The Pope at War, page 74
In late July, Myron Taylor had asked the pope to help broker an agreement with the men who now ruled northern Italy, aimed at saving the thousands of Jews stranded there. It called for the Allies to send ships to a northern Italian Adriatic port and transport all the Jews being held in Italian concentration camps to safety in Allied-controlled areas of Italy or in Africa. On August 7, Tardini passed the proposal on to the German ambassador, now himself confined to Vatican City. Weizsäcker refused to get involved, saying he was not in a position to help. He suggested they interest the papal nuncio in Berlin in the matter. This they did, but to little effect. Orsenigo replied in late August that he had raised the question in the German Foreign Ministry, but they had said the matter was not their responsibility but that of Mussolini’s government.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 24
Chapter 39: A Gruesome End
“Bologna bombardata 1943–1945,” Biblioteca Digitale dell’Archiginnasio, Bologna, http://badigit.comune.bologna.it/bolognabombardata/cronologia.htm.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 1
Bernardini sent the text of Cardinal Schuster’s October 5 letter to Tardini on October 24, 1944, ASRS, AA.EE.SS., Pio XII, parte I, Italia, posiz. 1356, ff. 106rv. Schuster’s October 20 report on the bombing raid, which Bernardini sent on to Tardini on October 26, is found at f. 99r.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 2
Milza 2000, pp. 928–31. Mussolini’s reference here was presumably to the phrase “passare dall’altare alla polvere,” figuratively, from being an object of highest esteem to a nobody.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 3
Memorandum for the President, from Charles S. Cheston, Acting Director, OSS, January 10, 1945, FDR Library, psf 794, pp. 23–27.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 4
Taylor to U.S. secretary of state, January 15 and 16, 1945, NARA, RG 59, Entry 1070, box 29, pp. 62, 63; Tittmann 2004, p. 212.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 5
Segreteria di Stato di Sua Santità to Myron Taylor, January 17, 1945, and Colonel William A. Wedemeyer to Taylor, February 12, 1945, NARA, RG 59, Entry A1, 1068, box 11, fold 811.5.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 6
OSS Headquarters detachment 2677th regt. OSS, Italian division, April 6, 1945, Report no. 131, NARA, RG 226, Entry A1–210, box 340. Even during the German occupation, the pope had been concerned about increasing “immorality” in Allied-occupied southern Italy. In late May he called on Italian Catholic Action to prepare to meet the threat that the arrival of Allied troops in Rome would pose. “Relazione sull’immoralità in Roma,” May 24, 1944, AAV, Segr. Stato, 1944, Associazioni Cattoliche, posiz. 75, ff. 2r–5r. Notes on the pope’s directive are at f. 2r.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 7
Taylor’s popularity in Italy was such that in September 1944 the grand master of the Order of Malta let the Vatican know his intention to award the American a high honor. The grand master checked first, though, with the Vatican Secretariat of State, which in turn asked Archbishop Francis Spellman what he thought. Spellman replied that he opposed giving the honor to Taylor, not because of anything he had against him personally, but because he was a Protestant and the Order of Malta was a Catholic organization. Spellman complained that in the past the order had honored a number of Protestants, saying that this had made a bad impression in the United States. A handwritten note on the Secretariat of State’s September 30, 1944, memo reporting Spellman’s opinion reads: “The Order of Malta has suspended the awarding of the honor.” AAV, Segr. Stato, 1944, Ordini religiosi maschili, posiz. 76, f. 2r.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 8
Hubert Guérin to Georges Bidault, Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, Paris, March 17, 1945, MAEN, RSS 576, PO/1, 1183.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 9
Taylor to FDR, December 12, 1944, FDR Library, psfc 5, pp. 74–78; Taylor to FDR and Hull, December 28, 1944, NARA, RG 59, Entry 1070, box 29, p. 65. The pope had been receiving reports of the high regard in which the German ambassador held him. Earlier in the year Monsignor Pucci had written a letter to the pope recounting the “great admiration” Weizsäcker had for the pope, how inspiring the German thought the pope’s sermons were, and after his audiences with the pope, how he “remain[ed] above all struck by that sense of paternal and affable goodness with which Your Holiness puts Your interlocutor at ease, allowing him to open up his soul with filial confidence.” Pucci to Pius XII, January 13, 1944, ASRS, AA.EE.SS., Pio XII, parte I, Italia, posiz. 1352a, ff. 25r–26r.
