The Pope at War, page 71
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Chessa and Raggi 2010, pp. 46–47; Aga-Rossi 2011, p. 13.
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The radio address Mussolini was to give on October 28, one Roman police informant report asserted, had no aim other than demonstrating that he was still alive. “Raccolta delle prove documentali per il procedimento penale istruito contro Trojani,” ASR, Galla Placidia, CAP, Sezione istruttoria, b.1669, fasc. 1010.
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The Germans had even posted little papal flags around the Vatican-linked properties throughout Rome along with a notice in German and Italian signed by General Stahel proclaiming their extraterritorial status. In late October, Monsignor Costantini, secretary of the Vatican Congregation of Propaganda Fide, recorded in his diary with relief that both the German authorities and Mussolini’s new republican government were treating the church deferentially. Pighin 2010, pp. 220–21.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 10
Weizsäcker to Berlin, October 9, 1943, tel. 115, PAAA, GBS, 29818, 60–62.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 11
Maglione notes, October 29, 1943, ADSS, vol. 7, n. 449; “Cronaca contemporanea,” CC, 94 IV, Quaderno 2242 (1943), p. 267. I use, with slight changes, the English translation here that Osborne furnished in reporting the story to London on October 30. NAK, FO 371, 37571.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 12
AAV, Prefettura Casa Pontif., Udienze, buste 56–59. From early in the war, reports of the German priest’s sympathy for the Axis cause had come into Mussolini’s intelligence service. Among the relevant reports was one of July 25, 1941, recounting a conversation in which Father Pfeiffer revealed “his pride and his joy for the triumph of the Axis armies and his faith in their complete victory. He also expressed hope that Hitler will be able in the future to alter his attitude toward religion.” Notizia fiduciaria, ACS, SPD, CR, b. 327. On Pfeiffer, see Samerski 2013.
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A few days later Pius XII received Father Pfeiffer at the Apostolic Palace, where his visitor boasted of the valuable role he was playing on the pope’s behalf. Among those attending the dinner, in addition to the top German military officers in Rome and Germany’s ambassadors to Italy and to the Holy See, was Rodolfo Graziani, defense minister of Mussolini’s new republic. Before the meal, Father Pfeiffer offered to serve as translator for Graziani’s conversation with General Stahel, who complimented the priest on all the help he had provided in promoting amicable relations with the Vatican. Pfeiffer notes, November 5, 1943, ADSS, vol. 9, n. 414; original at ASRS, AA.EE.SS., Pio XII, parte I, Italia, posiz. 1336, ff. 294r–95r. That Pfeiffer was regarded as something of a braggart in the Vatican is hinted at by Monsignor Tardini’s handwritten comment next to the Father’s account of the praise Weizsäcker had offered him: “The German ambassador in the Secretariat of State office often deplored Father Pancrazio’s meddling.”
Pfeiffer’s presence at the dinner with with generals Stahel and Graziani did not go unnoticed by members of the Italian resistance. In the Vatican files a typed sheet can be found, signed “The Committee of National Liberation.” It warned that Father Pfeiffer’s frequenting of German and Fascist circles was being noted and added, “Among other things the meals consumed at the same table with General Stahel and General Graziani are not being ignored.” AAV, Segr. Stato, Commissione Soccorsi, b. 326, fasc. 227, f. 135r. The warning was received by the Vatican in the first days of November 1943.
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As Osborne put it in his annual report for 1943, late in the year Babuscio took up residence in Vatican City, “where he presumably continued to represent the House of Savoy and the Badoglio Government, although in a tactfully unobtrusive manner.” Osborne annual report for 1943, Osborne to Eden, March 24, 1944, NAK, R 6770/6770/57, p. 8.
