Madam, - In his article "Taking too long a holiday from history" ( Weekend Review, January 27th), Jon Ihle states that Ireland provided refuge for about 30 Jewish people during the Nazi era.
That number does not stand up to scrutiny.
Though precise numbers of who passed through before the war might never be known, we can estimate safely that around 250 to 300 victims of Nazi persecution lived in Ireland for some time between 1933 and 1945, obviously a painfully small number in the international context. About 80 per cent would have been what the Nazis called "non-Aryans". The refugees identified themselves as Jewish, Catholic, Protestant as well as non-religious.
By minimising their number other important lessons from history are lost - especially the enormous contribution this first wave of immigrants to the young Free State made to Irish society and the wonderful efforts of the many people who worked tirelessly on their behalf.
The number of people sheltered by Ireland was small, but among them were the first and second directors of the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies, Jewish entrepreneurs who set up or managed factories that provided employment for many Irish people, and many "ordinary people", surviving by giving German classes or anything else that opened up to them and through the support of people from all religious backgrounds.
Their story is not complete yet, but substantial work is being undertaken on the lives and influence of this group of refugees. Indeed, I would be grateful to anyone who can contact me with relevant information. - Yours, etc,
Dr GISELA HOLFTER, IRCHSS Research Fellow, Centre for Irish-German Studies, University of Limerick, Limerick.