ADSS 1.96 Luigi Maglione notes: Polish German situation worsening

ADSS 1.96 Luigi Maglione - notes

Reference: AES 5378/39, handwritten

Location and date: Vatican, 16.08.1939.

Summary statement: Amb Poland informs Maglione about the notes of protest exchanged between Poland and Germany; Danzig is only a pretext for Germany to go to war against Poland.  Maglione has received information that supports Papée’s argument.  Makes mention that Russia has come to an agreement with Germany for the dismemberment of Poland.  Germany wants the Ukraine and oilfields of Romania.

Language: Italian

Text:

The Polish Ambassador (1) give me the following oral information:

On the 9 August the Reich’s Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs (2) called the Polish Charge d‘Affaires in Berlin (3) and told him that the German Government was surprised at the step taken by the Warsaw Government with the Government of the Free City of Danzig; adding that similar steps were not to be tolerated. (4)

After consulting Marshal Rydz-Smigly (5), the Polish Government, issued instruction on 10 August to the Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs (6) to call the German Charge d’Affaires in Warsaw and to inform him that the Polish Government had exercised its rights and was surprised, too, concerning the step taken in Berlin with the Polish Charge d’Affaires and was obliged to state that it would consider as acts of aggression similar actions carried out by the Reich Government. (7)

The Polish Ambassador also told me that it is known in his country that for Germany the Danzig question is only a pretext: the Reich intends to attack Poland because it wishes to settle itself in Ukraine of reach the Romanian oil wells, and so cannot push the army forward leaving the left flank exposed.  Poland is calm; it awaits the attack with equanimity and is certain to be assisted by the Western Powers.

The Ambassador is not afraid of complications from the Russian side.

News from other sources confirm that the Danzig question is only a pretext for Germany who intends to carry out a war of extermination [sterminio] against Poland.  It is believed that they have reached an agreement with Russia for the partition of poor Poland.

In Berlin there is the delusion that neither England nor France will intervene for Poland.

Notes: 

(1) Casimir Papée (1889-1979), Polish Ambassador to the Holy See 1939-58.

(2) Ernst von Weizsäcker (1882-1951), German Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs 1938-43.

(3) Stefan Lubomirski (1898-1948), Polish Charge d’Affaires Berlin (1933-39).

(4) DGFP, Series D, volume 7, n5, pp304.  The German government complained about Polish protests against German interference with Polish customs officers in Danzig.  The German government denied any wrong doing on its part and accused the Polish government of escalating tension.

(5) Edward Rydz-Smigly (1886-1947), Marshall of Poland 1936-41.

(6) Miroslaw Arciszewski (1892-1963), Polish Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs 1938-39.

(7) Johann von Wühlisch (1889-1943) German Charge d’Affaires, Warsaw.  Appalled by German atrocities in occupied Poland, Wühlisch worked with colleague Rudolf von Scheliha (1897-1942) rescuing Jews and non-Jews.  Both men were eventually arrested, tried for treason and executed.

ADSS 10.338 Casimir Papee, Poland to Domenico Tardini - Extermination camp KL Birkenau

Casimir Papee, Polish Ambassador to the Holy See, to Domenico Tardini, Secretariat of State.

This was not the first time Papee had written to the Secretariat of State about Auschwitz-Birkenau.  In both cases the Polish ambassador was well informed.  Three days after the document was written the Sonderkommando at Birkenau rose in revolt.

Tardini's response at the end of the document seems surprisingly tame given the amount of information the Vatican had regarding the extermination camps.  News of KL Majdanek had received enormous attention after the Red Army liberated it in late July 1944.  It also seems a rather desperate act on Tardini's part to expect that the nuncio in Germany, Cesare Orsenigo would be able to do much.

Reference: Nr 708/SA/141 (AES 6345/44)

Location and date: Rome, 04.10.1944

Summary statement: Information on the extermination of prisoners in KL Brzezinka (Birkenau)

Language: French

Text:

On instruction from my government, and in response to my note of 25 September 1944, number 708/SA/141 (1), I have the honour to send your reverence the following information:

Among the concentration camps in Poland, including prisoners intended by the Germans for extermination is Birkenau, near Oswiecim. 16,725 men and 39,125 women are being held there.  In agreement with the orders he has received, the commander of the camp, like commanders in other camps, has already taken all measures to kill all the prisoners in as short a time as possible.  He has written orders from his superiors to put the execution into action.  Established precedents do not permit us any illusions about the implementation of the monstrous plan.  The Polish underground did not have the means to frustrate this crime the Germans are preparing.  They request the joint action of the governments of Great Britain and the United States of America to make it their business to save thousands of lives. (2)

Tardini note:

05.10.1944

In responding you must find a way to say a good word for Poland … the Holy See can not take part in the sorrows and trials etc … (It is good that the battered nation feels that the Holy See is with it.) (3)

Cross references: 

(1) Not published.  See ADSS 10.330, note 1.