At this time, too, Mussolini’s ambassador in Berlin was reporting the latest news of the activities of Monsignor Orsenigo, the papal nuncio in the German capital. The ambassador had learned from his friends in the German Foreign Ministry that “in recent days,” Orsenigo was “multiplying his steps to get closer to the German authorities.” Joining a lunch that Hitler’s Foreign Ministry had arranged with the ambassadors of the Axis-allied countries, Monsignor Orsenigo “expressed himself, in an unusual fashion, in a markedly friendly way toward Germany and openly approved of some of the fervently anti-communist remarks of his fellow diners.” Anfuso, Berlin, to RSI Foreign Ministry, December 19, 1944, tel. 10089, ASDMAE, RSI, Affari Commerciali, b. 203.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 10
Schuster to Bernardini, January 22, 1945, ADSS, vol. 11, n. 494.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 11
Pancino’s letter to Bernardini, dated February 5, 1945, is at AAV, Arch. Nunz. Svizzera, b. 224, fasc. 631, ff. 162rv; Bernardini to Tardini, February 9, 1945, ADSS, vol. 11, n. 501. Father Pancino met with Mussolini on March 5, reporting to him before going on to see the nuncio in Switzerland. Mussolini to Petacci, March 5, 1945, letter 292, Montevecchi 2011, p. 372.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 12
Archbishop Schuster was in communication with Mussolini over the previous months, writing the Duce directly a number of times to plead with him to stop the cruelty inflicted on clergy and laypeople alike by his republican government. Among the most recent examples was Schuster’s letter to Mussolini of March 1, 1945, AA.EE.SS., Pio XII, parte I, Italia, posiz. 1356, f. 551r.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 13
Schuster to Bernardini, March 5, 1945, Annex II to ADSS, vol. 11, n. 514; Sottosegretariato per la Stampa, presidenza, Consiglio dei Ministri, to Ministero degli Affari Esteri, March 15, 1945, prot. 499, ASDMAE, SG, b. 43.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 14
Bernardini to Tardini, March 12, 1945, ADSS, vol. 11, n. 512; Schuster to Bernardini, March 5, 1945, Annex I to ADSS, vol. 11, n. 514.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 15
Bernardini to Tardini, March 13, 1945, ADSS, vol. 11, n. 514.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 16
Tardini notes, March 13, 1945, ADSS, vol. 11, n. 513. The nuncio’s fears that spies in Switzerland might get wind of what was going on turned out to be well founded. On the same day as the pope sent his response, the American intelligence service was briefing the American president: Mussolini was sending letters to the papal nuncio in Switzerland through his friend, a priest. “Himmler wishes the Nuncio to advise the Vatican that Germany desires peace and is disposed to facilitate the entrance of Anglo-American but not Soviet troops.” The OSS reports from Berlin to Secretary of State Hull, seen by FDR, were sent on March 14 and 16, 1945, FDR Library, psf 799, pp. 4, 9–10, and NARA, RG 226, Microfilm M1642, roll 21, pp. 66–68.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 17
Bernardini to Tardini, March 26, 1945, ADSS, vol. 11, n. 528.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 18
Schuster to Bernardini, March 13, 1945, ADSS, vol. 11, n. 515.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 19
Osborne to Foreign Office, London, March 28, 1945, tel. 14, NAK, WO, 106/4038.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 20
Bernardini to Tardini, March 26, 1945, ADSS, vol. 11, n. 528. Three days after the pope’s discussion with Tardini, the pontiff met with Myron Taylor and told him of Mussolini’s approach to Cardinal Schuster and the existence of the written peace proposal, assuring him at the same time that the pope had immediately responded that it was not worth passing it on as the Allies had made clear their demand for unconditional surrender. Taylor asked to have a copy of the proposal to send to Roosevelt. At Tardini’s urging, the pope had Monsignor Carroll first translate the document into English so that the original text remained secret. Tardini notes, April 5, 1945, ADSS, vol. 11, n. 533.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 21
Tardini notes, February 20, 25, March 1, 1945, ADSS, vol. 11, nn. 504, 505, 508. On the pope’s illness, see Fonogramma dall’Ufficio speciale di S. Pietro to Segreteria del Capo della Polizia, April 7, 1945, ACS, MI, DAGRA, 1944–46, b. 214, n. 046-1.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 22
Weizsäcker [although unsigned] to Foreign Ministry, Berlin, March 28, 1945, PAAA, GARV, R997; Kershaw 2000, pp. 832–33.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 23
AAV, Segr. Stato, Commissione Soccorsi, b. 57, fasc. 908, ff. 3r–4r. As the telegram signed by Maglione is dated August 17, 1944, five days before his death, it appears that it was in fact written by Monsignor Montini, as the handwriting on the draft of the telegram dated the previous day seems to suggest.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 24
A handwritten note at the bottom of the Secretariat of State copy of the telegram reads: “The present cypher does not seem to have arrived at its addressee.” AAV, Segr. Stato, Commissione Soccorsi, b. 57, fasc. 908, f. 6r.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 25
The documentation on this exchange, and the pope’s subsequent telegram of condolences to Mafalda’s brother, Prince Umberto, are found at AAV, Segr. Stato, Commissione Soccorsi, b. 57, fasc. 908, ff. 1r–29r. The story of her death, datelined Paris, was reported in The New York Times, April 24, 1945, p. 13. Mafalda’s eldest child, Maurizio, was serving in the German army at the time she was seized.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 26
The following day Schuster reported to the pope on the April 25 meeting. Once Mussolini had left, the archbishop reported, the German consul general came to meet with the Resistance heads in his office. ASRS, AA.EE.SS., Pio XII, parte I, Italia, posiz. 1356, f. 624r.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 27
