Volume 10 1951~1957


Doc No.
Date
Subject

No. 213 NAI DFA/10/P/11

Letter from Colonel Richard J. Callanan to Seán Nunan (Dublin)
(G2/0003) (Secret)

Dublin, 21 July 1953

I wish to refer to your P.11 of the 20th instant1 re Doctor Heinrich Becker2 and to state that I have examined a very considerable mass of material which was gathered here during the war years on this man, and as a result I feel that I cannot do better than to send you the attached copy of a dossier (marked ‘A’)3 compiled in 1944 covering his known activities in the period from his arrival in this country in October, 1938 up to July, 1944.

You will, no doubt, be interested in Colonel Bryan’s personal view of him and this is reflected in the attached copy (marked ‘B’)4 of a communication which he sent to Chief Supt. P. Carroll5 on 3rd October, 1947.

Becker left this country for Germany on 7th July, 1952.

It is, I think, very evident that he was at all times a true blue Nazi and it must be assumed that he did everything in his power to help the German cause. As against this, however, there is no evidence to indicate that he attempted any major activities in the espionage or subversive fields. It may be that the German Legation at the time considered him to be too well known and to be too well supervised to be of much use to it, or possibly that the Legation had not much confidence in him, as might be implied from Mr. Belton’s information that Dr. Katzenberger6 in later years discouraged official contact with him.

If you think I could be of further help I will be glad to call on you with my files at your convenience.

1 Not printed.

2 Dr. Heinrich Becker was a German folklorist and teacher who came to Ireland in 1938 and studied Irish at UCG. Becker lived on the Aran Islands from the mid-1940s and recorded everyday life on the islands in his writings, photographs and paintings.

3 Not printed.

4 Not printed.

5 Chief Superintendent Patrick Carroll (1903-75), headed the Crime and Security Branch (the 'Special Branch') of the Garda Síochána (1938-59) and worked closely with Military Intelligence (G2), during the Second World War; Deputy Commissioner of An Garda Síochána (1962-7), Commissioner (1967-8).

6 Dr. Hermann Katzenberger (1891-1958), German Minister to Ireland (1951-6).