Report published in the Italian newspaper “Corriere della Sera”
VATICAN, Sept. 6, 01 (ACI).- A revealing report by the Italian daily “Corriere della Sera” made known files from the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that confirm what the Holy See has been pointing out against the slanders of interest groups: Pope Pius XII energetically defended the Jews of Rome.
According to secret Second World War files of the OSS, which would later become the CIA, Pope Pius XII was actively involved in the effort to save Jews, as well as in the resistance to the Nazi invasion of Italy.
According to Corriere della Sera, the Pontiff summoned the then German Chancellor to demand that he stop the deportation of Jews as soon as he learned of Nazi policy. From that moment on, the Vatican systematically opposed Hitler’s plans to exterminate the Jews.
The CIA files, which have only recently been made available to researchers, reveal that in his Christmas message of 1942, Pope Pacelli asked for help “for those hundreds of thousands of persons who — without any fault on their part, sometimes only by reason of their nationality or race — have been consigned to death or to a gradual extermination”.
The American documents also reveal that in July 1942, the Papal Nuncio in France met with the leaders of the puppet government of Vichy to express the Holy See’s rejection of the decision to enter into an alliance with the Nazi regime.
The OSS files also reveal systematic German efforts to silence the Jesuits of southern Germany. A Jesuit provincial, in a document written shortly after the liberation of Germany, revealed that the Nazi government had demanded a list of all Jesuit priests, so that they could be captured and sent to concentration camps. The provincial, who was taken prisoner when he refused to obey, helped provide the Vatican with a detailed description of the situation in the concentration camps. This led Pope Pius XII to become the first world leader to attempt to halt the persecution of the Jews.
