ADSS 8.332 Maglione to Burzio: Go to Tiso

This was Cardinal Maglione's direction to Giuseppe Burzio.  He wanted Burzio to go directly to see Tiso and appeal to his priestly sentiments and stop the deportations.  It must have pained both men that their efforts were without success.  Nonetheless, at this stage, the Holy See still believed the best way to move was within the patterns of traditional diplomacy.  Ministers were invited in for discussions, Vatican diplomats made carefully worded statements of concern. What was increasingly obvious by this stage - spring 1942 - was the impotency of the Vatican in the face of an ever-escalating pattern of violence and murder of Europe's Jews.

It is Maglione's last phrase that hints at the desperation felt by more and more of the "old school" of Vatican diplomacy - an appeal to priestly feeling.



ADSS 8.332

Reference: Tel nr 21 (AES 2555/42)
Location and date: Vatican, 27.03.1942
Summary statement: Steps to take for the Slovak Jews threatened with deportation.
Language: Italian

Text:

Just received your telegrams, numbers 21 and 22, (1) I called the Slovak minister and asked him to intervene immediately with his government to stop the implementation of this deplorable measure. (2) Your reverence is to personally carry out the same representation to the President of the Republic with an appeal to his priestly sentiments.

Cross references:


(1) ADSS 8.324, 326.


(2) ADSS 8.332.