# Why did Taoiseach Eamon De Valera send his condolences to Germany on Hitler's death? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 6, 2015, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-taoiseach-eamon-de-valera-send-his-condolences-to-germany-on-hitlers-death/736781 "2015-11-06T05:36:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-taoiseach-eamon-de-valera-send-his-condolences-to-germany-on-hitlers-death/736781/1 "2015-11-06T05:36:48Z")
Hi It has always intrigued me. Why did Taoiseach Eamon De Valera send his condolences to Germany on Hitler’s death? It doesn’t make sense to me. Ireland was neutral during WWI. Arrested Nazi spies. Foiled an attempt by Nazis and the IRA to hatch Operation Kathleen to invade Britain. Why on earth send condolences to such a hated individual as Hitler? I look forward to your feedback. ---
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-taoiseach-eamon-de-valera-send-his-condolences-to-germany-on-hitlers-death/736781/2 "2015-11-06T05:41:14Z")
> **[De Valera, Hitler & the visit of condolence May 1945](https://www.historyireland.com/de-valera-hitler-the-visit-of-condolence-may-1945/)** > > Éamon de Valera, accompanied by the Secretary of External Affairs, Joseph Walshe, ‘called on Dr Hempel, the German minister to express his condolences’. ---
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-taoiseach-eamon-de-valera-send-his-condolences-to-germany-on-hitlers-death/736781/3 "2015-11-06T06:20:44Z")
[http://greyfalcon.us/Ireland.htm](http://greyfalcon.us/Ireland.htm) "De Valera’s government brutally suppressed the IRA but also rebuffed requests to allow Jews fleeing Nazi persecution to receive asylum in Ireland. De Valera also refused to allow Britain or the United States to use strategic Irish ports for protecting Atlantic convoys from attacks by German U-boat submarines, a policy that cost thousands of Allied seamen’s lives. In his May 1945 victory speech, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill condemned de Valera’s neutrality. Churchill said Britain had considered laying “a violent hand” on neutral Ireland to seize its ports, but avoided this thanks to the crucial support of Northern Ireland, which remained part of the United Kingdom when the island was partitioned in 1921. But de Valera argued that to refuse condolences “would have been an act of unpardonable discourtesy to the German nation and to Dr. Hempel himself. During the whole of the war, Dr. Hempel’s conduct was irreproachable. … I certainly was not going to add to his humiliation in the hour of defeat.”" ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-taoiseach-eamon-de-valera-send-his-condolences-to-germany-on-hitlers-death/736781/4 "2015-11-06T08:54:46Z")
Given the fact that Ireland was a neutral country and it maintained diplomatic relations with Germany, I guess this was just a formality, a part of daily diplomatic procedure. Likewise, during the Cold War, when a Soviet leader died, Western governments sent their condolences. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-taoiseach-eamon-de-valera-send-his-condolences-to-germany-on-hitlers-death/736781/5 "2015-11-06T10:13:42Z")
Probably also to get a rise out of perfidious Albion. ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-taoiseach-eamon-de-valera-send-his-condolences-to-germany-on-hitlers-death/736781/6 "2015-11-06T11:17:26Z")
An interesting piece of trivia: The Irish government granted Eduard Hempel (the German minister in Dublin) asylum from 1945 until 1949, the German diplomats weren’t handed over to the allies. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-taoiseach-eamon-de-valera-send-his-condolences-to-germany-on-hitlers-death/736781/7 "2015-11-06T11:22:14Z")
Another vaguely interest piece of trivia: Hitler’s sister-in-law, Bridget Dowling, was Irish, born and rared in Dublin. ---
**Author:** ![Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ac8455/32.png) [@Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Your_Great_Darsh_Face)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-taoiseach-eamon-de-valera-send-his-condolences-to-germany-on-hitlers-death/736781/8 "2015-11-06T11:27:11Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > Probably also to get a rise out of perfidious Albion. “Probably”? :dubious: I don’t recall hearing about too many other neutral heads of state who found it necessary to send the Nazis a sympathetic telegram. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-taoiseach-eamon-de-valera-send-his-condolences-to-germany-on-hitlers-death/736781/9 "2015-11-06T11:50:20Z")
Franco and Salazar did. The Swiss and the Swedes stayed quiet. But of course, Oliver Cromwell hadn’t wiped out 25% of their populations ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-taoiseach-eamon-de-valera-send-his-condolences-to-germany-on-hitlers-death/736781/10 "2015-11-06T11:50:22Z")
