Irish school's former students taught by Nazi collaborator demand apology

Nazi collaborator Louis Feutren, far right, at St Conleth's in 1970.

Former students of a Dublin school are demanding an apology over the treatment they received from a former Nazi collaborator who taught at the school for several years.

Several letters have been sent to the board of St Conleth’s in Dublin about Louis Feutren, who came to Ireland some time after having fled France when the Third Reich collapsed in Germany. 

He was a member of a nationalist group in France called the Bezen Perrot and collaborated with the Waffen SS during the German occupation of France during the Second World War.

He taught at St Conleth’s College in Ballsbridge, Dublin from the late 1950s until 1985.

In a letter sent to the school’s board, author and son of a former Argentinean ambassador to Ireland, Uki Goni, said: “I was a child, only 14 years old, when I arrived at St Conleth's. I was physically bashed by Feutren during my first days there. 

It was the start of many beatings I myself received and that I witnessed Feutren inflict upon others, including his perverse game of making students remove any article of clothing they could not name in French.” 

The American-born journalist, who now lives in Argentina, added: “The corporal punishment I can understand. Other times, different norms. Beating students remained legal in Ireland until 1982. But Nazis were a limit nobody crossed even then.

“However masterful he may have been teaching French, it does not require underlining that over the course of three decades Feutren could easily have been replaced with any other equally talented French master.” 

In seeking an apology from the school, he said such a move would allow students “an opportunity to heal”, adding: “It is not easy to speak out, especially after having had to confront a monster such as Feutren in childhood has affected your relationships for the rest of your life but at some point something has to give.” 

Other letters include one from a former student who said Feutren’s class was ruled by "a culture of fear that even then was not acceptable”.

The board of directors of the school is set to meet on Tuesday, October 3, to discuss the letters received in relation to Feutren.

When Feutren died in 2009, a bequest of a collection of tapes and papers, along with a cash sum of about £300,000, to the National Library of Wales, sparked controversy in Wales because of his Nazi connections.

In France, a bequest of €50,000 he made to University of Brittany to help promote the Breton language was rejected because of his background.

St Conleth’s has been contacted for comment.