Chessa and Raggi 2010, p. 29.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 28
Based primarily on the description offered by Milza 2000, pp. 935–47. Taylor himself noted the placement of the Osservatore Romano note on Mussolini’s death in his May 1, 1945, report to U.S. secretary of state, NARA, RG 59, Entry 1070, box 29.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 29
Schuster to Tardini, May 4, 1945, ASRS, AA.EE.SS., Pio XII, parte I, Italia, posiz. 1356, ff. 626r–27r. Schuster had written a string of complaints about Calcagno and regarded him as a disgrace to the priesthood.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 30
Kershaw 2000, pp. 820–31.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 31
The text of the pope’s address to the Sacred College is found at https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/it/speeches/1945/documents/hf_p-xii_spe_19450602_accogliere.html. D’Arcy Osborne, the British envoy to the Vatican, in sending a copy of the pope’s speech to British foreign secretary Anthony Eden, explained, “The main purpose of the Allocution appears to be a justification of—and to some extent perhaps an apologia for—the attitude of the Catholic Church towards the Nazi regime.” Osborne to Eden, June 2, 1945, NAK, FO 371, 50062, 3. For the similar view of the speech expressed by the French chargé d’affaires Jean Bourdeillette, see his June 5, 1945, report to French foreign minister Georges Bidault, MAEN, RSS 576, PO/1 1183. See also Miccoli’s (2003, pp. 164–65) critique of the pope’s June 2 address.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 32
The Catholic Action celebration of the anniversary of the liberation of Rome is described in Bourdeillette’s June 16 report to Georges Bidault, MAEN, RSS 576, PO/1, 1183.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 33
Epilogue
There is a considerable literature now on the myth of the good Italian, often contrasting the humane Italian with the evil German during the Second World War and also portraying Italy’s colonial enterprise (wrongly) as unusually mild, e.g., Del Boca 2011; Focardi 2013; Allegra 2013.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 1
See Osti Guerrazzi 2016 and Levis Sullam 2018.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 2
Spataro, Ministero dell’Interno, Gabinetto, Rome, June 26, 1945, AAV, Segr. Stato, Commissione Soccorsi, b. 304, fasc. 29, ff. 6rv.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 3
ASRS, AA.EE.SS., Pio XII, parte I, Stati Ecclesiastici, posiz. 739, f. 77.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 4
Jemolo 1955, p. 270.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 5
The book in question was authored by Ernesto Rossi (1958). The Osservatore Romano comment is quoted in Mimmo Franzinelli’s postscript to the republication of Rossi’s book (2000, pp. 337–38).
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 6
Franzinelli 2000, pp. 339–41.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 7
Montini’s letter, originally published in the July 6, 1963, issue of The Tablet, was republished in Commonweal, February 28, 1964, pp. 651–52.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 8
The pope’s letter of presentation and the text of “We Remember” can be found at https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/letters/1998/documents/hf_jp-ii_let_19980312_shoah.html. On this topic, see also Caffiero 2009.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 9
Most commonly cited in this regard is the pope’s 1942 Christmas speech. Strikingly, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights in the United States placed an advertisement in the December 17, 2012, edition of The New York Times to call attention to that speech of seventy years earlier. The ad concludes with a statement signed by the organization’s president: “We feel confident that when the entire Vatican archives are released, there will be even more reason to salute the heroics of Pope Pius XII.”
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 10
Osborne to Churchill, July 14, 1945, NAK, FO 371, 50062, 115.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 11
Osborne to Ernest Bevin, London, December 26, 1945, no. 238. Osborne’s report and the official English text of the pope’s Christmas speech are found at NAK, FO 371, 60794, ZM77/8/57.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 12
Diana to De Gasperi, February 11, 1946, DDI, series 10, vol. 3, n. 179; “Bishops criticize actions of their predecessors in Nazi Germany,” Catholic San Francisco, April 30, 2020, https://www.ncronline.org/news/quick-reads/bishops-criticize-actions-their-predecessors-nazi-germany. An English translation of the German bishop’s recent statement on the war is available at https://www.dbk.de/fileadmin/redaktion/diverse_downloads/presse_2020/2020-04-29_DB_107_Englisch.pdf.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 13
Diana reported to Prime Minister De Gasperi on July 5, 1946, that the pope had directed Montini to speak with him about the pope’s worries regarding the fate of the Lateran Accords and to get assurance that they would be preserved under the new government. DDI, series 10, vol. 3, n. 663. The Lateran Accords consisted of three separate agreements, including the treaty establishing Vatican City as a sovereign state, a concordat governing relations between church and state in Italy, and a financial agreement in which the Italian state made a large payment to the church. In 1984 the Vatican and the Italian state negotiated a revision of the concordat, partially to reflect changes in the church since the Second Vatican Council. The revised agreement can be found at https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/secretariat_state/archivio/documents/rc_seg-st_19850603_santa-sede-italia_it.html.
BACK TO NOTE REFERENCE 14
Jean Bourgeillette to Georges Bidault, Paris, August 21, 1946, MAEN, RSS 576, PO/1, 1205; Parsons, memorandum of conversation with Tardini, July 30, 1947, NARA, RG 59, Entry A1, 1068, box 15.
