Pope Francis has set out to herald
a new era for the Catholic Church. An era of transparency. He has opened the Vatican Archives and
given access to Pius XII’s files. One of the most controversial
pontiffs in history. Pius XII was silent as millions of
Jews were killed by the Nazi regime. Because of his silence, some called
him Hitlerś Pope. For others, Pius XII was a saint, who secretly
saved the lives of thousands of Jews. Finally, the Vatican files about Pius
XII are accessible and shed new light on his silence during the Holocaust.
The time for truth has come. Rome, 2nd of March 2020. On this day, the documents from the
papacy of Pius XII were declassified. Millions of files from 1939 to 1958,
secret in the Vatican for decades, are finally accessible to
researchers and historians. German historian, Hubert Wolf, was one
of the first to see the documents. The first thing everyone naturally
associates with the Vatican Secret Archives is Dan Brown’s novel. Some
kind of hermetically sealed glass cubes in which archivists regulate the
oxygen supply from outside. Absolute nonsense. The Vatican archive
is an archive like any other. Although we have actually been working
regularly in the Vatican Archives for 20 years now, it was of
course something special, because one simply has a
whole range of questions. What did the Pope know about
the mass murder of Jews? When? Who informed him? Did he
believe what he was told? Pope Francis had announced this
decision one year earlier. Andrea Tornielli is director of the
Vatican news outlet and one of the men closest to the Holy Father. According to him, this decision
reveals to him Francis' commitment, to a transparent Church. The Church does not fear the truth.
Of course, Pope Francis holds firm to this principle. Let us also
consider the great scandal — the struggle against abuse. He
has insisted that there be full transparency. His decision to open the
archives can be seen in this light. Since his election, Pope Francis
mission has been: to restore credibility to an institution crave
from sexual and financial scandals. Pope Francis’ choice was to
open the doors of the Church. There should be no more room
for secrecy in the Vatican. Even inconvenient truths have
to be confronted in public. The opening of the Archives was big
news, as Pius XII is still a matter of heated discussion between
Catholics and Jews across the world. Pope Francis' decision to open
the so-called Secret Files of Pope Pius XII is certainly
an encouraging sign. Later, one can revisit the question
of a possible beatification and then jointly recognize: yes, this was a man
who really did do all that he could. Or that he was a pope who perhaps
could have done more or done things differently - should have acted
or could have acted differently. Pius XII’S reputation started to
become controversial in the 1960s, when a theatre play, “The
Deputy”, exposed the Pope’s silence during the
Shoah, the Holocaust. As international protests broke out,
the then Pope, Paul VI, decided to make thousands of documents from
the Second World War period public. For many historians though,
this collection was incomplete and Pius XII has remained a mystery. Pius XII was born in 1876 under
the name Eugenio Pacelli. At the age of 23, he
entered the priesthood. After rising swiftly in the curia, in 1917 Pacelli became the
Pope’s ambassador in Munich. Church Historian Stefan Samerski
studied the exchange of letters between the Vatican, also known as the
Holy See, and its representatives in Germany. Many of these letters
were written by the future Pius XII. When Pacelli came to Bavaria, he
obviously came to a Catholic state and was welcomed very joyfully and
warmly. However, the political situation was - at the end
of 1918, beginning of 1919 — exactly what Pacelli did not want. In 1918, the first World War came to
an end. Defeated, the German Empire collapsed and amid the turmoil, the
socialists tried to seize power. The situation was particularly tense
Iin Munich, where Pacelli lived. A socialist republic was proclaimed. He was attacked by representatives of
this socialist republic in Munich. They came to the Vatican embassy
and wanted to confiscate his car. He knew about communism from his
studies, he knew that communism is not compatible with Catholic teaching.
But above all, he knew communism from this experience in Munich.
“They put a gun to my head, my life was in danger. And
they created total chaos.” In 1925, Pacelli was
transferred to Berlin. In the capital, he negotiated a
contract on relations between State and Church with the German
government. The “Reichskonkordat”. Suddenly, it was a whole new political
system. What had been a monarchy now became a republic. In this context,
the relationship between church and state had to be completely
reorganized. This concerned holiday regulations... universities,
training of priests... It touched all areas that had to be
regulated between church and state. Father Gumpel is probably one of
the few living witnesses who has personal memories of
Pacelliś time in Germany. I personally met the future Pope Pius
XII for the first time when I was very young. Well, when I was
six or seven years old. We exchanged a few words. Later I
got to know him, and I noticed that an aura of spirituality
emanated from him that I had never seen with other people like him. I dealt with later popes too.
Private audiences with Paul VI, John Paul II and John XXIII and so on.
