DEPARTURE OF GERMANS FROM CURRAGH

Irish Independent 13 August 1945

May travel on warship
Departure of Germans from Curragh

Early this morning the German internees who had been detained in Eire during the period of hostilities left the Curragh en route to the Continent. They numbered about 266.
For 24 hours prior to their departure the internees were confined to camp. It is understood that a small number of them are unaccounted for. When they learned that they were being sent back to Germany, nine, it is understood, did not return after their ordinary parole. The police of Co. Kildare and Dublin are now on the look-out for them.
Irish brides
There were a number of last minute marriages between internees and Irish girls. At least two were married in Dublin during the week, and this week-end two local girls became the brides of German airmen.
Ten double-decker C.I.E. buses and several lorries were used to convey the prisoners from the Curragh to an Irish port. Secrecy was preserved about their destination, but it is understood they will be taken aboard a British warship at a port on the East coast of Ireland, or, alternatively, they will be sent to the North of Ireland.
The departure from the Curragh, which took place at 12.15 a.m., was watched by a large gathering of local people. The buses and lorries travelled under a heavy Army escort of armoured cars.
Included amongst the internees were 53 members of the Luftwaffe, who made forced landings in Ireland. Most of the remainder were naval officers and ratings.
Amongst the German airmen was Lieut.-Commander Mulhausen, one of the first to be interned, after his ‘plane had come down in Ireland shortly after the war began.
Also included were 100 ratings of a torpedo boat, which was damaged in an engagement with British cruisers in the Bay of Biscay in December, 1943.
The survivors were picked up by the Irish vessel, Kerlogue, of the Wexford Steamship Co., and brought to an Irish port. This torpedo boat was in charge of Lieut.-Commander Quedenfeld, who subsequently became senior officer of the internees. The internees also included 45 men who landed in Cobh from a U-boat in March, 1944.
At the conclusion of the war many of the internees got work on farms and cutting turf. Several also turned their attention to craftwork.

A newspaper report from the Irish Independent of 13 August 1945 on the departure of the German internees from the Curragh