The couple who amassed the Hunt Museum collection in Limerick worked to help Jewish families escape from Nazi Germany, their son said yesterday.
The collection is currently at the centre of controversy after the Simon Wiesenthal Centre alleged that its founders, the late John and Gertrude Hunt, bought art from dealers who had Nazi links. The centre has called for a full audit of the collection to determine whether any of the items in it were originally looted from Jewish families by Nazis.
Mr John Hunt produced letters yesterday showing his parents' dealings with a body called the German Jewish Aid Committee.
The letters, which have been translated from German by the Goethe Institute in Dublin, date from 1938 and 1939 and refer to apparent efforts by John and Gertrude Hunt to help a couple, Philipp and Anna Markus, flee Germany for a new life in England.
The correspondence shows that, under the umbrella of the German Jewish Aid Committee, the Hunts offered to act as sponsors for the couple and arrange accommodation and employment for them in England.
In further correspondence, reference is made to apparent efforts by the Hunts to help others leave Germany for new lives abroad.
In a letter dated August 1939, the Markuses tell the Hunts that final preparations are in place for their imminent departure to England. However, it remains unclear whether they managed to flee Nazi Germany.
The claims by the Wiesenthal Centre have cast a shadow over the origins of the priceless art collection at Limerick's Hunt Museum - donated to the State by the Hunt family.
The board of the Hunt Museum has since launched an investigation into the origins of the collection. The retired Supreme Court judge, Mr Justice Donal Barrington, is heading the inquiry.
Yesterday Mr John Hunt told RTÉ News it was impossible to be certain of the origin of every item in the collection. Many pieces of art had been bought at auction "in good faith", he said, but their full provenance might not be known.
Asked if there was a need for the collection to be studied to determine the origins of the items, he said: "In some ways it's an impossible exercise because every single thing can't be accounted for."
But he added: "I do not want anything in that museum that has the slightest question mark over it".
He said he believed that justice demanded that items from museums which proved to be looted should be returned to their rightful owners. He could not guarantee that there were no items of dubious origin in the Hunt collection, but "I can guarantee that there is no document that I'm aware of that says something is clean or not clean".
Earlier yesterday Mr Hunt, who has stepped aside from the board for the duration of the inquiry, said he was publicising the letters in the hope they would help to clear his family's name.
"My mother was a German citizen and her father was killed on the Russian front in World War One. As a child, she witnessed hyperinflation and hunger," he said. "As a result of these experiences she developed a deep commitment to pacifism and a profound belief in democracy. It was because of these beliefs, and because she feared what might happen with Hitler and the Nazis that she left Germany."
It has also emerged that Gertrude Hunt - who set up permanent home in Ireland with her husband following the outbreak of the second World War - was lauded by the Irish Red Cross in 1949 for her efforts in an initiative called Operation Shamrock.
Under Operation Shamrock, children were evacuated from devastated Germany to foster homes in Ireland in a similar initiative to the modern-day Chernobyl Project.
As part of Operation Shamrock, John and Gertrude Hunt fostered three children in their house at Lough Gur in Co Limerick. A citation from the Irish Red Cross Society acknowledges Mrs Hunt's "kindness" for giving a home to a young German girl.