The Pope at War, page 73
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 2
OSS memo, March 7, 1944, NARA, RG 84, box 47, 840.1, p. 62; NARA, RG59, Entry A1, 1068, box 7, fold 711.6. The Osservatore Romano article was prepared at the direction of the Vatican secretary of state. Tardini notes, March 4, 1944, ADSS, vol. 11, n. 75. Maglione also complained of the bombing to Osborne, who responded that “so long as the Germans made use of Rome rail communications for bringing up military reinforcements and supplies, bombing was justified and necessary.” Osborne to Foreign Office, London, March 7, 1944, tel. 146, NAK, WO 220/274.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 3
Comando Forze di Polizia, Roma to Questura et al., March 11, 1944, ACS, MI, DAGRA 1944–46, b. 214, n. 6058/18; Légation de Grande Bretagne to Secrétairerie d’État, March 12, 1944, ADSS, vol. 11, n. 93. Babuscio Rizzo also reported the crowd’s disappointment with the pope’s speech in his report to the royal government. March 21, 1944, n. 10/10, ASDMAE, APSS, b. 72.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 4
Capo Provincia di Roma to Segreteria Particolare del Duce, March 12, 1944, tel. 3687 and 3688, ACS, SPD, CR-RSI, b. 18; Cesare Bonzani, I nove mesi di occupazione tedesca di Roma, March 1946, ATMR, Processi definiti, 34901, Chirieleison, b. 592-C; “Pio XII rivolge ai romani la sua nobilissima parola di conforto,” L’Italia, March 13, 1944, p. 1; “I voti le opere la invocazione del Supremo Pastore per ottenere al travagliato genere umano la pace con Dio e la pace tra le nazioni,” OR, March 13–14, 1944, p. 1.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 5
Weizsäcker to Berlin, March 14 and March 21, 1944, tel. 166 and 180, PAAA, GPA, R98830, 34–37, 28–29; Osborne to Foreign Office, London, March 18, 1944, tel. 174, NAK, WO 106/4038. The following month, a report from the Fascist police force in Rome addressed to the Duce put the matter this way: “As despised as the Germans are, today the English and Americans are even more. The pope hates both the ones and the others…massacres on all sides and disasters without end. The people yearn for peace, the people don’t want to hear about foreigners in Italy.” “Promemoria per il Duce,” April 18, 1944, ACS, MI, Gabinetto R.S.I., b. 5.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 6
Chirieleison, “La Città Aperta di Roma, Relazione sintetica,” February 28, 1950, AUSSME, RSI, b. 76; Comando Supremo report, July 17, 1944, prot. 10, ASDMAE, APSS, b. 71; Appunto per il Duce, segretario particolare, February 15, 1944, ACS, SPD, CR-RSI, b. 18; Chirieleison, “Promemoria—Bombardamenti aerei di Roma,” March 9, 1944, ATMR, Processi definiti, 34901, Chirieleison, b. 592-C; Ministero degli Affari Esteri to Ministero Educazione Nazionale, Salerno, July 6, 1944, tel. 5554, ACS, PCM 1943–44, b. 20, cat. 21.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 7
Cardinal Maglione to representatives of the Holy See abroad, March 16, 1944, ADSS, vol. 11, n. 102; Kiernan to Maglione, March 17, 1944, ADSS, vol. 11, n. 104. The nuncio in Washington wrote to Secretary Hull reporting that Cardinal Maglione had told him that “the continued bombings of Rome are lowering the prestige of the Allies, embittering a populace otherwise well disposed, and producing the further effect of fomenting Communism which is already rife in the great mass of the people.” Cicognani to Hull, March 22, 1944, FDR Library, psfa 496, pp. 42–43.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 8
Tittmann to Tardini, March 19, 1944, and Tardini notes, March 20, 1944, ADSS, vol. 11, n. 108 and 108 Annexe.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 9
On the massacre, see Moellhausen 1948, pp. 218–24; Zuccotti 1987, pp. 192–93; and Katz 2003, pp. 249–65.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 10
Notes de la Secrétairerie d’État, March 24, 1944, ADSS, vol. 10, n. 115; Deák 2008; Osborne to Foreign Office, March 25, 1944, tel. 195, NAK, WO, 106/4038; Miccoli 2000, pp. 257–62. In mid-May the cardinal vicar of Rome called Montini to request instructions. The local Fascist officials were asking him to issue a proclamation calling on all deserters to come out of hiding and present themselves to the authorities. “Limit yourself to recommend calm and obedience to the public Authorities” was the response. Montini notes, May 13, 1944, ADSS, vol. 11, n. 181.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 11
Secrétairerie d’État to Weizsäcker, April 22, 1944, ADSS, vol. 10, n. 159. The copy that Weizsäcker sent to Berlin, on the same date, is found at PAAA, GARV, R997, 14–15.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 12
Chassard 2015, p. 171.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 13
Secrétairerie d’État to Weizsäcker, April 3, 1944, and Tardini notes, April 2, 1944, ADSS, vol. 11, nn. 145, 144. Worse, Tardini added in his note, the prestige of the Vatican itself was being compromised. “When word got around that the Holy See had succeeded in having Rome declared an ‘open city,’ ” he noted, “the Pope got many letters from people who accused him of thinking only of Rome!”