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As the Vatican itself had no direct contact with Badoglio, Babuscio had asked the cardinal to send the nuncio in Madrid a note he had written with a request to pass it on to the Italian ambassador there. It read: “Ambassador Babuscio Rizzo asks Ambassador Paulucci to inform Marshal Badoglio that all of the personnel of the Italian Embassy to the Holy See are faithful to His Majesty’s Government, remain at their post, and neither the functionaries nor the embassy itself have thus far been molested.” n. 3133, ASDMAE, APSS, b. 77, and ADSS, vol. 7, n. 437. The letter he succeeded in sending Paulucci through other channels on December 7, 1943, is found at ASDMAE, APSS, b. 72. Thus far, he explained, he had resisted all pressures to move into Vatican City. “The facts,” he added, “have proved me right because…no damage has, at least to date, been done to either people or property.” This was especially notable because outside the entrance to the embassy, alongside the papal coat of arms, he had placed the “original” royal Italian coat of arms, that is, one lacking the Fascist symbol that Mussolini had inserted at its center. “In this way,” wrote Babuscio, “the Embassy, albeit although closed, has continued to exist in Rome.” In fairness, he added, it must be said that no one from the Foreign Ministry (now in the hands of Mussolini’s government) had exerted pressure on him to move to the new government headquarters in northern Italy or even asked his opinion. “In other words, the Embassy was officially ‘ignored.’ Such a favorable situation has naturally been able to be sustained thanks to the understanding of our colleagues and because it ties in closely with the decision taken by the occupiers and by those occupied not to raise the question of the Apostolic Nunciature (and, in general, of the Holy See).” Two weeks later Babuscio sent a new message. After further reflection, although he had not gotten any precise pressure to do so, he had decided to move into Vatican City and bring with him part of the embassy’s archive and the items of greatest value. Babuscio Rizzo to R. Governo Brindisi, December 21, 1943, tel. 3/3, ASDMAE, APSS, b. 72.
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In late September, Spain’s ambassador to the Holy See asked Cardinal Maglione what the Vatican would do if Mussolini called on it to publicly recognize his government. “I want to hope that such a request not be made of the Holy See,” he replied. While the decision would be for the pope to decide, Maglione said, he thought they should follow their previous policy of not giving formal recognition to governments formed as a result of war, during the war, when a previously recognized legal government still existed. Maglione notes, September 27, 1943, ASRS, AA.EE.SS., Pio XII, parte I, Italia, posiz. 1352b, ff. 18rv.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 17
Renato Prunas to Major General Kenyon Joyce, November 12, 1943, n. 303, ASDMAE, SG, b. 27. On the status of the racial laws at the time, see the October 1943 report at ACS, PCM43-44, Salerno-Gab., b. 11, fasc. 3–16.
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Prunas, Appunto per il Capo del Governo, Brindisi, November 15, 1943, ASDMAE, SG, b. 27.
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On the plight of Jews in Italy during the German occupation, see Osti Guerrazzi 2020.
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Zuccotti (2000, pp. 189–201). Zuccotti’s book offers an excellent examination of the experience of Rome’s Jews seeking shelter in Catholic institutions in the aftermath of October 16, 1943.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 21
Sacerdote Saverio Quadri to Secretariat of State, n.d., AAV, Segr. Stato, Commissione Soccorsi, b. 326, fasc. 216, f. 449r. An internal note on the priest’s request in the Secretariat of State file reads, in Latin, “Quid faciendum?” (What to do?). A second handwritten note responds: “One doesn’t see how the Secretariat of State can intervene.”
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Three months after the big roundup of Jews in Rome, the Vatican Secretariat of State received a report that the Gestapo was employing the pretext of conducting a census of artwork in the city to look for “Jewish and non-Jewish” refugees hidden in Rome’s convents. A warning was sent out with the instruction that “The priors must be wary of them and ensure that during their visits they do not encounter any suspicious people.” Appunto, January 22, 1944, AAV, Segr. Stato, Commissione Soccorsi, b. 332, fasc. 307, ff. 2r–9r.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 23
Sister M. Margherita Vaccari to Pope Pius XII, August 8, 1943, AAV, Segr. Stato, 1943, Varie, posiz. 1632, ff. 1r–3r. The note on the nuncio’s conversation with Chief of Police Carmine Senise was handwritten by Cardinal Maglione on the nun’s letter.
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The original order can be found in ACS, MI, Gabinetto RSI, Carte del Ministro Buffarini (1938–45), fasc. 75. See also Klinkhammer 1993, p. 406. News of the order made the December 1 front page both of Milan’s major paper (“L’arresto di tutti gli ebrei,” Corriere della Sera) and of Farinacci’s Il Regime Fascista (“Tutti gli Ebrei saranno inviati in appositi campi di concentramento”).