(2) Tardini sent the news to Cesare Orsenigo (telegram nr 908 on 06.10.1944, AES 6345/44) hoping that the news was false, and that the Nuncio “act promptly and made enquiries about it”.

(3) See ADSS 10.349.

Ambassador Casimir Papee

ADSS 10.241 Harold Tittmann to Luigi Maglione - Hungarian Jews

Between 1940 and 1946 Harold Tittmann (1893-1981) was assistant to Myron Taylor, President Roosevelt's personal representative to the Holy See.  While Taylor was more often than not absent from Rome, Tittmann remained in the Vatican throughout the war years.  His account of that time, Inside the Vatican of Pius XII is a valuable insight into life "on the inside."  

Harold Tittmann and Pius XII

ADSS 10.241 Chargé d’affaires Harold Tittmann to Cardinal Maglione

Reference: AES 3980/44

Location and date: Vatican, 24.06.1944

Summary statement: The War Refugee Board reports on the imminent massacre of the Jews of Hungary and requests papal intervention.

Language: English

Text:

I have been instructed by my Government in a telegram dated June 13,1944 to deliver the following message to Your Eminence form the War Refugee Board, Washington.

“We know His Holiness has been sorely grieved by the wave of hate which has engulfed Europe and the consequent mass enslavement, persecution and slaughter of helpless man [sic] women and children. His Holiness, we also know, has laboured unceasingly to reinculcate a decent regard for the dignity of man activated by great compassion for the sufferings of a large portion of mankind.  The tireless efforts of His Holiness to alleviate the lot of the persecuted, the hunted and the outcast are also know to us.  We are certain His Holiness is aware of the deep feeling of abhorrence around in the American people by the mass deportations, persecutions, enslavement and slaughter in the Balkans, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Norway, Poland and elsewhere.  We are confident that His Holiness is also aware of the deep concern of the Government of the United States relative to these reversions to usages of ancient barbarism and of the constant effort to prevent their recurrence which it has made.

We believe it is appropriate, because of the common concern of the Holy See and the government and people of the United States with such matters, to call to the Holy See’s attention the apparently authentic reports that the present authorities in Hungary have undertaken to persecute the 800,000 Jews in Hungary and are planning their mass slaughter both in Hungary and after deportation to Poland merely because they are Jews.  The authorities and people of Hungary have been warned by the government of the United States of the material consequences that the perpetration of such inhuman acts of barbarism will entail.  It is both timely and fitting we believe that the moral values involved and the spiritual consequences that must flow from indulgence in the persecutions and mass murder of helpless men, women and children be brought to the attention of the Hungarian authorities and people.  We earnestly hope, therefore, that His Holiness may find it appropriate to express Himself on this subject to the authorities and people of Hungary, great numbers of whom profess spiritual adherence to the holy See personally by radio through the Nuncio and clergy in Hungary as well as through a representative of the Holy See who might for that purpose be specially dispatched to Hungary”. (1)

Note of Domenico Tardini:

25.06.1944.  Seen by the Holy Father.

Notes:

(1) See FRUS 1944, I, pp 1068-69.

ADSS 10.225 Amleto Cicognani (USA) to Luigi Maglione

One train left Hungary for Auschwitz with 1447 Jews on board.

ADSS10.225 Amleto Cicognani (USA) to Cardinal Maglione

Reference: Telegram 2098 (AES 3586/44)

Location and date: Washington DC, 09.06.1944 @ 12.40 (Received Rome @ 21.00)

Summary statement: Request for intervention for the Hungarian Jews.

