Madam, – Liv Hempel, the daughter of Dr Eduard Hempel – Nazi Germany’s envoy to Dublin from July 1937 to May 1945 – describes her father, as “a good man with no love for that regime” and says that he “had no Nazi tendencies. He loved his country.” (Weekend Review, May 14th).
Dr Hempel is the same man photographed giving the full Nazi salute in his box at the 1938 Royal Dublin Horse in the presence of taoiseach Éamon de Valera and president Douglas Hyde? And he is the exact same man who assisted Nazi spies in Ireland during the war years and secretly operated a radio transmitter from his legation, sending back information to Berlin in order to further the Nazi war effort? All of these actions were entirely consistent with his sworn oath of allegiance made on becoming a member of the Nazi Party to put the party first and foremost before his country, as when he pledged that he would be “true and obedient to the Führer of the German Reich and people, Adolf Hitler”. Also, there is the simple fact that from early 1937 German diplomats and consuls were not permitted to serve abroad unless they had first been thoroughly cleared by the Nazi organisation known as the Auslandsorganisation, demonstrating to it clear proof of their pro-Nazi credentials and attitudes.
Dr Hempel's pro-Nazi attitude was also shown in his reaction to the staging of the play, The Refugee, at Dublin's Peacock Theatre. This play concerned a Jewish refugee from Nazi persecution in Austria and contained a number of references to concentration camps. Dr Hempel complained to government officials about this, and the controller of censorship – to his shame – ended up compelling the author to make certain changes. The result was a play that was only performed after all references to the concentration camps had been expunged from it, and only after the central character became a non-Jewish "Hungarian" refugee. We can be certain that had Ireland been occupied by the Nazis it would not merely have been Jewish plays that would have been expunged.
– Yours, etc,