Two weeks earlier, Father Tacchi Venturi had met with Buffarini to follow up on the Vatican’s request for him to help convince the German occupation authorities to allow the number of armed Palatine Guards at the Vatican to be increased to two thousand. Buffarini assured the Jesuit emissary that he would do all he could to help. Tacchi Venturi to Maglione, November 12, 1943, AAV, Segr. Stato, Commissione Soccorsi, b. 326, fasc. 227, f. 137r.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 25
Maglione to Weizsäcker, November 26, 1943, ADSS, vol. 9, n. 441.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 26
Cardinal Rossi to Maglione, December 6, 1943, ADSS, vol. 9, n. 455. The letter by German consul Koester to Berlin is published in Friedländer 1966, pp. 209–11. The consul, in his report to Berlin, apparently thought it prudent not to admit to receiving the church dignitary at his consulate and cast the patriarch’s visit as having been made not to the consulate but to “a friend of mine,” who had reported the conversation in detail to him.
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“Carità civile,” OR, December 3, 1943, p. 1.
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Southern European Analysis Radio & Press Intelligence no. 12: “The Vatican on Anti-Semitism,” December 9, 1943, NARA, RG 165, color 279; Klinkhammer 1993, p. 405.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 29
Avagliano and Palmieri 2011, pp. 304–6.
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Notes de la Secrétairerie d’État, December 17, 1943, ADSS, vol. 9, n. 469.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 31
Tacchi Venturi, “Nota verbale sulla situazione ebraica in Italia,” December 19, 1943, ASRS, AA.EE.SS., Pio XII, Asterisco Italia, posiz. 1054*, ff. 1097–1103.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 32
Dell’Acqua note, November 24, 1943, ASRS, AA.EE.SS., Pio XII, parte I, Jugoslavia, posiz. 160, f. 268r.
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Dell’Acqua, December 20, 1943, ASRS, AA.EE.SS., Pio XII, Asterisco Italia, posiz. 1054*, ff. 1104–5. See also Maglione notes, December 20, 1943, ADSS, vol. 9, n. 473. The Vatican Secretariat of State continued to rely on private communications with Rodolfo Graziani in calling for better treatment of Jews being rounded up in Italy. A May 11, 1944, folder in the Vatican archives is labeled “notes that should be given to Marshal Graziani.” Among these is the plea: “One requests at least a less harsh treatment for the non-Aryans still detained in Italy (for example in the concentration camp of Fossoli di Carpi, [and] in the Verona prison) and the possibility for priests to have access to them.” AAV, Segr. Stato, Commissione Soccorsi, b. 331, fasc. 285, f. 5r. This approach never had any chance of success.
An English translation of the memos by Tacchi Venturi and Dell’Acqua is provided in Kertzer 2020.
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The news came from General Menotti Chieli, the Italian military head of Rome at the time. Cardinal Maglione had asked the general to encourage Graziani to speak with the Duce about Vatican concerns about the new anti-Jewish measures. Chieli was reporting back on what he had learned.
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Maglione notes, December 20, 1943, ADSS, vol. 9, n. 473. Shortly after sending in his memo, Dell’Acqua was asked to evaluate a report the Secretariat of State had received claiming that an underground Jewish organization existed in Rome engaged in preparing false Vatican City identity documents for Jews. In his response, the monsignor said he doubted such an organization existed, but he went on to offer further thoughts on how the Vatican should deal with Jews: “Many times, however, I have been able to note that various people employed in the Vatican or close to the Vatican have concerned themselves too much (in a fashion I would dare say was almost exaggerated) with the Jews, favoring them, perhaps even with some elegant fraud. Recently it seems to me that too many non-Aryan people have been frequenting the Secretariat of State and even in the Secretariat of State itself there is too much talk about the Jews and about the related measures adopted by the Germans and by the Italian Republican Government. I have always held it to be a basic norm of wisdom to use the greatest prudence in talking with Jews.” Dell’Acqua memo, December 31, 1943, AAV, Segr. Stato, Commissione Soccorsi, b. 302, fasc. 11, f. 3r.
According to the best recent estimates, there were 32,294 Italian Jews and another 6,842 foreign Jews trapped in German-occupied Italy. Of these 7,186 are known to have been either killed in Italy itself or deported to their death at Nazi concentration camps. Of the 32,000 Jews who survived, 6,000 did so by escaping to Switzerland, and 500–600 made their way south to safety in the Allied-controlled regions of the country. Picciotto Fargion 2016, p. 25.
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Chapter 36: Treason
Moseley 1999, p. 178.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 1
Di Rienzo 2018, p. 550.
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Corvaja 2008, p. 265.
