The Vatican archives on Pius XII (1939-1958) finally opened to researchers on Monday, impatient to delve into them to better identify a pope who remained very silent during the extermination of 6 million Jews.
Two hundred researchers have already registered to consult a mountain of documents, accessible after an inventory which took fourteen years of work for the archivists of the Holy See.
A special secretariat of the pope
German historian Hubert Wolf will be in Rome on Monday, armed with six assistants and two years of funding. He drank like whey the indications given by archivists during a presentation, delighted to learn of the existence of unexplored documents from a “private secretariat” of the pope.
Another track for this expert on the relationship between Pius XII and the Nazis: the notes written by 70 Vatican ambassadors, eyes of the Pope abroad. Or calls for help from Jewish organizations or communications with President Franklin Roosevelt.
Missing pieces
The archives of the long post-war period, that of the censorship of writers and priests too inspired by communism, open for the first time. For the polemical phase of the Holocaust, the Vatican had already published the essentials forty years ago, in eleven volumes compiled by Jesuits. But pieces are missing, especially the pope's answers.
“When the Pope receives a document on the concentration camps (already revealed in the volumes of the Jesuits), we do not have his answer. Either it does not exist or it is in the Vatican, "said Hubert Wolf.
"There is no doubt that the Pope knew about it"
The historian has already examined the twelve years in Germany of Eugenio Pacelli, ambassador of the Holy See (1917-1929) and witness to the rise of Nazism. He then returned to Rome to become the right-hand man of his predecessor Pius XI, then was elected pope.
Archives have already revealed alerts to the Vatican about the extermination of European Jews. “There is no doubt that the Pope was aware of the murders of the Jews. What would really interest us is knowing when he first learned about it and when he gave credit to this information, ”says Hubert Wolf.
Unclear message
On December 24, 1942, in a long Christmas radio message, Pius XII evokes the “hundreds of thousands of people, who, without any fault on their part, and sometimes for the sole fact of their nationality or their race, were doomed upon death or progressive extermination ”.
Was this message, in Italian, broadcast once, explicitly not mentioning either the Jews or the Nazis, heard and understood by German Catholics? "The only ones who heard it were the Nazis," summed up Hubert Wolf, noting that the radio waves were scrambled and that the pope could have spoken in German. “After the war, Pius XII said to a British ambassador: I was very clear.
And the ambassador will answer him: I did not understand you, ”notes the historian. Former diplomat trained in prudence, anxious to remain neutral in time of war, Pius XII was concerned about the protection of Catholics and could not be more explicit, advance his defenders. Historians estimate that around 4,000 Jews were hidden in Rome in Catholic institutions.
World
Holocaust: Vatican to open archives on Pius XII
World
Holocaust: the Pope announces the opening in 2020 of the Vatican archives on Pius XII
- World
- Vatican
- Pope
- Holocaust
- Jewish