Madam, – I see from your Residential Property supplement (May 5th), that to have been a Nazi “safe house” during our Emergency period 1939-1945 has become an additional selling point. This should be a welcome boost to the sluggish property market as the German spy, Hermann Goertz, who briefly occupied 245 Templeogue Road, also stayed in a number of other desirable properties during his 19 months at liberty. These include houses in Spencer Villas, Glenageary; Charlemont Avenue, Dún Laoghaire; Nerano Road, Dalkey; Winton Avenue, Rathmines; and a fine period house in Shankhill. It was probably a mistake for Goertz to move to the northside of Dublin as he was promptly arrested when he got to Blackheath Park, Clontarf – definitely not a “safe house”. Outside of Dublin, he stayed for a month at Brittas Bay, and more briefly at Laragh Castle, Glendalough, Co Wicklow, Fenit, Co Kerry and Mount Nugent, Co Cavan.
Incidentally, Goertz was not a member of the SS as stated in the property article but a lieutenant in the Luftwaffe. At a later stage of his captivity in the not so attractive Custume Barracks, Athlone, he claimed to have been in the SS in an attempt to prevent his deportation but this claim was disproved by Irish Military Intelligence (G2) which also “promoted” him to Major when sending him messages allegedly from Germany. This rank is on his gravestone in the very safe German War Cemetery in Glencree, Co Wicklow. Even in death, Goertz was on the move as he was buried first, as the article states, in Deansgrange cemetery. – Yours, etc,