February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Andrew Bushe
DUBLIN – A Dublin bus driver is spearheading attempts to get compensation for Irish merchant seamen who were held in prisoners-of-war camps during World War II and were forced to work as slave laborers in German factories and farms.
Peter Mulvany, who is also a law graduate, said hundreds of people or their relatives might be entitled to payments from a special _4bn (c. $5bn) compensation fund set up by the German government and industry.
So far, one survivor has come forward from the Milag Nord POW camp in northern Germany who was forced to work in Farge near Bremen with 31 other Irish prisoners.
Relatives of two other POWs, who have since died, have also contacted him.
Mulvany believes there is a potential of about 200 possible claims but stressed people needed to contact him as soon as possible as the German government has set a deadline for applications by the end of the year.
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“Most of them are dead at this stage. If they died before this fund was agreed on in February 1999, then the next-of-kin are not entitled to anything. If they died after that, relatives can make a claim.”
The man, who wants to remain anonymous, told Mulvany a horror story about what happened to the Irishmen in the camp.
“The Irishmen were taken out of the POW camp by the SS and made to work in a forced labor camp. They had to build a fuel depot and a big construction chamber for making U-boats.
“Five of them died from malnutrition and ill-treatment. As a result, there was a war crimes hearing in Hamburg in 1947 at which 12 German guards and one Swiss guard were charged with offences again humanity under international law.
“The Irish fellows were subjected to horrendous treatment by the SS. I think their remains were later taken out of graves in Bremen and put in a war cemetery. A man who has contacted me is a son of one of the five who died.”
The compensation scheme is being administered by the Swiss-based International Organization for Migration and Mulvany is now querying whether Irishmen in the British Merchant Navy will also quality for compensation.
“They have accepted that the Irish Merchant seamen were civilians but the Irishmen in the British Merchant Navy were also non-combatants.”
Mulvany, who began studying maritime history in 1986, went back and did his Leaving Certificate when he was aged 44. He then did a university degree.
Currently involved in post-graduate studies, he has already sponsored a special memorial to Irish seamen who lost their lives as a result of attacks on Irish shipping.
“According to my research, there was an estimated 10,000 Irish POWs spread right throughout 80 camps in Germany during the War,” Mulvany added.
Mulvany can be contacted at Conquer Hill Road, Clontarf, Dublin 3 or by email at mulvanypeterie@yahoo.co.uk