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On learning that Mussolini’s government had arrested Ciano and other members of the Grand Council of Fascism, the pope asked Cardinal Maglione to get word to Graziani, minister of war of the Italian Social Republic, to “show mercy” in dealing with those who had voted against the Duce at that fateful July 24 meeting. Maglione note, November 29, 1943, ASRS, AA.EE.SS., Pio XII, parte I, Italia, posiz. 1352b, f. 237r.
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The OSS, the American intelligence service, would obtain a copy of twelve hundred pages of Ciano’s diary in Switzerland in early February 1945. It was, as the OSS report to the U.S. assistant secretary of state explained, procured “by photographing the original pages which remain in Countess Ciano’s possession. The photographing had to be done in haste in the sanatorium where Countess Ciano is hospitalized.” Charles S. Cheston, acting director, OSS, to James Dunn, February 6, 1945, NARA, RG 226, Microfilm M1642, roll 21, pp. 69–71.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 5
The priest’s account, found in the newly opened Vatican archives, is in the form of a letter addressed to Edda Mussolini, with the apparent date of February 3, 1944 (AAV, Arch. Nunz. Svizzera, b. 224, fasc. 631, ff. 198rv).
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These events are described in Moseley 1999, pp. 176–236, and Di Rienzo 2018, pp. 537–76. The official sentence by the Tribunale Speciale Straordinario di Verona, along with a note of its execution the next day, is found at ACS, MI, Gabinetto RSI, Carte del Ministro Buffarini (1938–45), fasc. 33. An eyewitness account of Ciano’s execution is also found in the newly opened Vatican files at AAV, Arch. Nunz. Svizzera, b. 224, fasc. 631, ff. 193r–95r.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 7
The founding manifesto of the reconstituted Italian Fascist regime, voted on at a Republican Fascist Party congress held only a few weeks earlier, had specified that Roman Catholicism was to be the official state religion. The gathering of the party having taken place in Verona in mid-November, the eighteen-point program of the Republican Fascist Party came to be known as the Manifesto of Verona. The establishment of Roman Catholicism as Italy’s official state religion was specified in point six. Point one declared the end of the monarchy; point seven proclaimed that “members of the Jewish race are foreigners. During this war they belong to an enemy nation.” “Manifesto di Verona,” Storiologia, https://www.storiologia.it/apricrono/storia/a1943u.htm.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 8
Ministero degli Affari Esteri (Giurati) to Serafino Mazzolini, segretario generale, Ministero degli Affari Esteri, January 2, 1944, ASDMAE, RSI, Gab., b. 37.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 9
Notes de la Secrétairerie d’État, January 11, 1944, and Annexe, Memorandum du Ministère des Affaires Étrangère de la RSI, n.d., January 1944, ADSS, vol. 11, n. 9; Montini notes, January 17, 1944, ADSS, vol. 11, n. 16. The Giurati memo dated January 12, 1944, is also found at ASDMAE, RSI, Gab., b. 37. It was in everyone’s interest, Babuscio told the career foreign service officer, Camillo Giurati, not to call attention to the matter. Cardinal Maglione had given assurances that he wanted to do nothing to alter the precarious balance that currently existed in the Vatican’s relations with the two competing Italian governments. Accordingly, the cardinal had suggested to Babuscio that he follow the same advice he had given the nuncio, dormire, “go to sleep.” Giurati, Rome, to Esteri, January 12, 1944, tel. 176, ASDMAE, RSI, Gab., b. 37. Giurati, like many holdovers in the Italian government in Rome, found himself in an uncomfortable position, remaining at his post and serving Mussolini’s republican government while not renouncing his allegiance to the king. He judged it best to try to lower the temperature. Monsignor Testa came to see him in mid-January and told him that Cardinal Maglione had felt compelled to let Babuscio move into Vatican City the previous month because he had said he was otherwise in danger of being arrested by the Germans. But he said the cardinal was eager to play down the incident that Babuscio had created and was not inclined to let any of the other staff members of the Italian embassy move in so that “the oil stain does not grow any larger.” The Vatican secretary of state, remarked Giurati in reporting this conversation to the government in the north, greatly appreciated the understanding that the government ministry had shown to date. In a separate note, Giurati asked that the “measures of extreme rigor” adopted in dealing with Babuscio be reconsidered. They would only, he argued, allow Babuscio to wrap himself in the mantle of a martyr. Giurati to Gabinetto, January 15, 1944, tel. 205 and 206, ASDMAE, RSI, Gab., b. 37.