Language: Italian

Text:

Four of the most important Rabbis representing “The Emergency Committee for the Salvation of the Jews of Europe” addressing a heartfelt plea to the Holy Father.  They know with certainty that the extermination of the Jews of Hungary has commenced and is continuing.  They are about one million.  The Rabbis beseech His Holiness to make a public appeal in the strongest terms that the Jews be spared. The Hungarian people, predominantly Catholic, will be impressed by such a high appeal and there is confidence that they will cooperate with bishops, priests and good lay people, in order that the government does not continue this slaughter.  This committee understands what it asks (or requests) but are convinced that only the words of the Pope will obtain a good effect.

Attachment: Cardinal Maglione to Angelo Rotta.

Telegram number 244 (AES 3800/44)

Vatican, 17.06.1944

(Italian)

Following my telegram number 240. (3)

According to reports received by the Holy See from the Apostolic Delegation in Washington, there is an “extermination” of Hungarian Jews. 

I ask your Excellency to let me know promptly whether this news is the truth and whether the episcopate has made a collective appeal to the government for non-Aryans and with what result. (4)

Notes:

(1) See ADSS 10.207.  Arthur Hughes (1902-1949), caretaker Vicar Apostolic of Egypt, telegraphed from Jerusalem on 09.06.1944: “Chief Rabbi Holy Land felicitates Holy Father preservation Rome, begs exhort cardinal Seredi continue work protection rescue Jewish in great immediate danger”. (Telegram 189; AES 4428/44)

(2) Domenico Tardini annotated (on a separate page): “14.06.1944: telegraph Hungary and whether the bishops have anything for the Jews … (before the Holy See does anything directly)”

(3) 29.05.1944. AES 3285/44.

4. See ADSS 10.233

ADSS 4.393 Peter II to Pius XII - plight of the Serbs

From his exile in Jerusalem, King Peter II of Yugoslavia (1923-1970) (reigned 1934-1945) wrote to the pope appealing for his help for the Serbs now under German and Croatian control.  According to the king his countrymen were facing a terrible future.  Anti-Serb laws had been passed in much the same way that anti-Jewish laws had been.  The comparison was telling for its bluntness.  The Croatians and Germans were intent on wiping out Serbs in much the same way they appeared to be eliminating Jews.  Indeed the king used the phrase "systematic extermination" to describe what was happening.

This is yet another indicator of how much news was reaching beyond Europe with details that were more or less accurate.

ADSS 4.393 King Peter II, in exile in Jerusalem to Pope Pius XII.

Reference: AES 4931/41

Location and date: 08.06.1941, Jerusalem

Summary statement:  The King describes the Nazi terror in Yugoslavia; atrocities against the Serbs; Croats ‘systematically exterminating’ Serbs and Jews.  Appeals to Pope

Language: French

Text:

Barely have two months passed since the German armed aggression against Yugoslavia and we have already reached new dimensions inflicted on the Serbian people in the occupied provinces of Yugoslavia that have revolted the civilised world.

In Banat, in the north (1), occupying German troops have hanged and engaged in mass shootings of the Serbian population.

The most atrocious terror has been the forced abandonment of homes and country by tens of thousands of Serbs in the shortest time and in the most complete destitution.

In southern Serbia the Bulgarian occupation forces have massacred many Serbs among them, and without any mercy, are priests and teachers.  Those who escaped the massacres had to leave their homes.

The so-called independent kingdom of Croatia (2) Serbs are doomed to systematic extermination. To make this most brutal act, so odious to the civilised world, more effective and the extermination quicker, the law against the Jews is also applied to the Serbs.  Reduced to the level of a lower race, Serbs are deprived by law of the means for human existence.  The lives of over two million Serbs who have lived in these countries for centuries are imperilled in the most barbarous way.  Never before has a Christian people been reduced and persecuted to this point by an authority that also prides itself in being Christian. (3)

I appeal to Your Holiness that you take my people who suffer such unjust violence, under the goodness of your protection and authority.

Peter II, King of Yugoslavia.

Notes:

(1) The territory of Banat, bordering Romania, was ceded to Serbia but was under German military governorship for the duration of the war.

(2) The proclamation of an independent Croatia took place on 10.04.1941; the proclamation of the Kingdom of Croatia took place on 16-18.05.1941.

(3) Yad Vashem estimates the total number of Serbian dead during the war reached upwards of 500,000.  In addition another 250,000 were expelled from their homes and about 200,000 forcibly converted to Catholicism.

Of 82,500 Jews in Yugoslavia in 1941 only 14,000 (17%) survived the war.

 Peter II of Yugoslavia