ADSS Volume 1 and the Summer of 1939

Reading my way through the first volume of ADSS and putting the documents into the wider context of the efforts to prevent another European war has been insightful.

1. The Holy See was well informed about nearly all aspects of European and North American diplomacy.  Reports from the major European capitals were mostly accurate and nuanced.  Vatican diplomats were skilled practitioners of their craft and nearly all had regular access to the corridors of power, as well as often being sought after as "men of influence".  In the months leading to the war, the Vatican was informed as to the developments of most diplomatic proposals, counter-proposals, propaganda, overtures made to the Soviet Union by the British and French as well as the Germans, and of the growing unease that war was inevitable.  Of all the "players" in the field at this time I believe the Holy See was arguably the best informed.  This did not change after September 1939.

2. From many quarters in Europe, including Germany, as well as the USA, Pope Pius XII was seen as someone of great moral influence whose voice and opinion was sought after.  This is not to be confused with heeding the voice of the Pope - he was just as readily ignored - but Pius' views were asked.  There is a near consensus that the Pope was the most significant person to speak on peace in Europe, a voice of moderation and, most significantly, a voice above politics and power systems.

3. Pius XII's attempts at brokering peace in the months before the outbreak of the war were regarded positively by the European powers, including Germany.  However, the limits of papal power were obvious when papal proposals ran up against national interests.  Already there was criticism that Pius' silence in the face of the Italian invasion of Albania and the ever-increasing anti-Catholic actions of the Nazis, his enthusiastic message to Franco at the end of the Spanish Civil War and seeming lack of interest in an ecumenical prayer crusade for peace.  The Vatican argued that the pope must remain above all political matters; and Catholic teaching in 1939 was not in favour of joint prayer with the "separated brethren".

4. Within the first months of Pius' pontificate there are the beginnings of a relationship with President Roosevelt that would endure until FDR's death in 1945.  

5. Of all the Vatican diplomats, Cesare Orsenigo in Germany appears to have been the weakest.  Orsenigo's reports convey much information that suggests a sympathy for the German government outside of matters of particular relevance to the Church.  The nuncio also appears to have shown willingness to accept German news reports as reliable even to the point of advising Rome that there was no likelihood of war despite Polish "provocations" on the border.  In Italy the Pope's personal contact with Il Duce, Fr Tacchi Venturi reported the opposite and quoted directly from Mussolini.  Nuncio Borgongini Duca reported the opposite from Mussolini's son-in-law and Foreign Minister, Galeazzo Ciano.

6. As hopes for a peace conference faded, the attention of the diplomats turned to the increasing tension between Poland and Germany.  Cardinal Maglione advised the nuncios in France and Germany that he had sent instructions to Nuncio Cortesi in Warsaw asking the Poles to be prudent in their relations with Germany.

7. As summer progressed the Vatican grew more and more concerned at the likelihood of war.  Pleas were made to Poland to be "reasonable" and "moderate" and the Vatican listened closely to all proposals to resolve the question of Danzig and The Corridor.

8. There are occasional quirky moments.  Nuncio Valerio Valeri was convinced that anti-Catholic and anti-papal feeling in France came from Freemasonry.

ADSS 5.465 Joint request for a Papal Condemnation of Nazi crimes

By late summer 1942 the diplomats living inside the Vatican decided to approach their governments and ask for permission to lodge individual statements requesting a papal condemnation of German atrocities.  The governments agreed and on 12 September the Belgian and Polish ambassadors presented a petition on behalf of eight European governments.  Similar requests were to come from the United States and Brazil.  The statements would be a part of diplomatic life in the Vatican for the rest of the year.

ADSS 5.465 
Adrien Nieuwenhuys, Belgian Ambassador, Casimir Papee, Polish Ambassador to Cardinal Maglione

Reference: AES 6658/42

Location and date: Vatican, 12.09.1942

Summary statement: Belgian and Polish governments request a public papal declaration condemning Nazi excesses.