> [@Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](#): > > “Probably”? :dubious: > > I don’t recall hearing about too many other neutral heads of state who found it necessary to send the Nazis a sympathetic telegram. Not too many other neutral heads of state had been part of an armed struggle against “perfidious Albion” just a couple of decades previously. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-taoiseach-eamon-de-valera-send-his-condolences-to-germany-on-hitlers-death/736781/11 "2015-11-06T11:59:50Z")
Wasn’t a telegram, it was a state visit, including the president (although that detail only emerged in 2005, according to the link above). A factor that seems to have contributed to the international condemnation is that the visit took place right after the full scope of the Holocaust had finally become to the forefront of public consciousness. Just as everyone was grasping the full horror of Hitler’s evil, the Irish leadership blundered into appearing to regret his death. The act itself was stupid and insensitive, but the timing exacerbated the situation. “You fell victim to one of the classic blunders,” to quote Vizzini in _The Princess Bride_. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-taoiseach-eamon-de-valera-send-his-condolences-to-germany-on-hitlers-death/736781/12 "2015-11-06T12:37:04Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > Franco and Salazar did. > > The Swiss and the Swedes stayed quiet. But of course, Oliver Cromwell hadn’t wiped out 25% of their populations Of course the Iberian fascists would express their sympathy. :rolleyes: But the moral strength of the Irish struggle came from the twin principles of national self-determination and democracy. Therefore in what sense is sympathising with a dictator who viciously suppressed democracy, conquered almost all of Europe and a good chunk of the USSR by force of arms, and who instituted a regime of terror and murder of political opponents, and the Holocaust, in any way consistent with the Irish struggle for independence? The more I read about Dev the more I think he was a detestable man. Poor Michael Collins. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-taoiseach-eamon-de-valera-send-his-condolences-to-germany-on-hitlers-death/736781/13 "2015-11-06T13:58:51Z")
> [@Donnerwetter](#): > > An interesting piece of trivia: The Irish government granted Eduard Hempel (the German minister in Dublin) asylum from 1945 until 1949, the German diplomats weren’t handed over to the allies. The Allies weren’t looking for Hempel (or anyone else from the German legation in Dublin, SFAIK). He was never accused of any wrongdoing. He was “granted asylum” in the sense that he was allowed to remain in Ireland even though he no longer had any diplomatic accreditation, or any particular reason for being there. This didn’t save him from the Allies; it saved him from having to go back to Germany, where conditions for some years remained pretty horrendous, and he would have had no job. Plus, he would have had to take his kids out of school. The Hempels ran a bakery for a few years, and then returned to Germany in 1949, when the Federal Republic was established and he was offered a job in its Department of External Affairs. By then at least the older of his children had left school, and two of them remained in Ireland and settled there. ---
**Author:** ![Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ac8455/32.png) [@Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Your_Great_Darsh_Face)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-taoiseach-eamon-de-valera-send-his-condolences-to-germany-on-hitlers-death/736781/14 "2015-11-06T14:06:54Z")
> [@naita](#): > > Not too many other neutral heads of state had been part of an armed struggle against “perfidious Albion” just a couple of decades previously. _shrug_ Why pretend to be neutral then or argue that it’s being done as anything other than a fuck-you to Britain? Odds are small that Hitler would have thought Ireland had anything worth nicking, but if Britain had fallen then Ireland’s neutrality would have been worth about as much as Denmark’s if Germany wanted to make something of it. