Volume 7 1941~1945


Doc No.
Date
Subject

No. 524  NAI DFA Secretary's Files A20/4

Cypher telegram from Con Cremin to Joseph P. Walshe (Dublin)
(No. 200)

BERLIN, 21 December 1944

Your tel. 254.1 Presented aide-mémoire December 18th on lines my tel. 1962 to Deputy for Secretary of State at present ill. I was informed (1) Foreign Office is not aware of any representations by Swiss Government on behalf of Jews in question the démarche made by Swiss Minister proper Nov. 22nd referring only to 8,000 Hungarian Jews in Bergen Belsen (2) Foreign Office in any case could not accept our (nor Swiss) démarche as we have 'no justification for intervening' the persons concerned not being Irish having no Irish connections etc.. My aide-mémoire was therefore handed back to me. Enquiries since made by me with Swiss Chargé d'Affaires who was source of information contained in my telegram 196 and with Swiss foreign interests section show that (1) is correct the representations in this matter not having been made by Swiss Minister proper but by Minister in charge of foreign interests section on behalf of U.S.A. It would therefore seem that information your tel. 254 is not correct. I am preparing further telegram about this question generally on basis of particulars I have received.

I am making inquiries regarding your tel. 273.3 I was not aware that Ryan had been in Germany and as I had had no reply to my tel. 434 and thought your tel. 725 was perhaps intended for Madrid had not considered it necessary to let you know that Foreign Office informed me verbally July 15th that enquiries were made as a result of my aide-mémoire April 12th but that 'all that German police know of Ryan is that he is a communist and stood as such Dáil elections 1937'.

1 Not printed. In this telegram of 27 November 1944 Dublin informed Cremin that they had learned that the Swiss government was making representations to the German authorities on behalf of the Jews deported from Vittel. Cremin was to ask the Swiss Minister in Berlin about the matter and support his representations. This he did by submitting the aide mémoire referred to in this document which associated the Irish government with the Swiss démarche (NAI DFA 419/44).

2 Not printed.

3 See No. 523.

4 Not printed.

5 Not printed.