ADSS 1.174 & 175 Giuseppe Sensi to Malgione: Pope's message to Swizterland & news of mobilisation

ADSS 1.174 Giuseppe Sensi (1), Secretary Nunciature Switzerland, to Luigi Maglione

Reference: Telegram number 45, (AES 6642/39)

Location and date: Berne, 01.09.1939; received Rome 02.09.1939.

Summary statement: Nuncio has given Pope’s message to the Government.

Language: Italian

Text:

I have communicated the Holy Father’s message contained in yesterday’s coded message. (2)

Report follows: (3)

Notes: 

(1) Giuseppe Sensi (1907-2001), Charge d’affaires, Nunciature Switzerland.

(2) ADSS 1.161

'(3) ADSS 1.175

Giuseppe Sensi

ADSS 1.175 Giuseppe Sensi, Secretary of the Swiss Nunciature, to Luigi Maglione, Sec State.

Reference: Report number 6678, (AES 6256/39(

Location and date: Berne, 01.09.1939

Summary statement: Report.  Federal Council, which has decided to mobilise, acknowledges the papal appeal, but given Switzerland’s delicate position, it is unable to support it.

Language: Italian

Text:

I have not failed to bring to the knowledge of the Federal Council the contents of your Eminence’s message of yesterday and of the Holy Father’s message in favour of peace quoted in it. (1) I know that the Honourable M. Motta (2) has examined it with his colleagues at the extraordinary meeting of the Federal Council which has taken place today, and during which, among other things, the general mobilisation was decided.

Soon afterwards, M. Motta called to beg me to communicate to Your Eminence that the Federal Council has taken cognisance of the noble message of the Holy Father with the greatest sympathy, and heartily associated itself with the August Pontiff’s action.  Then he gave me to understand that owing to the very strict neutrality of Switzerland and to the delicate position in which she finds herself and also to the worsening of events, the Federal Council was not, unfortunately, in a position to do anything to support the action of the Holy Father.

Finally M. Motta begged me to convey to you his warm thanks for the kind communication that Your Eminence was good enough to make to the Federal Council.

Notes: 

(1) ADSS 1.161

(2) Giuseppe Motta (1871-1940), Member of the Federal Council of Switzerland 1911-40.

ADSS 1.16 Maglione to Bernardini, Switzerland: nuncio's report received.

ADSS 1.16 Luigi Maglione, Sec State to Filippo Bernardini, Switzerland.

Reference: AES 2145/39

Location and date: Vatican, 30.04.1939

Summary statement: Nuncio’s information on the international situation has been appreciated.

Language: Italian

Text:

I have received your report Number 5862 of 16.04.1939 (1) in which your Excellency relates two conversations which he had with Mr Motta and Mr Hervé Alphand, French Ambassador in Berne.

I have brought this to the attention of the Holy Father the interesting news sent to us and I think your Excellency for the diligent way in which you are keeping the Holy See informed.

I take this opportunity to acknowledge receipt of the other two detailed reports – 5841 and 5886 – dated 06.04 and 20.04 on the subject “Repercussions in Switzerland of the Internal Situation” (2) and “Diplomatic Relations between Switzerland and Russia” (3) and I assure your Excellency that I have read them with interest …

Notes: 

(1) See ADSS 1.10.

(2) Bernardini had sent a copy of “Appeal of the Federal Council” published in the Journal de Geneve.

(3) Not published in ADSS.

ADSS 1.11 Filippo Bernradini, Switzerland to Cardinal Maglione - Franco-Italian relations

1.11 Filippo Bernardini, Switzerland to Luigi Maglione, Secretary of State

Reference: Report 5862 (AES 2145/39)

Location and date: Berne, 16.04.1939

Summary statement: Conversation between the Nuncio and French Ambassador on the possibility of bringing France and Italy together.

Language: Italian

Text:

I think it my duty to report to your Eminence two short conversations that I had with the Honourable Mr Motta (1) and Mr Hervé Alphand, the French Ambassador. (2)

Mr Motta spoke to me about the international situation.  According to Mr Motta, Swiss public opinion was shocked by the occupation of Albania; more by the circumstances in which it was carried out than by the political import of the event.  The fact that it was carried out on Good Friday has raised a lot of indignation amongst Catholics and Protestants. (3) He confirmed to me, however, that, notwithstanding all this, he was still moderately optimistic – as he stated in the Federal Council – regarding the near future, especially if relations between France and Italy improved.  On his own initiative, during a conversation with the French Ambassador he suggested that it was imperative immediately to negotiate between the two nations, and he expressed the opinion that a mediation of the Holy See, where both France and Italy can count on sincere friends in the person of the Holy Father and of his Secretary of State, could be most useful.  Mr Motta assured me that the two French Ambassadors in Rome, including the Ambassador accredited to the Holy See who is reputed not to be too compliant, had already pointed out the suitability of immediate negotiations to the Quai d’Orsay. (4)