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-taoiseach-eamon-de-valera-send-his-condolences-to-germany-on-hitlers-death/736781/15 "2015-11-06T14:13:24Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > Wasn’t a telegram, it was a state visit, including the president (although that detail only emerged in 2005, according to the link above). > > A factor that seems to have contributed to the international condemnation is that the visit took place right after the full scope of the Holocaust had finally become to the forefront of public consciousness. Just as everyone was grasping the full horror of Hitler’s evil, the Irish leadership blundered into appearing to regret his death. The act itself was stupid and insensitive, but the timing exacerbated the situation. > > “You fell victim to one of the classic blunders,” to quote Vizzini in _The Princess Bride_. Are you saying there was a visit by the Irish president … to Berlin?! … immediately after Hitler’s death? Like, while the Russians were stilling shelling the rubble and raping the women, and the German death squads were running around executing “deserters”? How did that work? ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-taoiseach-eamon-de-valera-send-his-condolences-to-germany-on-hitlers-death/736781/16 "2015-11-06T14:29:38Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > The Allies weren’t looking for Hempel (or anyone else from the German legation in Dublin, SFAIK). He was never accused of any wrongdoing. > > He was “granted asylum” in the sense that he was allowed to remain in Ireland even though he no longer had any diplomatic accreditation, or any particular reason for being there. This didn’t save him from the Allies; it saved him from having to go back to Germany, where conditions for some years remained pretty horrendous, and he would have had no job. Plus, he would have had to take his kids out of school. > > The Hempels ran a bakery for a few years, and then returned to Germany in 1949, when the Federal Republic was established and he was offered a job in its Department of External Affairs. By then at least the older of his children had left school, and two of them remained in Ireland and settled there. The German Wikipedia article about Eduard Hempel [1] specifically mentions that the Allies repeatedly demanded his extradition and so does an article in the German news magazine _Der Spiegel_ from June 1950 [2]. The _Spiegel_ article was about Hempel’s son Konstantin being allowed back to Ireland and it has a picture of the former German minister in Dublin with his son. [1] [Eduard Hempel – Wikipedia](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Hempel) [2] [http://magazin.spiegel.de/EpubDelivery/spiegel/pdf/44448788](http://magazin.spiegel.de/EpubDelivery/spiegel/pdf/44448788) ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-taoiseach-eamon-de-valera-send-his-condolences-to-germany-on-hitlers-death/736781/17 "2015-11-06T14:34:48Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Are you saying there was a visit by the Irish president … to Berlin?! … immediately after Hitler’s death? Like, while the Russians were stilling shelling the rubble and raping the women, and the German death squads were running around executing “deserters”? > > How did that work? de Valera visited the German embassy in Dublin and he talked to the ambassador (or the minister, to be more precise) in person. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-taoiseach-eamon-de-valera-send-his-condolences-to-germany-on-hitlers-death/736781/18 "2015-11-06T17:56:45Z")
> [@Donnerwetter](#): > > Given the fact that Ireland was a neutral country and it maintained diplomatic relations with Germany, I guess this was just a formality, a part of daily diplomatic procedure. De Valera hadn’t made a similar visit to the American embassy when President Roosevelt died three weeks earlier. ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-taoiseach-eamon-de-valera-send-his-condolences-to-germany-on-hitlers-death/736781/19 "2015-11-06T18:04:03Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > De Valera hadn’t made a similar visit to the American embassy when President Roosevelt died three weeks earlier. Ok, that puts it in a completely different light. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2015, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-taoiseach-eamon-de-valera-send-his-condolences-to-germany-on-hitlers-death/736781/20 "2015-11-06T18:27:48Z")
Lots of people supported the Germans, often due to an anti-British sentiment. They had to do a quick rewrite when the Germans lost and the full extent of their crimes became apparent. Gandhi referred to Hitler as a “dear friend” in a letter and said that we resist British Imperialism as much as Nazism does. He did call the actions in Czechoslovakia and Poland monstrous though. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-taoiseach-eamon-de-valera-send-his-condolences-to-germany-on-hitlers-death/736781.md?page=2)