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 14
Petacci to Mussolini, April 20, 1944, Petacci diary entry, April 21, 1944, ACS, Archivi di famiglie e di persone, Clara Petacci, b. 3, fasc. 25.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 15
Corvaja 2008, pp. 280–85; Deakin 1962, pp. 681–89.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 16
Petacci to Mussolini, April 21, 1944, ACS, Archivi di famiglie e di persone, Clara Petacci, b. 3, fasc. 25; Bosworth 2017, pp. 17, 194–95.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 17
Osti Guerrazzi 2004, p. 103.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 18
The police were of the opinion that these, as one police report put it, were “not the work of the people but of antifascist elements” and of certain Fascist elements interested in maintaining a high state of tension. Rapporto anonimo, ACS, MI, Gabinetto della RSI, b. 5, fogli non numerati, n.d. [April 1944].
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 19
Osti Guerrazzi 2004, p. 158.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 20
“Rapporto del Comando Forze di Polizia della città aperta di Roma del 30 aprile 1944,” Ufficio di collegamento con le autorità militari germaniche, ACS, MI, DGPS, DAGR, RSI busta unica, 1943–44, fasc. 1, Segnalazioni incidenti 1944.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 21
Rapporto anonimo, ACS, ACS, MI, Gabinetto della RSI, b. 5, fogli non numerati, n.d. [April 1944].
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 22
Bérard to Vichy, April 8, 1944, MAEC, Guerre Vichy, 551; Babuscio Rizzo to Massimo Magistrati (Italian ambassador to Bern), May 13, 1944, n. 45/35, ASDMAE, APSS, b. 72; AMSSO to Britman, Washington, D.C., April 21, 1944, NAK, WO 220/274, 90A.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 23
Osborne to Foreign Office, London, April 24, 1944, tel. 281, NAK, WO 220/274.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 24
MEDCOS, re COSMED 104, May 1944, NARA, RG 84, box 47, 840.4, pp. 67–68.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 25
Levis Sullam 2018; Foa and Scaraffia 2021.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 26
Michaelis 1978, pp. 390–92; Zuccotti 1987, pp. 136, 180–81; Avagliano and Palmieri 2011, pp. 316–17. For accounts of those Italian Jews who managed to escape arrest, see Picciotto Fargion 2017.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 27
Secretariat of State notes, April 15, 1944, ADSS, vol. 10, n. 145. Throughout these last months of joint German-Fascist rule of Rome, the Vatican continued to enlist the assistance of the local authorities in its ongoing campaign to stamp out immodest dress as well as publications and films that the church deemed morally objectionable, a campaign ultimately supervised by the pope. See, for example, the report on public immorality in Rome sent by Father Gremigni, interim director of the central office of Italian Catholic Action, to Monsignor Montini on May 24, 1944, and reviewed by the pope on May 29. AAV, Segr. Stato, 1944, Associazioni Cattoliche, posiz. 75, ff. 2r–15r.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 28
Secretariat of State notes, June 2, 1944, ADSS, vol. 10, n. 219. In short, few Jews were given refuge in Vatican City, and most had sneaked in despite Vatican attempts to keep them out.
