Jewish council condemns Johnny Ronan’s Nazi reference

The Jewish Representative Council of Ireland (JRCI) has said it is greatly disquieted by the reference to Auschwitz at the end of property developer Johnny Ronan's statement of evidence to the Oireachtas Banking Inquiry.

"That such a discredited phrase would be used and then translated into Irish is beyond comprehension," said Maurice Cohen, chairman of the JRCI.

At the end of his statement to the banking inquiry, in which he claimed the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) destroyed his business, Johnny Ronan wrote: "'Arbeit macht frei' nó, i nGaeilge, 'Tugann saothar saoirse'."

The phrase, which translates as “work sets you free”, was written over the entrance to Nazi concentration camps in Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen and Dachau, amongst others.

Mr Cohen said: “We can only surmise that it was inserted into the document in complete ignorance of its usage and its connotations that are associated with the darkest period in European history.

“There must have been no realisation of the offence that it would cause, and indeed is causing, to Irish Jewish people and to anyone who lost family at Auschwitz and other death camps during the Holocaust.”

He called on Mr Ronan “to both retract the phrase and for him to strongly request of the chairman of the inquiry to allow that his evidence be amended accordingly so that no reference to the offending remarks appear anywhere on the Oireachtas record or its website”.

Mr Cohen said that remarks of such nature, “whether they are understood for what they are or otherwise, should never be invoked out of context if humanity is to fully appreciate the impact of the Holocaust and ensure that it never happens again”.

"No historical equivalence or relevance to what took place in Europe during the Holocaust and what is happening in Ireland today can be drawn nor is any way remotely valid.

“We further call on Mr Ronan to strongly consider making a full apology to anyone who could be offended by the remark in his statement.”

‘Inappropriate’ reference

Former minister for justice Alan Shatter also called on Mr Ronan to apologise for and withdraw the “inappropriate” reference to second World War concentration camps.

Mr Shatter told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme that he had hoped and expected that, in the wake of a statement he issued on the matter on Thursday, Mr Ronan would have explained his reason for using the phrase and applied to the Oireachtas to have it removed.

He said that he also did not believe it was appropriate for the phrase to remain in a statement on the public record in the Houses of the Oireachtas.

“That statement has now effectively got global access because it has been put on the website that provides material for the banking inquiry,” he said.

He said that he believed Johnny Ronan needed to publically explain why the phrase was in his statement, and that “he needs to withdraw it and frankly, he needs to apologise.

“You don’t have to be a Dáil deputy, you don’t have to be Jewish. You just have to be a member of the human community, as all of us are, to find this offensive.”