Language: French

Text:

The undersigned Ambassadors of Belgium and Poland (2) accredited to the Holy See, by order of the respective governments and authorised by the other signatories of the Allied Declaration of 13 January 1942 (3) have the honour to inform your reverend Eminence the following:

“The Belgian Government, the French National Committee, the Governments of Luxembourg, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia having jointly examined the situation, that is, the increasing violations of international law, including acts of oppression and terror in the territories occupied by their enemies.  These acts have recently taken effect and form an expansion among those who feat that the occupation regime is coating the still more inhuman character which may now range to the extermination of some populations.

Anxious to avoid as far as possible making life for the people of the invaded territories more terrible than those who have already been so hard hit, and to escape the relentless pressure exercised against them, the aforementioned governments have decided to appeal to His Holiness, whose voice can not fail to have a profound echo in our consciences.  For this purpose they are able to bring to the attention of His Holiness some details concerning recent facts which would render his making this compelling call.(4)

The aforementioned Governments dare to hope that His Holiness sensitive to so many present horrors and future threats would raise his voice to help save countless innocent victims. (5)

Cross references: 

(1) Adrien Nieuwenhuys

(2) Casimir Papée.  See ADSS 5.449 for the first step of the Polish government.

(3) Reference to the inter-allied declaration against war crimes signed in London at St James’ Palace on 13.01.1942.  See FRUS 1942.1, p 45.

(4) A booklet entitled “Situation in the Occupied Countries”.  The booklet gave summaries of information provided by the Governments of Belgium, France, Greece, Luxembourg, Norway, Netherlands, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.  On the first page was the stamp showing the authority of the “Allied Commission for the Punishment of War Crimes” and the date – July 1942.  Tardini noted that it had been “VSP” – “seen by the Holy Father”.

(5) the document was presented to Domenico Tardini by the two ambassadors, who, after reading it, asked him to bring it to the attention of the Pope and Cardinal Maglione.  (Note of Tardini AES 6658/42)

ADSS 5.449 Casimir Papee to Maglione Polish request for a papal protest

Within a few weeks the pressure on the Vatican to make a vocal protest against German atrocities was making itself felt.  This document of Polish Ambassador, Casimir Papee was one of the most explicit documents presented to the Holy See.  Papee did not mince his words.  Poland he said was faced with "biological extermination" and the country did not understand why the Pope appeared to say nothing.

ADSS 5.449 

Casimir Papée, Polish Ambassador to Cardinal Maglione.

Reference: Nr 122/SA/192 (AES 6657/42)

Location and date: Vatican, 27.08.1942

Summary statement: The Polish government requests a declaration from the Pope condemning the Nazi crimes perpetrated against Poland

Language: French

Text:

By order of my Government I have the honor to present to Your Eminence a memorandum included and requests Your Eminence to agree to present it, according to the intentions of my Government, to the paternal attention of the Sovereign Pontiff.  My Government is obliged to enumerate the particular crimes committed by the Germans in Poland and known by the Holy See by the many preceding communications.(1) These characteristics and acts are well known and notorious and of which we cannot be ignorant. The voice of the Holy Father, raised in favour of Poland, could not worsen the situation of the Poles, but, on the contrary, it could slow down the fury of the Germans, or at least of certain Germans.

Aide-mémoire

After the recent information, detailed and absolutely certain, obtained from Poland by the Polish Government, terrorism, exerted against the Polish population by the occupation forces, is enormously increased within the last months and it continues to grow. Mass arrests, tortures, imprisonment in forced labour and concentration camps, farms set on fire with the families of the farmers, who were prevented to leave the burning houses, the murder of those who run away, shooting the innocent population by tens and hundreds without sparing women or children, capital punishment applied for trivial reasons – these are the means by which the Germans occupy themselves, with ever-increasing measures, with the express aim to possibly exterminate the greatest number of Poles.