While few Roman Jews found sanctuary in Vatican City, a large number did find refuge in convents and monasteries scattered across Rome. In March 1945 Myron Taylor reported a conversation on the subject that a member of his staff had had with Monsignor Tardini. During the German occupation of the city, said Tardini, Catholic clergy had given asylum to approximately six thousand Jews, spread among roughly 180 religious homes and institutions. Taylor added, “Monsignor Tardini concluded his remarks by saying that the Holy See is naturally most anxious not to give any publicity to this information lest it bring about retaliatory measures against the Catholic Clergy and communities in Nazi-controlled territories.” Taylor to secretary of state, Washington, D.C., March 25, 1945, NARA, RG 59, Entry A1, 1068, box 9, fold 800b, pp. 18–19.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 29
Atkinson 2007, pp. 543–45.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 30
Tardini notes, May 27, 1944, ADSS, vol. 11, n. 196.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 31
The documentation is found at AAV, Segr. Stato, Commissione Soccorsi, b. 331, fasc. 254, ff. 3r–10r.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 32
Weizsäcker telegram to Foreign Ministry, Berlin, June 3, 1944, PAAA, GARV, R997, 02; Atkinson 2007, pp. 550–64.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 33
Weizsäcker telegram to Foreign Ministry, Berlin, June 3, 1944, PAAA, GARV, R997, 03-04; Osborne annual report for 1944, Osborne to Eden, April 4, 1945, NAK, ZM 2608/2608/57, p. 6.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 34
Tardini notes, June 3, 4, 1944, ADSS, vol. 11, n. 208; Modigliani 1984, p. 97.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 35
Tardini notes, June 5, 1944, ADSS, vol. 11, n. 208.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 36
Babuscio Rizzo to Ministero degli Affari Esteri, June 6, 1944, tel. 870, ASDMAE, APSS, b. 71.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 37
Osborne to Foreign Office, London, June 6, 1944, tel. 404, NAK, WO, 106/4038; Osborne annual report for 1944, Osborne to Eden, April 4, 1945, NAK, ZM 2608/2608/57, p. 1. For a description of the June 6 acclamation of the pope in St. Peter’s Square see the account by Babuscio Rizzo, reporting to the Italian royal government in Salerno, June 6, 1944, ASDMAE, AISS, b. 176. The text of the pope’s remarks is found at: https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/it/speeches/1944/documents/hf_p-xii_spe_19440606_popolo-romano.html.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 38
Chapter 38: Malevolent Reports
Atkinson 2007, pp. 569–71.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 1
Secretariat of State notes, June 8, 1944, ADSS, vol. 11, n. 218. Clark (1950, pp. 373–75), in his wartime memoir, offered his own description of that and subsequent audiences with the pope. Upon the arrival of Allied troops in Rome, the pope placed Enrico Galeazzi in charge of mediating with them, aided by the American prelates Monsignors Carroll and McCormick. Their meetings with the Allied military command in the days immediately following liberation are chronicled in ASRS, AA.EE.SS., Pio XII, parte I, Italia, posiz. 1336, ff. 342r–45r.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 2
Osborne to Eden, June 9, 1944, NAK, CAB, 122/866; Murphy to U.S. secretary of state, June 17, 1944, NARA, RG 84, box 47, 840.4, p. 66.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 3
Chenaux 2003, p. 265; Duff Cooper, Algiers, to Foreign Office, London, July 5, 1944, NAK, WO, 106/4038, n. 1251.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 4
Hull to Kirk, July 3, 1944, FRUS 1944, vol. 4, pp. 1313–14.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 5
In his report to Roosevelt, Taylor added, “The propaganda continues that American Catholics favor a negotiated peace.” Taylor to FDR, June 30, 1944, FDR Library, psfa 496, pp. 111–18; Taylor to FDR, n.d., June 1944, FDR Library, psfc 5, p. 54.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 6
“He expressed great interest in your reelection,” Donovan wrote Roosevelt following the audience, “and at the end he asked me to say to you that he sends ‘all my heart’s affection.’ ” Donovan to FDR, July 3, 1944, NARA, RG 226, Microfilm M1642, roll 24, p. 37.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 7
“M. Carroll tells me that Roosevelt will arrive in Rome this evening or tomorrow,” reads a July 3 note by Tardini. “He wants to be received, together with Signor Taylor, by His Holiness.” ASRS, AA.EE.SS., Pio XII, parte I, Italia, posiz. 1356, f. 387.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 8
Mgr. Carroll notes, July 3, 1944, ADSS, vol. 11, n. 271.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 9
Osborne to Eden, July 7, 1944, NAK, FO 371, 44217, 9–10.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 10