During my courtesy call to Mr Alpahand to thank him for the sympathy expressed by him at the occasion of my recent bereavement, we spoke about the same subject. (5) I confirmed to the Ambassador that nothing would please the Holy Father more than a reconciliation between the two Catholic countries, an event which would fit so well into the plan for peace pout forward so many times by the Pope.  The Ambassador replied that his Government knew that it could rely on the valuable assistance of the Holy See, but saw a serious obstacle to opening negotiations in the fact that French public opinion was decidedly hostile to Italy and this lack of trust had been caused by the latest events.  He added that, as Italy had denounced the 1935 Agreements, it was up to Italy and not France to put forward new proposals. (6)

I mentioned that, owing to the urgency of finding a solution for the controversial points and the immediate advantage that would benefit both nations, I though that a question of precedence should be a secondary one. I concluded by saying that if a journey from Paris to Rome or from Rome to Paris seemed too long, the parties could meet half-way.  The Ambassador thanked me, and spoke to me about Poland, whose policy is directed by a man who – in his opinion – could not be more anti-French.(7)  And about Spain, he recalled very kindly that I had been right when, months ago, he mentioned that France intended to send a general as Ambassador to Franco. (8) I had remarked that the time for generals in Spain was perhaps past and that an able diplomat would have been better for the task.  As it is so very difficult in present days to foresee the future correctly, I hope your Eminence will forgive me this act of vanity.

Notes: 

(1) Giuseppe Motta (1871-1940), Federal Council (Switzerland) (1911-40) and Head of Political Department (1920-40). Motta was also President of the League of Nations 1924-25.

(2) Charles Hervé Alphand (1879-1942), French Ambassador to Switzerland 1936-40. 

(3) Italy invaded Albania on 07.04.1939 – Good Friday. The country was under Italian control by 12.04.1939.

(4) André François-Poncet (1887-1978) French Ambassador to Italy (1938-40); Francois Charles-Roux (1879-1961) French Ambassador to the Holy See (1932-40).

(5) Bernardini’s uncle Pio Bernardini (1861-1939) had recently died.

(6) Franco-Italian Agreement of 07.01.1935 designed to encircle and limit the potential threat of Germany to the balance of power in Europe. France ceded parts of her African colonies to Italy, redefined the status of Italians in Tunisia, and agreed to allow Italy freedom of action in Ethiopia.

(7) Alpahand’s comment is curious since France and Poland were about to announce a new alliance.  The Kasprzycki-Gamelin Convention was signed on 19.05.1939.  It pledged mutual military support in the event of German aggression.  France ratified the treaty on 04.09.1939, the day after the French Government declared war on Germany.  Nonetheless, French attitudes towards the convention were less than enthusiastic.  Foreign Minister, Georges Bonnet, was keen to keep France out of a war with Germany.

(8) General Henri Philippe Pétain (1856-1951) was appointed French Ambassador to Spain in March 1939.  He remained in Madrid until recalled in May 1940.

ADSS 10.279 Filippo Bernardini (Switzerland) to Luigi Maglione - Hungarian Jews in Auschwitz.

This is one of the first times the name "Auschwitz" appears in ADSS.  The attachment that was not published in ADSS appears to have been a copy of the so-called "Auschwitz Protocols" written by Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler, Slovakian Jews who escaped Birkenau in April 1944.  The transports from Hungary had stopped by this point.  Because of conditions in central and northern Italy, seriously disrupted by the war, the document did not reach Rome until October 1944.  I have found no evidence to suggest any other reason for the lack of reference to the Protocols in ADSS.

ADSS 10.279 Filippo Bernardini to Cardinal Maglione

Reference: Report number 23401 (AES 6993/44)

Location and date: Berne, 28.07.1944

Summary statement: News of the deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz and their extermination.

Language: Italian

Text:

I have the honour to send to your most eminent reverence by way of documentation, the attached report (1) relating to the deportation of the Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz in Upper Silesia and the treatment reserved for them.  I have no way of checking the truth of the information contained in the same, however, I know the person who has reported it well, and have no reason to doubt their sincerity.

I take this opportunity to inform your eminence that in recent days the Swiss press has, on several occasions, emphasised the protests of the Protestant Church over the persecution of the Jews in Hungary and their interest in favour of them.  I am sending a clipping from yesterday’s Lausanne Gazette which returns to this issue. (2)  Evidently various Protestant bodies, in consultation with various Jewish committees want to give it much publicity.  A Hungarian friend pointed out to me that since nothing is published about it in the Catholic press, Swiss public opinion could be induced to believe that the Catholic Church does nothing to help and rescue the Jews. (3)

Cross references: 

(1) The report was based on the disposition made by two Slovak Jews – Rudolf Vrba (originally Walter Rosenburg 1924-2006) and Alfred Wetzler 1918-1988) – deported to Auschwitz and who escaped in April 1944.  The document (four pages in length and not published) arrived after a long journey, and appears to be an abstract in French, of the German original. See ADSS 10.204.  Statistically, the French version omits mention of 50,000 Jews of Lithuania; making the death toll 1,715,000 instead of 1,765,000.

(2) Not published.

(3) See ADSS 10.381.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vrba-Wetzler_report (Accessed 18.03.2012)