Introduction: The Irish context of Kristallnacht: refugees and helpers

This collection is based on the papers given at the 14th Limerick Conference in Irish-German Studies, “Context of Kristallnacht: Ireland and the German-speaking refugees 1933–45 – A colloquium on German-speaking exiles, Irish helpers and the national and international context seventy-five years ago”. The event, organised by the Centre for Irish-German Studies, took place at the University of Limerick on 7/8 November 2013. Several aspects were at the core of the conference – to remind us again of what happened on these days three quarters of a century earlier, in November 1938, the violence and barbarity, the incarceration of tens of thousands of mostly Jewish men. The conference also focused on the impact these events had on Ireland, looking at the people who came here as refugees on the one hand but also identifying some of the Irish groups and individuals who reached out and helped.