In this situation the Polish Government addresses the Holy Father to obtain His assistance and protection for Poland and so raise his voice in defense of the most sacred principles and fundamentals of Christian morals, constantly here in Poland. Such an intervention is essential.  In addition to the terrorism, there is a parallel of false propaganda growing in Poland: the Germans spread it with the perfidy and insistence.  The purpose of this propaganda is to convince the Poles that the Holy Father’s guarded silence indicates he is indifferent to their fate and the fate of the Polish Nation. Poles, under these tragic conditions and in spite of their great attachment to their faith, are not uninfluenced, in certain measure, by this enemy propaganda, especially when the voice of the Holy Father is not heard. The enemy with impunity has crushed all natural laws and morals; they destroyed, in very great part, the hierarchy of Church; they prevent that which remains in their attempts to perform their pastoral duties; they commit sacrileges. All that must produce, especially in the less-educated masses, an impression which facilitates an acceptance of this iniquitous propaganda; people could think that the enemy, who with material force, has perhaps, also a moral fibre, to which nothing can, or does not want, to oppose an explicit judgment to him. This lack of judgment clarifies, after the German thesis, and would be equivalent to approval. While educated and enthusiastic Catholics have more the same force to oppose German propaganda, because they do not know how to explain why the voice of the Supreme Moral authority in the world does not raise the voice of the Vatican in defense of the Polish Nation at the time, where the extermination of the Poles arrives at paroxysm. The Polish clergy does not find any more, in these circumstances, the means to react and dismiss with suitable arguments.

Biological extermination, which threatens a larger part that never of the Polish Nation, as well as the propaganda, which aims to remove with the Poles any hope of help and questions them truths feelings of the Head of the Church towards Poland, can cause if a judgment licenses is not to them opposite one spiritual crisis of the Nation which, now, always resisted with so much of courage to the enemies of the Church. If Poland conforms with its historical mission, of which it is proud, must remain the nation most faithful to the Church and to continue to be an outpost, it is not necessary that its population is materially exterminated, and it is necessary that its spirit is constant with respect to contrary temptations with the faith. The Polish Government, conscious of the responsibility which fall on him, and with full knowledge of the gravity of the historic moment for the Nation which needs the powerful moral means for to be saved from these dangers, asks the Holy Father by requesting he address, and raise, in his immense kindness, his voice for Poland. This voice will be heard by everyone; it would carry help to the tortured spirit of the Poles; it would destroy the impious propaganda useful to the Germans to sow doubt in the Polish People and, finally, it would be a brake to the enemies of Poland and the Church in the continuation of the senseless murders which destroy the Polish Nation.(2)

References:

(1) Cf ADSS 5.414

(2) This sentiment echoes much of the letter of Karol Radonski (1881-1951) (Włocławek) to Cardinal Maglione in ADSS 3.2.410.

ADSS 5.416 Osborne to Tardini UK opinion on Vatican

This document was referred to in the previous document when Tardini made his notes about the visit of D'Arcy Osborne.  The position of the UK Foreign Office reflected a more widespread attitude among significant sections of the Allied governments that Pope Pius XII was either bullied into silence by the Italian government or there was something more sinister afoot.  Tardini's note at the end indicates that Pius was aware of these sentiments.

ADSS 5.416 

D’Arcy Osborne to Monsignor Domenico Tardini

Reference: AES 5682/42

Location and Date: Vatican, 21.07.1942

Summary Statement: Opinion in the Foreign Office, London, concerning the position of the Vatican in the war.

Language: English

Text:

I would not like you to think that we are not aware that the Pope is being Criticised by the Axis Powers, but you have summed up our chief criticism in the last words of your dispatch, namely, “the endeavour of the Vatican to maintain a precarious equilibrium outside of and above the war”.  In order to do this we feel that ever since the entry of Italy into the war the Pope has more and more assimilated himself to the status of a sovereign of a small neutral State in the geographical neighbourhood of Axis Powers, and, for worldly rather than spiritual reasons, has allowed himself, like others, to be bullied.  In short, we feel that His Holiness is not putting up a very god fight to retain his moral and spiritual leadership, when he should realize that in Hitler’s new world there will be no room for the Catholic religion and that if the Papacy remains silent, the free nations may find that they have little power to arrest the anticlericalism which may follow the war.

21.07.42: Note by Tardini:

This note was delivered to me today by the English Minister; which declares that it is a draft of a private letter of a friend [of Osborne’s], but which reflects the mentality of the Foreign Office.

