Come Here To Me!

In June 1946, Norman Burman, a Jewish antique dealer and jeweler, of South Circular road, Dublin was found guilty in the Special Criminal Court of buying a sovereign and a half-sovereign from German born Franz Alpers in Bandon, and was fined £25 or two months’ imprisonment in default.

Alpers, in evidence, said that he was manager of Hillsers Bros. jewellers, Bandon in Cork. A man named Burman, who gave him his address as South Circular road, called to this shop two or three times in 1944 asking for sovereigns. Later that year, Burmann ended up selling him a sovereign and a half for £2 5s each.

Burman, in evidence, denied that he ever bought sovereigns from Alpers or from another individual called Jackson. He bought rings and jewellery from Alpers but that was all he said. Alpers had displayed in his shop a notice that old gold and sovereigns could be bought. He called Alpers’ attention to this and and Alpers said that he had bought 20 sovereigns and sent them to his head office in court.

“Alpers was a raging anti-Semite” said Burman in court “He conveyed that by his words and by his abrupt manners, he said the same thing will happen here as happened in Germany”.

Burman was convinced that he had been set up by Alpers and this individual Jackson.

Alpers’ anti-Semitism certainly comes through in the court proceedings:

The Irish Times, 18 June 1946.

Burman appealed his sentence later in the year but his application was refused. We can assume that he served the full sentence.

Refs: The Irish Times; 18 June 1946. The Irish Independent; Jun 18, 1946 & Nov 19, 1946.