They were all great men and important personalities, good
people, but I must honestly say that nobody made such an
impression on me as Pius XII. For years, Father Gumpel advocated
for the beatification of Pius XII. In the course of this process, he
had a unique opportunity to look at the secret documents in
the Vatican archive. In those days, during the Second World
War, thousands of letters arrived in the Vatican. They were
answered whenever possible He was not someone who
made easy choices. Before making a decision, he always
wanted to study a problem from all sides, to make a mistake. So, he
was careful, and that was right. That's good. The process of making Pius XII
a saint was started in 1965. All that is missing to finalize it,
is proof of a miraculous healing, as required by the regulations. Pope Francis has announced
that the process is on hold. An even bigger obstacle to Pius XII’s
beatification is the controversy over his relationship
with the Nazi regime. This began in the 1930s. Back then, Pacelli was appointed State
Secretary: the most powerful man in the Vatican,
after the Pope. At the same time,
Germany was witnessing the rise of the National Socialist
party and its leader: Adolf Hitler. At first Eugenio Pacelli knew nothing
about Hitler. He even wrote to his colleague, the Vatican Ambassador
in Vienna. He asked him for information about "un certo" Hitler,
a certain Hitler. He also never met Hitler in person. Back then, he did
not see Hitler as a great danger. In January 1933, Hitler
became German Chancellor. Just one month later, after
the burning of the Reichstag, the persecution of German Jews began. In April, a Jewish woman named
Edith Stein wrote a letter to the Pope that historians found in
the Vatican archives years ago. Edith Stein, a Jewish woman with an
advanced philosophical education, turned to the Pope with an urgent
request. She asked him to speak out publicly and loudly against
the persecution of the Jews. We should keep in mind that Stein was
Jewish, and converted to Catholicism. We know now from Pacelli's
notes that this letter from Edith Stein was actually
presented to the Pope. And then there was a reply,
which is actually embarrassing. Pacelli wrote to the Archabbot who
had presented the letter to the Holy Father, he had seen it and offered
his encouragement and gave the the papal blessing. But to
her request — no mention. A historian at the Ecole Francaise in
Rome is researching the relationship between Jews and Catholics at
that time. Nina Valbousquets. Pacelli's main concern was the
protection of the Catholics and the Catholic Church
in a Nazi Germany. For the Vatican, Jewish
problems were not a priority. Today, Pope Francis is received with
open arms by the Jewish community. As his predecessors did, Francis calls
the Jewish people “older brothers”. The Bishop of Erfurt was appointed
by the German conference of Bishops to improve relationships
between Catholics and Jews. According to him, in the 1930s,
many in the Catholic clergy were not immune to anti-Semitism. We have to assume that, in the
30s, most Catholics were guided by the principle that Jews did
not recognize the Messiah. The allegation that they were
responsible for Jesus' death on the cross was also common. We know there
were many sermons that repeated this. Determined to gain the
majority in Parliament, Hitler tried to secure the
support of the Catholics. Shortly afterwards, Hitler offered
the Vatican the agreement on which Pacelli had been working on since
the 1920s - the Concordat. The Vatican accepted. Pacelli himself signed the
pact with the future Führer. Of course, that was a huge triumph
for Hitler. Because his regime was not trusted by the rest of the
world. And the first international treaty Hitler ever made - was
a treaty with the Holy See. So, if the ultimate moral authority,
the Holy See, makes a treaty with this regime, then other countries
can legitimately do it as well. Four years earlier, in 1929, the
Vatican had already signed a similar agreement with Fascist Italy
and its dictator Benito Mussolini, with the blessing of a large
part of the local clergy. Diplomatic relations between the
Holy See and Fascist regimes are the field of expertise of Professor
Matteo Luigi Napolitano. The majority of the Italian clergy
supported the fascist regime. Many priests had fought for
their country in their youth and felt like patriotic priests. Also, at that time, many in the
Catholic clergy saw fascism as a lesser evil in comparison to
the real enemy: communism. An atheist ideology that promised
to overthrow the social system which the Church had been
representing for centuries. They realized quite quickly how the
situation in Soviet Russia escalated. Persecutions of the clergy occurred
in that area. Not only the Orthodox Church was persecuted. Priests were
arrested, churches were closed, the faithful were harassed and
church property was confiscated. This also happened to
the Catholic Church. However, as Hitler gained more
control over the German population, he also began to target the Church.
The Führer wanted to impose Nazism as the only
national religion. Hitler grew up in a Catholic
environment in Austria and paid Church taxes until he died. In
fact, he even took inspiration from Catholicism for Nazi
symbols and rituals. He was fascinated by this hierarchical
structure of the Catholic Church. At the top, the Pope. On the other,
the Führer is at the top. Well, he had a certain fascination
with the church, but in fact he had nothing
at all to do with it. The church was his opponent. Over the years, the Catholic
Bishops of Germany increasingly rejected Nazi policies.
