“Only pure Aryans…can be citizens”: letters concerning Julius Pokorny and the racist Nuremberg Laws of 1935

In this post, I will use two sets of papers to illustrate how a researcher can trace an issue across more than one collection. Both the papers of Eoin MacNeill and of Liam S. Gógan include correspondence with Julius Pokorny concerning Pokorny’s dismissal from the Chair of Celtic Philology at the University of Berlin, under the provisions of the racist Nuremberg Laws of 1935.

Julius Pokorny (1887–1970) was born in Prague, Bohemia, but was brought up in Austria. He visited Ireland several times between 1908 and 1912, and attended Vienna University from where he graduated with the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Following appointments at Vienna University, he was awarded the chair of Celtic Philology at the University of Berlin in 1920.  Pokorny’s Jewish background (he was Roman Catholic but his grandparents were Jewish) led to his suspension from his post as the Nazi Party rose to power, and then to his dismissal in 1935. He also spoke out openly against the imprisonment of fellow scholar, Ernst Lewy, securing his release from a Nazi prison in 1935 (we encountered Lewy in our previous post). 

Pokorny sought asylum in Zürich, where he remained for the rest of his life.

In this sequence of letters from the MacNeill papers, Pokorny seeks help for his current situation.

Papers of Eoin MacNeill UCDA LA1/K/70 

Letter from Julius Pokorny to Eoin MacNeill, [1935]

Dear MacNeill,

You so very kindly have helped me two years ago, that I am taking the liberty to approach you again in the matter. According to a new law only pure Aryans (with 6 Aryan ancestors!) can be citizens, so I have got my suspension with many others. Exceptions are of course possible, that is why I am approaching you again. A similar letter goes to Best, Bergin, MacAlister and Delargy.

By the way, please don’t let it be known that I had written to you myself, but that you have heard this from some Irishman travelling in Germany, e.g. Mr. Gógan. And in case of writing to me, please be exceedingly careful. Letters are opened.

Ever yours

J. Pokorny

P.S. I need not remind you that I am a Catholic, have always been one and also my parents before me. My grandparents, no less! are the unfortunate culprits.

Papers of Eoin MacNeill UCDA LA1/K/70

Draft letter from MacNeill to German authorities, [1935]

In view of the importance of maintaining the great tradition of Irish philological studies which was originated by Johann Kaspar Zeuss and has been maintained unbroken in Berlin by Hermann Ebel, Heinrich Zimmer, Kuno Meyer and Ludwig Christian Stern, we respectfully ask the German Government to authorise allow afford facilities to Professor Julius Pokorny to continue in the University of Berlin the work in which has received distinction among living workers in the field of philology and Celtic studies.

Dr. Pokorny has received the honorary degree of D. Litt. Celt. In the [National University] of Ireland at the hands of its Chancellor, who is President de Valera, and a number of those who have studied under him in Berlin are now among the foremost and most distinguished workers and teachers in this country.

Papers of Eoin MacNeill UCDA LA1/K/70

Letter from Pokorny to former student Conn R. Ó Cléirigh, 15 March 1936

Dear Mr.  Ó Cléirigh,

Again I am approaching you, and this time after very careful consideration. The danger of losing permanently my chair is very imminent, since Mühlhausen of Hamburg, whose only distinction is a membership of the storm-troopers, has a very great chance of being put in my place. Hence I believe the tie has come to do something. If a somewhat longer article would appear in the press, perhaps under the heading: The Chair of Celtic Studies in Berlin, it could do an enormous good. I am enclosing on a separate sheet a few important particulars. I believe you have already got a good photograph of mine which I sent you last time. But since I am not quite sure about it, I am enclosing another copy. I have asked Mr. Gogan to let you have the copies of the reports of my contributions to the Irish movement, which I had sent him some months ago. If this article would point out the cultural importance of this chair, the great scholars that had filled it, the impossibility of putting somebody else in my place, carefully showing why the others are no good, it just might help. The news of my suspension has already got into the Irish papers, and this is strictly confidential, De Valera had already asked Bewley to talk to the Foreign Office, but, you know, Bewley is rather impersonal and cool, and I doubt whether he has put it strongly enough. In any case no results have been forthcoming so far.

