Einhart Kawerau not a Nazi
Published in Issue 5 (September/October 2013), Letters, Volume 21Sir,—I am writing to express my concern and shock at seeing my grandfather, Einhart Kawerau, listed in David O’Donoghue’s article ‘The Nazis in Irish universities’ (HI 15.5, Sept./Oct. 2007, pp 12–13; https://www.historyireland.com/20th-century-contemporary-history/the-nazis-in-irish-universities/).
While Dr O’Donoghue limits himself to listing him as a German student in Ireland, his article implies that Einhart Kawerau participated in the German Academic Exchange Service (GAES), and was thereby associated with the Nazi party (NSDAP), receiving funding and travel expenses, which required membership of the party ‘most of the time’. As a steward of my family history, I am in possession of documented proof that he was not a Nazi, nor was he a Nazi supporter. My grandfather’s time in Ireland was spent in exile as a refugee, not as part of the NSDAP exchange programme.
Einhart’s home was raided by the Nazis in 1933, followed by the arrest on 19 March 1933 of his father, Dr Siegfried Kawerau, who was then tortured by the SA. Dr Kawerau was imprisoned as a political prisoner in the Stettin concentration camp; as a result of his treatment at the hands of the Nazis he died on 17 December 1936 while in exile in the north of Poland. After the raid, his son Einhart fled Germany, first for England with his brother Sigurd, arriving on 24 April 1934. According to my grandfather’s letters, he obtained a scholarship from the Sir Richard Stapley Educational Trust (value of £53 per annum) with the help of Dr G.P. Gooch. The trust was applicable at any English school in England, Scotland and Ireland. He could not find a school that would admit him in England or Scotland, as both had already filled their quota of foreign students. He then went to Ireland after finding a school that would accept him.
Before Einhart attended Trinity College in Dublin, he and Sigurd attended a school in Newtown Park, Waterford, run by the Irish Society of Friends, who provided succour to refugees from Germany, both Jews and non-Jews. My family would very much appreciate the record being set straight on these points; until his name is vindicated, the association of our relative with the Nazis in this way will continue to cause us grief. My grandfather, were he alive, would undoubtedly share our feelings.—Yours etc.,
DAVID REPA
Vancouver, Canada
I am grateful to David Repa for providing details of his grandfather Einhart Kawerau’s life in the 1930s. Nowhere in my 2007 article have I claimed that Einhart Kawerau was at any time a member of the German Nazi party (NSDAP). I did state, correctly, that ‘most German students heading for Ireland were obliged to join the NSDAP’. Mr Repa says that I listed his grandfather as ‘a German student in Ireland’, which I did not. The archival material I worked from refers to Einhart Kawerau as an ‘exchange lecturer’ at Trinity College, Dublin. I regret that the word ‘exchange’, in this context, may have given the mistaken impression (wholly unintended) that Einhart Kawerau was associated with the Nazis in any way. I trust this clarifies the position and I am happy to accept Mr Repa’s version of events. I wish to apologise for any misconception that may have arisen as a result of my 2007 article.—Yours etc.,
Dr DAVID O’DONOGHUE
Personal Histories
On this Day
April 24
- 1951 Enda Kenny, TD for Mayo West (1975–97) and Mayo (1997–2020), leader of Fine Gael (2002–17) and taoiseach (2011–17), born in Derrycoosh, Islandeady, near Castlebar, Co. Mayo.
- 1945
Above: The steamship Monmouth Coast—torpedoed by a German U-boat near Tory Island on 24 April 1945. (Paul Johnson Collection)
During the last week of the Second World War, the Monmouth Coast, an unescorted steamship en route from Sligo to Liverpool with a cargo of barytes ore from the mines of Ben Bulben, was torpedoed by a German U-boat some seven miles north-east of Tory Island. The captain and fifteen crewmen (including two Irishmen) lost their lives, but one managed to survive, thanks to two locals from Arranmore. Two days later, whilst beachcombing on the north-eastern coast of the island, they spotted a life-raft floating in a remote sandy inlet; they rowed out to it and lifted the tarpaulin, to discover a wide-eyed teenager, Derek Cragg (17) from Liverpool, the mess-room boy from the Monmouth Coast. He explained that the ship had gone down very quickly and that those of the crew who managed to leap clear were sucked down after it. He, too, was dragged down but somehow managed to make it back to the surface, where he spotted the life-raft and clambered on board. He was given every assistance by the islanders and safely repatriated, but had the north-easterly wind that drove him 25 miles blown him into the adjoining inlet, his raft would have been smashed to pieces. Over 30,000 Allied merchant seamen, of every nationality, lost their lives during the war. Despite our neutrality, Irish Shipping lost two ships. The Irish Pine was torpedoed off Greenland in November 1942 with the loss of all 33 on board, and the Irish Oak was sunk in the North Atlantic in May 1943, though her entire crew was rescued by a sister-ship, the Irish Plane.
- 1912 Justin McCarthy (82), Home Rule politician, leader of the anti-Parnellite faction (1891–6), historian and novelist, died.
- 1916 The Easter Rising began.Sir Ernest Shackleton and five of his crew set out on their epic 720-nautical-mile rescue mission in the James Caird, from Elephant Island to South Georgia.
- 1974 The Electricity Supply Board (ESB) announced that Carnsore Point, Co. Wexford, would be the site of its planned nuclear power station.
May 19
- 1935
Above: ‘Lawrence of Arabia’—his father was in fact Sir Thomas Chapman of South Hill, Delvin, Co. Westmeath.
T.E.—Thomas Edward—Lawrence (46), the legendary ‘Lawrence of Arabia’, died as a result of a motorcycle accident in Dorset. For much of his adult life Lawrence was a troubled man. Though his key role in the British-inspired Arab revolt (1916) against Ottoman Turkish rule earned him international celebrity, he was torn by guilt over Britain’s post-war betrayal of the Arabs with the implementation at Versailles of the notorious Sykes–Picot Agreement. Then there was the issue of identity. At the tender age of ten he discovered that his parents were not married, meaning that he and his four brothers were illegitimate. Later he was to learn that ‘Mr Lawrence’, his father, was, in fact, Sir Thomas Chapman of South Hill, Delvin, Co. Westmeath, who, though married with four daughters, had fled with their governess, Sarah Lawrence, first to Wales—where ‘Ned’ was born—and finally to London. He was eventually to find himself increasingly drawn to his father’s homeland. A close friend of George Bernard Shaw and his wife Charlotte—GBS had helped him to edit his major work, Seven pillars of wisdom (1926)—he mentioned his desire in his surviving letters to visit Ireland and often referred to the works of Seán O’Casey, James Joyce and J.M. Synge. Indeed, he hoped to write a biography of Sir Roger Casement. It seems that he never did try to make contact with his half-sisters. In 1954, almost twenty years after his death, some of his old friends visited the two surviving ones, who were living at 39 Northumberland Road, Dublin. They told them that they had followed their half-brother’s career with great interest but likewise had made no attempt to contact him.
- 1870 The Home Government Association of Ireland was founded by Isaac Butt with the aim of establishing a federal system for the United Kingdom, which would grant Ireland a parliament responsible for national affairs. Succeeded by the Home Rule League (1873).
- 1868 Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness, son of Arthur Guinness (1725–1803), brewer and writer who restored St Patrick’s Cathedral (1860), died.