There were protests. There was a clear rejection
of National Socialism. This was essentially a rejection
of racism, of euthanasia and also of the attempt to
build a new Nazi religion. The Bishop of Münster, Clemens von
Galen, was particularly important in this regard, because he protested
very strongly against euthanasia. So strongly that the National
Socialists ended this policy. Von Galen and other German Bishops
denounced violations of the concordat and asked the Vatican
for an official protest. Catholic schools were no longer
allowed. They were actually closed, even though it was a breach of the
Concordat. There was no more pastoral care in prisons. Only military
chaplaincy continued to exist. Agreements were simply suspended,
or they were not implemented, and there was no point - it was not
effective - to invoke the terms of the Concordat. That did
not achieve anything. Pope Pius XI wrote a letter to the
German faithful. An Encyclical, that was read in all German
Churches on Palm Sunday in 1937. The encyclical was originally called
"With Great Concern", to make it clear that the Holy See was concerned
about the situation — this persecution of the Catholic Church in Germany.
This title was then personally changed by Pacelli, who made it a bit sharper,
and he chose a stronger adjective: "burning". So the title began: “with
burning concern” to emphasize once again how seriously the Holy See was
taking the situation in Germany. The Nazis were outraged, because they
only found out about it after this text was read out from all the
pulpits in all the German churches at nine o'clock in the morning. But this encyclical had
no lasting effect. I cannot say that this was a change
in the tactics of the struggle, I would say it was like
a flash in the pan. It didn't go any further. Pius XI actually wrote an encyclical
to condemn the antisemitic laws enacted by Hitler and Mussolini. But
this letter was never published, and it is unclear if Pacelli stopped
the publication. A mystery that can be solved only once the research
in the Vatican Archives is completed. In February 1939, Pius XI died and Pacelli was
elected to St. Peter's throne. He chose the name of Pius XII,
in homage to his predecessor. When Pacelli was elected pope,
Mussolini was very concerned. His son-in-law, Galeazzo Ciano,
gave us evidence of this. Germany's reaction is also
interesting, and no less disturbing. From Germany - ice-cold silence. They
made it clear: You are not our Pope; we are not necessarily happy
that you have become Pope. Pius XII had been elected Pope only
six months before Hitler ordered the invasion of Poland. The
Second World War broke out. The Pope, as head of the Vatican,
a microstate without an army, hardly had the means to
really oppose Hitler. The Vatican could use
diplomacy and charity. For biographers of Pius XII, the
WWII period remains a mystery. Many questions are still unanswered. First: when did the Pope find out
about the extermination of the Jews? For one week, Professor Wolf and
his team were able to search the archives for an answer
to this question. Then the corona crisis broke out and
the research had to be interrupted. But in that first week, they found
documents that offer insight. In the Summer of 1942, US President
Roosevelt received a letter from a Jewish agency, containing
information on the mass murder of Jews in Poland and Ukraine. A White House envoy reached out to
the Vatican, asking for the Popeś evaluation. He wanted to know if the
Vatican had already received similar information and if he would agree
to take part in a joint protest. The Holy See actually had two pieces
of information. The first piece of information came from Count Malvezzi,
who had been travelling in Ukraine. When he returned, he told Montini,
the future Pope Paul VI, about the horrors he had seen there, what the
Germans were doing to the Jews. And they had a second and more
important report, from a unified Catholic archbishop, a metropolitan
from Lviv, who confirmed exactly what the Jewish organization said.
So, the Vatican could actually have answered, yes, we can confirm
that the report is reliable. But they didn't; they said yes,
we have also heard these things, but we are not able to verify
the truth of these statements. Why did the Vatican
give such an answer? The missing piece is perhaps in a
recently discovered document — a note from a close advisor to the
Pope, Monsignor Angelo Dall Acqua. Dall' Acqua wrote: “The American
request is crucial, if the information is correct.” Then comes a terrible
sentence: "Can you believe Jews, they always exaggerate" followed by
the recommendation: "Letś remain politically cautious,
because if we speak out, we take sides and we
should be non-partisan." This note helps us to understand why
Pius XII remained silent and did not take part in the Allies’ joint protest
against the mass murder of Jews. Of course, this document alone does
not give a reliable answer to the question of what the Pope did and why
he did it, because we need a thorough review of all the material in order to
be able to give an overall judgement. Anything else would not be credible.
But the fact that after one week, we have already found such a key
piece of information, means that we have to take a closer
look at all the sources. This document, however, makes
one element more plausible; it shows us that the Pope was
informed about the true extent of the Holocaust in autumn 1942. It shows
us that he knew of this American request to confirm these figures to
him. He did not do so, although he had his own sources. Because these sources
were not considered reliable by the Pope and the Cardinal
Secretary of State, probably because Dell Aqua
made them look ludicrous. Pius only broke his silence at
the Christmas Mass in 1942. On that occasion, he condemned
all racial persecutions, without any specific
reference to Jews. Pius XII mentioned those who suffer,
those who are persecuted and those who suffered in war because of their
nationality, religion or origin. He used the Italian term "Stirpe",
which does not mean race, but describes a line of descent.