Tardini notes, July 4, 1944, Myron Taylor to Pius XII, July 12, 1944, ADSS, vol. 11, nn. 276, 292; Osborne to Foreign Office, July 29, 1944, tel. 565, NAK, WO, 106/4038.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 11
Babuscio Rizzo to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, August 20, 1944, n. 365/251, ASDMAE, APSS, b. 71.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 12
Pius XII to Maglione, August 5, 1944, Montini aux représentants du Saint Siège, August 22, 1944, ADSS, vol. 11, nn. 314, 330; Babuscio Rizzo to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, August 30, 1944, tel. 421/286, ASDMAE, APSS, b. 71.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 13
Secretariat of State notes, August 23, 1944, ADSS, vol. 11, n. 333.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 14
Taylor report, August 25, 1944, FDR Library, psfb 216, p. 101.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 15
Chenaux 2003, p. 230. Following Maglione’s death, Babuscio Rizzo sent a series of reports to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs discussing the question of how and when the cardinal would be replaced. September 7, 1944, tel. 481/326, ASDMAE, APSS, b. 71; September 16, 1944, tel. 559/375, ASDMAE, AISS, b. 160; October 7, 1944, tel. 709/468, ASDMAE, APSS, b. 71.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 16
The English text of the pope’s September 1 address can be found attached to Osborne’s September 1 report to Eden on the speech, NAK, FO 371, 44217, 87–107. The Times letter is found at NAK, FO 371, 44217, 79. The English translation of Montini’s letter (written in French) to Osborne is found with Osborne’s September 26, 1944, report to Foreign Office, London, NAK, FO 371, 44217, 110–12.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 17
Visconti Venosta to Alto Commissariato per l’Epurazione dell’Amministrazione, September 1, 1944, n. 61/00831/6, ASDMAE, Personale Serie VII, Babuscio Rizzo. The prime minister, Ivanoe Bonomi, resolved the dispute between the commission and his undersecretary of foreign affairs by deciding in favor of the latter, pending the commission’s final determination of Babuscio’s guilt. Bonomi to Alto Commissario, October 9, 1944, prot. 2664, ASDMAE, Personale Serie VII, Babuscio Rizzo.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 18
The large documentation on these proceedings, covering many months, is found at ASDMAE, Personale Series VII, Babuscio Rizzo. After some efforts to have him dismissed from the foreign service, in the end he, like many others who had served in similar positions in the Fascist regime, would only have his hand slapped and be temporarily reduced a grade.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 19
Babuscio Rizzo to Visconti Venosta, September 14, 1944, ASDMAE, Gab., b. 104.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 20
Visconti Venosta to Babuscio Rizzo, October 2, 1944, ASDMAE, Gab., b. 104.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 21
Babuscio Rizzo to Visconti Venosta, October 6, 1944, ASDMAE, Gab., b. 104; Visconti Venosta to ministro della Casa Reale, Marchese Falcone Lucifero, October 30, 1944, n. 2/661, ASDMAE, Gab., b. 104. While all this was going on in October, the Italian military intelligence service prepared its own report on Monsignor Bartolomasi, not for public consumption, that offered a clear-eyed view of the role the enthusiastic booster of the Fascist regime had played in representing the Vatican during his many years of service. “He always remained in harmony with the policies of the Holy See,” wrote the analyst, “and it always considered him a very well-balanced prelate who merited special consideration.” SIM report, October 9, 1944, AUSSME, SIM, Div. 1, b. 139, ff. 56775–76.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 22
Dole 2005.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 23
Isaac Herzog and Benzion Uziel to Maglione, July 6, 1944, ASRS, AA.EE.SS., Pio XII, parte 1, Germania, posiz. 742, f. 244r. The internal discussion on how to reply, including the pope’s July 18 instructions, is found at ff. 246r–47r. During the last week of August, Herzog went to Cairo to meet with Father Arthur Hughes, the apostolic delegate responsible for Palestine, to urge the pope to intercede to prevent the deportation of the Jews from Hungary. He told Hughes that he “deeply regrets not being able to go to the Vatican…but,” Hughes reported, “he abides by the decision of the Holy See for the reasons of prudence explained to him.” Hughes to Tardini, September 12, 1944, ASRS, AA.EE.SS., Pio XII, Parte Asterisco, Stati Ecclesiastici, posiz. 575*, f. 2069r. Tardini was unhappy with the reply drafted by Monsignor Dell’Acqua, writing in the margin: “This language is too cold. The interest shown by the Holy See should be made clearer. The less one is able to accomplish the more necessary it is to extol the Holy See’s action” (f. 2073r).
