Sir, - Fact: on the Channel 4 documentary in the Witness series broadcast on October 15th, Francis Stuart stated: "The Jew is the worm that got into the rose and sickened it". Fact: queried about his wartime broadcasts from Nazi Germany he replied with a derisive "je ne regrette rien". Arising from this we wrote (October 25th) calling on Aosdana to cancel its "gift" of Saoi to Mr Stuart.
The matter is now however bedevilled by obfuscation. It has nothing whatsoever to do with Francis Stuart's qualities as a writer, but everything to do with his personal choice to live and work in wartime Germany and to support a regime bent on the genocide of the Jewish people. Mr Stuart claims that he has never uttered an anti-Semitic remark, a claim reiterated by his supporters. Describing the Jew as "the worm", whether it is necessary for "the rose" to be sickened by it or not, is nothing but anti-Semitic. And no amount of intellectual justification can claim otherwise.
Stuart's broadcasts in support of Nazi Germany have been excused as just a few. Eighty in two years is hardly a few. Elaborating on the "financial spider web" with which Britain had entangled Europe before the war, in his broadcast of February 9th, 1942, he concluded: "It is largely London Jews who figure in the dealings" (Andreas Roth, Letters, December 1st). Is this anything but an anti-Semitic statement?
Stuart was not forced to broadcast; he chose to do so, and in so doing to support the Nazis whose vile policies both of European domination and towards the Jewish people he was fully aware. It is not necessary to make anti-Semitic statements in order to support an anti-Semitic regime. The fact that he chose to side with Nazi Germany, allied to the effect these broadcasts by a well-known Irish Republican surely had on impressionable listeners, is what matters.
We are not concerned that Stuart chooses to immolate himself on his personal cross. Nor, may we assure Fintan O'Toole, are we scapegoating him. Mr Stuart is not being blamed for the crimes of others, simply called to account for his own. If he chooses to assume the role of sacrificial victim, that is his own concern.
As citizens of Ireland what we are concerned with is the honour this country has granted an unrepentant supporter of Nazi Germany. Maire Mhac an tSaoi bravely faced the wrath of the majority of Aosdana in attempting to have this honour rescinded. By all accounts she got ridiculed for her pains in what appears to have been a chaotic occasion. The members of Aosdana have an obligation to acquaint themselves fully with Mr Stuart's wartime record, plus the relevant contents of the Witness documentary; to reconsider the matter in a sober fashion; and to take the honourable decision. - Yours, etc.,
From Ronit and Louis Lentin
Leinster Road, Dublin 6.