In other words, he spoke broadly, without referring to the
Jews in particular. Since the beginning of the War, the
Pope had received letters from Jews in various countries, all
of whom pleaded for help. They all described
the same atrocities. There are an incredible number, I’d
say thousands of letters from Jewish people to the Pope. These
are often petitions, just petitions, that say: we are in this or that terrible
situation, can you help us to get out? In other words, the Pope did not just
see the Holocaust in abstract numbers, but also in very precise,
individual stories. After one week we have only found
these letters of petition, but we do not yet know how
the Holy See reacted. In some cases, we have found the
petition and the refusal and there were no further developments. In others, cases, the Holy See
tried to help and did help. This is a large subject, and perhaps
the most important in the archive. In 1943, the war reached the gates of
the Vatican. When Rome was heavily bombed by the Allies, Pius XII left
the Vatican to pray among the ruins. Shortly after, Mussolini's regime
collapsed and Hitlerś troops entered Italy. Rome, too,
fell under Nazi occupation. The SS even made it to St.
Peter’s Square. And on the 16th October 1943, after
a raid in the Jewish ghetto, 1024 Roman Jews were deported to
Auschwitz. Only 16 of them came back. The opening of the Archive finally
sheds new light on what Pius XII did to protect the Jews -
and what he did not do. Traditionally, the Pope has
always protected the Roman Jews. But during the deportation
on October 16, 1943, the Pope did not utter
a word of protest. He did not intervene to
stop this deportation. Pacelli tried to act on different
levels. To start with, he reached out to the German Reich’s ambassador
to the Holy See, Herr Weizsäcker, to tell him that he stood up for the
Jews and that Weizsäcker should do everything possible to prevent the
Jews in Rome from being persecuted in the domain of the Pope. The second
thing was that he asked to check which monasteries, which churches,
which church institutions were structurally capable of
offering shelter to the Jews, so they could effectively hide there.
That happened in papal buildings, as well as in many religious orders. The third thing did not take place. There was no loud public protest. It is important to remember that there
were about ten thousand Jews in Rome. Twenty percent of them were
placed in Vatican institutions — for example in the Pope's summer
residence in Castel Gandolfo. This is what the Vatican
documents tell us ... According to one of these documents,
stored in the Yad Vashem memorial in Israel, 4715 Jews found shelter
in the Vatican and other Catholic institutes during the
German occupation of Rome. For chief rabbi of Rome, Riccardo Di
Segni, the Pope could have done more. He could have saved all the
Roman Jews from being deported. There was a kind of
silent agreement, that the Germans would not carry
out such an operation again. But what had already
happened was ignored. That is unfortunately the reality, and thousands of innocent
people were taken to Auschwitz. There are many ways for a pope to make
himself heard. If he had said that the Jews should not be touched,
that would have been enough to cause a diplomatic crisis. We also need to take into account
the position that person held. If a person is the moral
head of a community, that person must behave accordingly. Was this moral behavior? That question
we need to find an answer to... Other representatives spoke out. For
example, the Archbishop of Toulouse, Monsignor Saliège, who publicly
denounced the deportations in the summer of 1942, causing the Vichy
government to slow them down considerably. So,
there is one example. When a clergyman spoke out in public
and explicitly denounced anti-Semitism and the deportations, it had an
impact in that specific case. Caught in a dilemma between
silence and denunciation, Pius opted for diplomacy. He wanted to act in silence. This attitude of Pius the XII may
be due to what had happened in the Netherlands in 1942. There, the bishops' protest had led
to a greater number of deportations. Among the victims was
the nun Edith Stein - the converted Jewish woman who had
appealed to the Pope in vain in 1933. In 1998, she was made a
saint by John Paul II. In 1944, the
Allies took Rome. Pius XII celebrated the end
of the German occupation. A year later, the first pictures
from the death camps were published. Yet, even then, Pius remained
silent about the Holocaust. Why? The archives of the Vatican might
also provide insight into this. Pope Francis knows how important
the past is for the present. The Church must learn from its
errors and examine the consequences of its actions, as well
as of its silence. We must stand for what is right and,
at the same time, speak up when something is not compatible
with Christian values. It is important to properly defend
the values that hold our society together and to ensure that
the majority is not silent. Over the next few
years, the historians’ work will hopefully bring
clarity to the figure of Pius XII. But one thing is certain. The church has learned there is
no alternative to transparency.
