Doctor’s escape from Nazi Germany to find love in Laois factory

A fascinating tale involving a Jewish doctor's escape from death in Nazi Germany to find love in Laois has been rediscovered in historic documents.

An exhibition will launch in a Laois library branch this Tuesday, August 13 full of local history as well as the intriguing story of Doctor Werner Schwarz.

It is curated by another ‘blow-in’ to the town, an Irish journalist who moved to Mountmellick two years ago with his US wife, and works remotely for the American Newsweek magazine.

Sean O’Driscoll found a binbag of documents thrown in a shed behind the Georgian house he bought in Irishtown, which led him down the road to holding the exhibition.

He told the Leinster Express / Laois Live about it.

“They were documents from the malt factory, it has led me up so many avenues. There were so many letters and files dating from the 1940s and 1950s. The general manager had lived in the house, Seamus Murphy. The house had changed hands a few times since,” he explained.

One document stood out. 

“I found a letter from the Society of Promoting Christianity Among Jews. It was about Dr Werner Schwarz who fled Berlin because he was half Jewish, or as the Nazis called it ‘a mongrel’. The letter said his sister was killed by the Nazis in 1942," he said.

The letter states chillingly that all of Dr Schwarz' relatives were dead, describing him as "a non-Aryan refugee".

“It was looking for a Visa for him so he could get malt factory training.

“I then found that he fell in love with a local girl, Anne Tuohy and they eloped to England, and later came back to Mountmellick and had four children.

“I got in touch with their children who live now in the UK, their son is an artist who did paintings inspired by his parents story and I have photos of them in the exhibition,” he said.

He said Dr Schwarz also worked as a local photographer and the exhibition includes photos he took in Mountmellick in the 1940s and 50s. He lived for a time in the council built St Joseph’s Terrace. 

A photo Dr Schwarz took of Anne Tuohy in her family's shop.

“He had moved in upper society life in Berlin with visits to the opera, but lost everything," he said.

There are many more items of local interest, showing not just accounts but the human side of working in Mountmellick Malt factory after the war.

“There is a notice from the general manager from the early 1950s to say to lock up the store because staff were taking sugar and cocoa for their breaks. I found papers to show they sold malt milk around the world, to places like Cuba and Nigeria.

Staff outside Mountmellick Malt Factory, c.1948.

“There’s notices that they were being placed on electricity rations and petrol rations. There’s a letter to ask the army for petrol coupons. There was a big dispute with local farmers because they blocked a half mile of a drain by filling it up with malt extract. The local doctor was called down in 1949 and laid into them to do something. People were complaining about the smell. 

“There are touching things too, a photo of ‘baby Michael’ showing people hung up pictures on the factory floor like people do in offices now.

“It’s amazing to me that people kept things on the road in those days, they just got on with it," Sean said.

Transporting malt from the factory to Mountmellick train station, in the 40s/50s.

Further historic photos of the once thriving industrial town will be on show thanks to Anne O’Brien of Mountmellick Heritage Society.

Ennis native Sean O’Driscoll is a crime and courts correspondent and an expert in emigration law, having spent a decade in the states. His wife Sarah is from Missouri and also works remotely in IT, now teaching traditional Irish music in Mountmellick Comhaltas. They have a son Sean Óg aged three. 

Sean has written two books on other topics but on request of the Schwarz family, he will not be writing one about their story. 

The exhibition will be on show until the end of August in the library gallery on O’Moore Street.

“I want to give all the material to Mountmellick library or Portlaoise library to keep permanently. It is nice to have a recording of the times. I know the factory is probably going to be developed for social housing, but I think it would be great to have this on show there,” Sean said.

Mountmellick Malt factory in 1945 and in 2024.

The now derelict factory on the N80 Portlaoise road in Mountmellick was opened a century ago by the Codd family, producing malt for the drinks industry and fortified malt as a health supplement, up until about 2001.

It is now owned by Laois County Council and is a listed building, protecting it from demolition. They are at initial stages of surveying, with the hope to renovate it and provide 30 social housing apartments.

The exhibition will launch at 6pm in Mountmellick library on Tuesday, August 13, all welcome, and will be available to view during library opening hours.