ADSS 1.172 Papee to Maglione: Germany has invaded Poland

ADSS 1.172 Casimir Papee, Polish Ambassador to the Holy See, to Luigi Maglione, Sec State.

Reference: AES 6073/39

Location and date: Rome, 01.09.1939

Summary statement: Germany has attacked Poland

Language: French

Text:

Although Poland in agreement with Britain and France has taken part in the British initiative to safeguard the Peace by negotiations, the armies on German soil have penetrated Polish territory, while squadrons of German planes have carried out bombardment of several localities. (1)

Note of Cardinal Maglione (2)

At 13.30hrs on 1 September, the Polish Ambassador made the above official verbal communication to me adding that at 11.00hrs he had been informed by his colleague from Paris that last night [sic] the Germans had started air raids, bombing Gdynia and all the big Polish cities: Warsaw, Krakow, Bielsk, etc., except Vilna.  He assured me that the frontier crossings and aggressions attributed to Polish soldiers are non-existent.

Notes: 

(1) Germany launched its invasion of Poland at 04.45hrs.  Warsaw was bombed at 09.00hrs.  The extent of the invasion became clearer as the hours passed. 

(2) Maglione’s note was written at the bottom of Papee’s note along with his signature.

From the National Catholic Reporter

Polish history throughout the 1930s through to the late 1940s was a bloody and violent narrative that saw over 3 million Polish Jews and an equal number of Polish non-Jews murdered.  To its shame the Catholic Church was a contributor to the widespread cultural acceptance of Judeophobia and even antisemitism.  But, to its credit, the Church also had the highest number of "Righteous among the Nations" who rescued and saved Jews.  The role of Pope Pius XII and the war in Poland is long and very complex, requiring ongoing serious study to disentangle the many layered webs.

In 2005 I visited Poland and Lithuania as part of Yad Vashem sponsored graduate field trip to places of Holocaust significance.  It was one of the most significant journeys I have taken.  One of the things I learned was of the growing number of young(ish) Poles who have come forward over the last ten or so years who have discovered Jewish ancestry and who need to know about that part of their identity that has existed only as a vague memory, if it has existed at all.

The Jagiellonian University in Krakow has one of the largest departments of Jewish studies in Europe with a growing graduate research program that aims at getting students who have discovered Jewish ancestry to uncover, discover and recover the Jewish history of Poland's towns, shtetls and cities.  As far as I am aware, the department's program in this area continues.

This provides an introduction to the article I read on the National Catholic Reporter entitled "Educators revive history of Poland's Jews".   It is very much a "good news" read, even if some of the comments are somewhat indicative of minds that could do with a little opening.