There was no book of condolences and it was a legation not an embassy, but the finer details hardly matter at this remove. Taoiseach Éamon de Valera‘s visit to the German representative in Dublin (not the ambassador as commonly presumed), Dr Eduard Hempel, on May 2nd, 1945, brought worldwide infamy on him and on Ireland. De Valera addressed the Dáil in the morning and then travelled to No 58 Northumberland Road to express his condolences on the death of Adolf Hitler, who had died by suicide in his Berlin bunker two days previously. De Valera knew this would be controversial....
Monitoring Antisemitism Intel
