Volume 7 1941~1945


Doc No.
Date
Subject

No. 530  NAI DFA 419/44

Letter from Robert Brennan to Joseph P. Walshe (Dublin)
(Special Airmail)

WASHINGTON, 18 January 1945

I enclose herewith a copy of a letter received from Dr. Jacob Hellmann and two other leaders of the World Jewish Congress.1

These gentlemen called on me yesterday and put forward the points which are set forth in the letter. They asked if the Government of Ireland could not intervene with the German authorities to discontinue their policy of extermination of the surviving Jewish population. They also asked if you could not approach the German authorities with a view to having them agree to allow food parcels to be transmitted by the Red Cross to the Jewish population who are in internment camps and further they asked whether we could not issue documents to the Jews in occupied territory which would save them from the danger of deportation and extermination as had been done by the Swedish Government.

I told the gentlemen that the third request had already been considered and had been found impracticable and that I doubted whether any representations from a neutral government at this time would be of any avail. However, I promised to forward their request by airmail. I would be glad to have your observation in the matter.

I strongly advised the gentlemen to put the whole matter before their representatives in London and before Mr. Briscoe with a view to a more immediate approach to you2

[signed] ROBT. BRENNAN

1 Not printed.

2 Handwritten note by Sheila Murphy: 'No action possible at present'.