Charles Bewley facts for kids
Charles Henry Bewley (born July 12, 1888 – died 1969) was an Irish diplomat. He came from a well-known Quaker business family in Dublin. He later became a Roman Catholic and supported Irish independence. He was Ireland's representative in Berlin during the 1930s. Reports say he made it difficult for Jewish people to get visas to leave Nazi Germany and find safety in Ireland.
Contents
Early Life and Family Background
Charles Bewley was born in Dublin, Ireland, into a rich family. He was the oldest of four brothers. His mother, Elizabeth Eveleen Pim, came from a family that owned a big department store in Dublin. His father, Dr. Henry Theodore Bewley, was a doctor. His family was also connected to the famous "Bewley's cafés" chain in Dublin, which is still popular today. Both of his parents were Quakers, a religious group known for peace and simple living. Charles and his brothers grew up following the Quaker faith.
School Days and Oxford
Charles went to a boarding school in England called Park House. In 1901, he won a scholarship to Winchester College, a famous school. He even became the Library Prefect, a student leader. However, he lost this honor after saying in a debate that "England is not a musical nation" and making fun of the national anthem.
After Winchester, he went to New College, Oxford University, where he studied Law. In 1910, he won a special poetry award called the Newdigate Prize. He later became a barrister, a type of lawyer, in Dublin in 1914. His brother Kenneth also went to Oxford and worked for the government. His younger brothers, Geoffrey and Maurice, studied medicine.
Changing Views
Charles Bewley was known for being a bit rebellious. He didn't like his Anglo-Irish background, which was a mix of English and Irish culture. Instead, he became very interested in old Irish stories and myths, like those made popular by the writer W. B. Yeats. He spoke out against anything that seemed too English. He supported the Boers in South Africa and changed his religion to Roman Catholicism. He also supported the Home Rule movement, which wanted Ireland to have more control over its own government.
Diplomatic Career
When World War I started in 1914, Charles Bewley was in Ireland. He worked as a lawyer, defending many Irish nationalists and republicans who wanted Ireland to be independent. He even helped write a speech for Seán Mac Eoin, a famous Irish rebel. In 1918, he tried to become a politician for Sinn Féin, a nationalist party, but he didn't win.
During the Irish Civil War, he supported the side that signed a peace treaty with Britain. As a lawyer, he prosecuted people who were against the treaty. In 1923, he tried again to become a politician but was not elected.
Early Diplomatic Roles
After the Irish War of Independence, but before the peace treaty was fully signed, Charles Bewley worked as the Irish consul in Berlin. His job was to handle trade matters. In 1929, he became the Irish ambassador to the Vatican, the headquarters of the Catholic Church. At that time, the British King was supposed to approve Irish diplomatic appointments. Bewley often ignored this, which annoyed the British representatives. But this actually made him more popular in Ireland.
In 1933, the Pope gave Bewley a special honor, making him a Knight of the Grand Cross of St Gregory the Great. The British Foreign Office was upset because the King's permission wasn't asked. They told Bewley he couldn't wear the award without the King's approval, but he didn't listen.
Ambassador to Berlin
The constant arguments between the Irish and British representatives at the Vatican made both Dublin and London unhappy. This led to Bewley getting the job he really wanted: ambassador to Berlin. He moved there in July 1933. The German President, Hindenburg, even complimented his perfect German.
From Berlin, Bewley sent reports that strongly praised Nazism and the German leader, Adolf Hitler. He gave interviews to German newspapers that were against Britain. He also annoyed the British embassy in Berlin by ignoring their celebrations. Later, when relations between Ireland and Britain improved, Dublin often told Bewley off for his anti-British comments.
Controversy and Anti-Semitism
The first sign of Bewley's anti-Jewish views appeared in Berlin in 1921. At that time, Ireland was not yet fully recognized as an independent state. Bewley was the Irish trade consul. Michael Collins, a famous Irish leader, sent Robert Briscoe to buy guns. Briscoe was a Jewish man who later became the first Jewish Lord Mayor of Dublin. Bewley and Briscoe went to a music hall, but after Briscoe left, it was reported that Bewley insulted Jewish people and was thrown out.
In March 1922, George Gavan Duffy, an Irish politician, wrote a letter saying that Bewley should not be appointed as an Irish envoy to Germany. He said Bewley's anti-Jewish beliefs were so strong that he would have trouble dealing with people and issues in Berlin, where there was a large Jewish population.
Some people believe Bewley's dislike of Jewish people was influenced by the teachings of an Irish Catholic priest named Denis Fahey. Bewley even mentioned one of Fahey's writings when he was interviewed by an Irish government official while serving in Berlin.
Processing Visas in Berlin
Charles Bewley was the main Irish diplomat in Berlin from 1933 to 1939. During these important years, he was responsible for handling visa applications from Jewish people who wanted to leave Germany and come to Ireland. He described the Nuremberg Laws, which took away rights from Jewish people, as simply making Jews a "national minority." He said that since Jewish people claimed to be a separate race, they shouldn't complain. He also claimed he didn't know of any "deliberate cruelty" by the German government towards Jewish people.
Bewley criticized Ireland's refugee policy, saying it was too generous and allowed the "wrong class of people" (meaning Jewish people) to enter. The Irish office in Berlin had only two people: Bewley and a German secretary. The secretary seemed more concerned about the situation than Bewley. Between 1933 and 1939, fewer than one hundred Jewish people received Irish visas. Bewley was removed from his job in 1939.
Later Years
Bewley was dismissed from his job just as World War II was starting, and he never received a pension. However, Joseph Goebbels, a high-ranking Nazi official, gave him a job writing propaganda. For a while, he worked for a Swedish news agency that was part of Goebbels' propaganda efforts.
He was found at the end of the war in May 1945 by British troops in Italy. He had Irish diplomatic papers that said he was the Irish minister to Berlin and the Vatican. Irish and British officials decided on a clever solution, knowing Bewley's pride.
He was given a new Irish passport that listed his "trade or profession" as "a person of no importance." He never used this passport. He was released in Rome and seemed to stay there. He wrote some newspaper articles and a book about Hermann Göring, another Nazi leader, in 1956.
In his final years, Bewley became good friends with Mgr Hugh O'Flaherty, a Catholic priest known as 'the Vatican Pimpernel.' O'Flaherty had saved thousands of Jewish people and escaped prisoners of war from the Nazis. Charles Henry Bewley died in Rome in 1969. He never married.