22.07.42. Seen by the Holy Father.

ADSS 5.414 Tardini notes - calls for a papal protest

On 14 January 1942 the Allies issued a statement promising to prosecute those responsible for German war atrocities.  Many of the governments of countries occupied by Germany hoped that the Holy See would support initiatives to condemn German crimes.  From the July 1942 growing pressure was applied on the pope through ambassadors in the Vatican.  Domenico Tardini received the representatives of Poland, the United Kingdom and Brazil along with their requests for a papal condemnation.  Tardini's notes indicate a sense of frustration that the position of the Holy See was not understood, namely that the quiet "behind the scenes" efforts undertaken by the Vatican could be put at risk if the pope spoke out more stridently or specifically.   The sense of frustration grew worse as will be seen in the next few documents.

ADSS 5.414 

Tardini notes.

Reference: AES 5493/42

Location and date: Vatican 20.07.1942

Summary statement: Papal statements made in favour of Poland.

Language: Italian

Text:

The Polish ambassador (1) came to see me and asked, for the umpteenth time, that the Holy See say a public word in favour of the Poles and against the terrible persecution to which they are subjected.  For the umpteenth time I reminded him of what His Holiness has done and said for the Poles in Poland and of his support for them in the midst of very serious difficulties they struggle with.  To this end the Holy See undertakes discreet and hidden activities, but still effective.  To speak openly too often (what has been said has been more than enough) could severely compromise the valuable activity of the Holy See.

21.07.1942

The English minister (2) came to see me to speak about – more or less – the same thing.  I repeated to him more or less the same things. It is however, distressing to see this coalition of diplomats who have enjoyed the hospitality of the Holy See, who are treated so well, who can see the day to day superiority of the Holy See, all in agreement and all stubborn in a conviction and false attitude which is offensive to those who have treated them so well and kindly.

24.07.1942

The Brazilian ambassador (3) came to see me.  He had received (said) a pro-memoria from the Ambassador of Poland.  He also contents that the Holy See should speak.  I repeated the same explanations.  All this shows that the Pole is setting up the machinery.

Cross references: 

(1) Casimir Papée (1879-1979), Polish Ambassador to the Holy See 1939-1944

(2) D’Arcy Osborne (1884-1964), UK Minister to the Holy See 1935-1947

(3) Ildebrando Pompeii Pinto Accioly (1888-1962), Brazilian Ambassador to the Holy See 1939-1944.

Pius XII and related news.

Some interesting news items from around the world on related issues to Pius XII.

Emeritus Professor Ira Sharkansky from Hebrew University writes on FDR, the Vatican, and the Roman Catholic Church in America, 1933-1945, edited by David B. Woolner and Richard G. Kurial (Palgrave: 2003) in the San Diego Jewish World.  It is an interesting article on a book that has been around for nearly a decade.  Sharkansky points out, yet again, how important getting history into context in the work of those of us concerned with describing and interpreting the past.

Ira Sharkansky

In the ongoing discussions between the Vatican and the ultra-traditionalist Society of St Pius X, Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews and a member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith made it clear that acceptance of all the teachings of Vatican II is essential.  One of the areas of great concern where statements made by the SSPX leadership that some elements of Vatican II were optional, including Nostra Aetate which repudiated centuries of Judeophobia, supercessionism and the charge of Deicide against the Jews.  Cardinal Koch stated without ambiguity that acceptance of Nostra Aetate was mandatory if any reconciliation with the Church was to take place.  It has been a matter of public record that the SSPX has held a controversial position on Jews and Judaism including the presence of the Holocaust denialist, Richard Williamson who has made statements accusing Jews of deicide.

Cardinal Kurt Koch

And finally, Ed Michaels from Texas, has penned a thoughtful reflection on the difficult question of the moral responsibility of Pius XII during the Holocaust.  He reaches his conclusion via several paths exploring the dilemmas confronting the pope and Catholicism, and while the final assessment is negative, it is one that Michaels has reached through a serious look at some of the complex issues.  I found Michaels' line of argument sound and ethical.