As to my present state of mind, you can easily feel what it is like, the enormous reduction of my salary, while the thing lasts, makes it also impossible to divert my mind by spending money on travelling etc.

I have talked this matter over very carefully with influential people, and they all believe if an article on the Chair of Celtic was published, with only inferentially mentioning my work and my merits, showing that there was nobody else, it would do nothing but good. (I know for certain, that the Minister intends to put Mühlhausen into my place Mühlhausen—this is confidential!) Thanking you in advance for all your kindness, yours very sincerely, J. P.

Pokorny’s story continues in the papers of lexicographer L.S. Gógan.

Papers of Liam S. Gógan UCDA LA27/798

Postcard from Pokorny, Basel, to Liam S. Gógan, Dublin, 12 November 1943

My dear Gogan, Your most welcome letter was 7 weeks on its way, the first news I had from Eire. Many thanks for all your efforts. I have escaped from death in a most miraculous way, showing clearly the hand of providence. All my things are safe too. I had also asked your minister in Berne to write home but he has not yet had any answer. … I had also written to McNeill and Best myself, but with the communications in wartime it is better to employ various methods. … On the whole I feel fine though it is hard to be without funds. But people are very kind and helpful. With cordial greetings to all friends and yourself, ever yours, P. O’Korny.

Papers of Liam S. Gógan UCDA LA27/798

Letter from Pokorny, Zurich, to Liam S. Gógan, Dublin, 20 May 1945

Dear Gógan,

At last it is possible to write to you without intervention of the Nazi censor, who seems to have destroyed all my letters passing through his hands. Only in such a way I can explain why I didn’t get any further news from Ireland. The correspondence with England has been all right since the invasion started.

The Irish minister at Berne has not been very helpful, he said he could not ever get me books from Ireland. That the government had no funds for such purposes. Fortunately a Swiss editor has asked me to write a new edition of my Aryan Dictionary and got me all the books I needed for that purpose, so that now I am the proud possessor of Dinnen, Hogan, all the Academy contributions and the last [volumes] of Ériu. My stepmother also has done wonders, God knows how she managed it!

I have now all my things here, clothes and all, except my books which are for the greatest part in Vienna—many have been burned in Berlin, where I had left them with a friend. I have even got my typewriter here! The Chechish representative has been very helpful, through his help I have got at last the permission for my friend Shiell to send me 15L per month—since yesterday—so at last I am no longer so terribly poor. By my lectures at the Universities of Berne and Zurich I am only earning 15 Ł per month which is extremely little, owing to the very high prices here, but at least I had been living in peace and the authorities have been very kind to me. Very soon I hope to get a fresh Czech passport, now we have an embassy in Berne.

I never told you how I had been saved from the Nazis. I had been in Vienna at my father’s death-bed and had stayed another fortnight there to help my step-mother a bit, and I had already got a sleeper to Berlin and was ready to embark on the train, when, just an hour before the start a secret voice kept on telling me: Don’t go, Don’t go!—-At the last moment I put off my journey and two days later I got a message from Berlin that the Secret Police had been in my flat to arrest me, just the same evening I ought to have returned!!

The details are so very dramatic, I have to tell them to you personally. My flight was unbelievably easy, I didn’t meet anybody while crossing the frontier in plain daylight at noon! On the whole I can say that I have been clearly protected by God! My charwoman at Berlin was marvellous, she carried all my things from my flat, one piece by one! The whole thing made very much easier by the fact that, in order to protect my things from air raids, I had already removed many clothes to a safe place, as well as most of my books. In fact I have lost only my Modern Irish and Modern Welsh books. My books are in Vienna in a safe place, 5 stores below the ground.

…

I still have no plans for the future. I am afraid I shall have to stay at least another year in Zurich before things are settled in Central Europe, though I hope that Vienna will sooner be in order than any other place. …

Ever yours,

J. Pokorny

This post was written by Kate Manning, Principal Archivist, UCD Archives