frequently reprimanded by Dublin, who were no longer amused at his anti-British jibes .
Anti-Semitism
Charles Bewley was not an anti-Semite in the sense that Hitler was. He was reasonably disposed to those of Jewish ancestry, though only as long as they did not practise their faith or associate with other Jews. He tried to join the SS security agency, but was refused. He spoke against Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda, not because it was anti-Semitic, but because it reflected badly on National Socialism. While he did insult Jews, there is no evidence that he ever personally harmed a Jew. However, his attitude to visa applications and the misinformation he transmitted to Dublin meant than many who could have escaped the Holocaust were unable to do so. His sins against Judaism were sins of omission but he was indirectly responsible for the death of many Jews.The first indication that Bewley was anti-Semitic was in Berlin in 1921. The new Irish state was not yet formally recognised. Bewley was the Irish consul for trade. Michael Collins
Michael Collins (Irish leader)
Michael "Mick" Collins was an Irish revolutionary leader, Minister for Finance and Teachta Dála for Cork South in the First Dáil of 1919, Director of Intelligence for the IRA, and member of the Irish delegation during the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations. Subsequently, he was both Chairman of the...
sent Robert Briscoe
Robert Briscoe (politician)
Robert Briscoe , known as Bob Briscoe was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as a Teachta Dála in the Oireachtas from 1927 to 1965.- Family :...
to buy guns. At the time, Briscoe was an IRA quartermaster. In time he would play an important political role and would be the first Jewish Lord Mayor of Dublin
Lord Mayor of Dublin
The Lord Mayor of Dublin is the honorific title of the Chairman of Dublin City Council which is the local government body for the city of Dublin, the capital of Ireland. The incumbent is Labour Party Councillor Andrew Montague. The office holder is elected annually by the members of the...
. Bewley and Briscoe went to a Jewish-owned music hall in the Tauenzien Palast
Tauentzienstraße
Tauentzienstraße is a major shopping street in the western part of Berlin, Germany. It is approximately 500 metres long and lies between two important squares, Wittenbergplatz and Breitscheidplatz...
, after Briscoe left, Bewley insulted Judaism and was thrown out . There was a drunken brawl. John Chartres, the head of the Irish Bureau, was going to take action, but the Irish Civil War
Irish Civil War
The Irish Civil War was a conflict that accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State as an entity independent from the United Kingdom within the British Empire....
broke out. Briscoe took the anti-Treaty side (which lost), while Bewley returned to Dublin, took the pro-treaty side and prosecuted anti-Treaty prisoners in the courts.
In March 1922 George Gavan Duffy
George Gavan Duffy
-Family:George Gavan Duffy was born in Rock Ferry, Cheshire, England in 1882, the son of Sir Charles Gavan Duffy and his third wife, Louise. His half-brother Sir Frank Gavan Duffy was the fourth Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, sitting on the bench of the High Court from 1913 to...
wrote to Ernest Blythe
Ernest Blythe
Ernest Blythe was an Irish politician.Ernest Blythe was born to a Presbyterian and Unionist family near Lisburn, County Antrim in 1889, the son of a farmer, and was educated locally. At the age of fifteen he started working as a clerk in the Department of Agriculture in Dublin.Blythe joined the...
opposing Bewley's appointment as an Irish envoy to Germany: "...there is a great objection to appointing him to such a post in Germany, because his semitic [sic] convictions are so pronounced that it would be very difficult for him to deal properly with all the persons and questions within the scope of an Envoy to Berlin, where the Jewish element is very strong." Gavan Duffy suggested instead that Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
or Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
might be more suitable, "... as the same considerations would not arise in those places".
Envoy to Berlin
Bewley was the ‘Irish Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary’ in Berlin in the crucial years from 1933 to 1939. Reading his reports to Dublin during the 1930s gives the impression that German Jews were not threatened; that they were involved in pornography, abortion and “the international white slave traffic”. This was also the man responsible for processing visa applications from Jews wishing to leave Germany for Ireland. He explained the Nuremberg Laws ‘As the Chancellor pointed out, it amounts to the making of the Jews into a national minority; and as they themselves claim to be a separate race, they should have nothing to complain of.’ He reports that he had no knowledge of any ‘deliberate cruelty on the part of theTaoiseach
Taoiseach
The Taoiseach is the head of government or prime minister of Ireland. The Taoiseach is appointed by the President upon the nomination of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas , and must, in order to remain in office, retain the support of a majority in the Dáil.The current Taoiseach is...
Éamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera was one of the dominant political figures in twentieth century Ireland, serving as head of government of the Irish Free State and head of government and head of state of Ireland...
was a close friend of Isaac Herzog
Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog
Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog , also known as Isaac Herzog, was the first Chief Rabbi of Ireland, his term lasting from 1921 to 1936...
, then Chief Rabbi of Ireland. During the Irish War of Independence
Irish War of Independence
The Irish War of Independence , Anglo-Irish War, Black and Tan War, or Tan War was a guerrilla war mounted by the Irish Republican Army against the British government and its forces in Ireland. It began in January 1919, following the Irish Republic's declaration of independence. Both sides agreed...
, the Rabbi hid de Valera in his own home when he was a fugitive from the Black and Tans
Black and Tans
The Black and Tans was one of two newly recruited bodies, composed largely of British World War I veterans, employed by the Royal Irish Constabulary as Temporary Constables from 1920 to 1921 to suppress revolution in Ireland...
. De Valera consulted with the Rabbi before drawing up the new constitution
Constitution of Ireland
The Constitution of Ireland is the fundamental law of the Irish state. The constitution falls broadly within the liberal democratic tradition. It establishes an independent state based on a system of representative democracy and guarantees certain fundamental rights, along with a popularly elected...
. The constitution later removed the "special place" of the Catholic church in recognition of other faiths in the modern Irish state. It asserted Jewish civil rights so that no succeeding government could easily abolish them, as the Nazis had done in Germany. De Valera also hoped for reunion with, mainly Protestant, Northern Ireland. But in the atmosphere of 1937 Europe, it made an important statement. De Valera finally dismissed Bewley in August 1939.
In 1942, Rabbi Herzog told de Valera of the Holocaust. He sought help for a group of German Jews, who had hoped to go to South America, being held at Vittel
Vittel
Vittel is a commune in the Vosges department in Lorraine in northeastern France.Mineral water is bottled and sold here by Nestlé Waters France, under the Vittel brand.-History:...
in Vichy France
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
. The Irish ministers in Berlin, Vichy and the Vatican were instructed to assist them and Irish visas were issued. There was a mistaken belief that Jews with Irish visas might be imprisoned, but would not be sent to the death camps, a belief the Vittel episode destroyed. Later other efforts were made to help Italian, Dutch, Hungarian, and Slovakian Jews, all without success. In no case were the Nazis willing to let such groups depart for Ireland or leave occupied Europe under Irish auspices.
Professor Keogh points out that de Valera, although willing to help, was reactive rather than proactive and he was often hindered by his own civil service.
Later years
Bewley was dismissed just as World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
was breaking out, and never received a pension. However, Joseph Goebbels
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism...
gave him a job writing propaganda. For a time he worked for a Swedish news agency, which was part of Goebbels' propaganda machine.
He was next heard of at the end of the War, being held by British troops. He was picked up in Meran, Northern Italy in May 1945 and held in Terni
Terni
Terni is a city in southern Umbria, central Italy, capital of the province of Terni, located in the plain of the Nera river. It is 104 km N of Rome, 36 km NW of Rieti, and 29 km S of Spoleto.-History:...
. He was carrying Irish diplomatic papers identifying him as the Irish minister to Berlin and to the Vatican. Joseph Walshe
Joe Walshe
Joseph Walshe was an Irish civil servant. As Secretary of the Department of External Affairs of the Irish Free State from 1923-46, he was the department's most senior official.-Early life and education:...
, Secretary of the Department of External Affairs and Sir John Maffey the British diplomatic representative in Ireland, decided on a most appropriate solution, given Bewley’s ego.
At that time, passports had an entry “trade or profession”. Charles Bewley was issued with a new Irish passport, which had, for that entry “a person of no importance”. At the end of the war, checkpoints were frequent. It was necessary to produce passports. He never produced this passport. He was released in Rome, and apparently never left. He wrote some newspaper articles and a biography of Hermann Göring
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring, was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He was a veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot, and a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known as "The Blue Max"...
1956.
In his final years he and Mgr Hugh O'Flaherty
Hugh O'Flaherty
Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, CBE was an Irish Roman Catholic priest and senior official of the Roman Curia. During World War II, he was responsible for saving 6,500 Allied soldiers and Jews...
, ‘the Vatican Pimpernel’ who had rescued thousands of Jews and escaped POWs from the Nazis, became great friends. Charles Henry Bewley died unmarried in Rome in 1969.
Bewley's Oriental Cafés
Unlike Charles Bewley, the rest of his familyFamily
In human context, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children...
were very supportive of the Jewish refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
s who did make it to Ireland. Many first appeared at the Irish Red Cross
International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is an international humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide which was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and to prevent and alleviate human...
offices in Merrion Square
Merrion Square
Merrion Square is a Georgian square on the southside of Dublin city centre. It was laid out after 1762 and was largely complete by the beginning of the 19th century. It is considered one of the city's finest surviving squares...
. They were brought to Bewley's
Bewley's
Bewley's Limited is an Irish company, established in 1840, that produces tea and coffee for sale around the world. The company is owned by Campbell Bewley Group Ltd....
of Grafton Street
Grafton Street, Dublin
Grafton Street is one of the two principal shopping streets in Dublin city centre, the other being Henry Street. It runs from St. Stephen's Green in the south to College Green in the north...
, where they ate a full breakfast
Breakfast
Breakfast is the first meal taken after rising from a night's sleep, most often eaten in the early morning before undertaking the day's work...
, gratis.
Further reading
- C. Bewley, Memoirs of a Wild Goose, edited by W.J. McCormack, Dublin 1989,
- D. Keogh, Jews in 20th-Century Ireland: Refugees, Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, Cork 1998,
- Mervyn O'Driscoll Ireland, Germany and the Nazis: politics and diplomacy, 1919-1939 Four Courts Press, Dublin 2004
- Robert Tracy, The Jews of Ireland Judaism: A Quarterly Journal of Jewish Life and Thought. Summer, 1999
- Andreas Roth, Mr Bewley in Berlin – Aspects of the Career of an Irish Diplomat, 1933-1939 Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2000
- Lost report reveals our man in Berlin was Nazi apologist — Sunday IndependentSunday IndependentThe Sunday Independent is a broadsheet Sunday newspaper published in Ireland by Independent News and Media plc. The newspaper is edited by Aengus Fanning, and is the biggest selling Irish Sunday newspaper by a large margin ; average circulation of 291,323 between June 2004 and January 2005,...
newspaper article by Andrew Bushe, 26 November 2006