Pope Pius XII knew about the Holocaust: the proof in a letter written in 1942 by a German Jesuit
In «la Lettura» of 17 September, Massimo Franco's interview with the Vatican archivist Giovanni Coco who discovered Lothar König's message to the Pope's secretary
A yellowed letter, dated 14 December 1942, confirms that Pope Pius XII was aware of the crimes committed by the Nazis in the extermination camps. It was discovered by the Vatican archivist Giovanni Coco, who talks about it in «la Lettura» on 17 September interviewed by Massimo Franco. In that message, sent by the anti-Nazi German Jesuit Lothar König to the Pope's Private Secretary, the German Robert Leiber, the SS crematorium in the Bełzec concentration camp, located in German-occupied Poland, is mentioned, and the Auschwitz camp is also mentioned, subject of another report which unfortunately has not been found at the moment.
We therefore find ourselves in the heart of darkness of the final solution desired by Adolf Hitler to completely annihilate European Jewry.
It should also be underlined that this letter, Coco declared to Franco, «represents the only evidence of a correspondence that had to be nourished and prolonged over time». This is therefore fundamental evidence regarding the existence of a flow of news on Nazi crimes that reached the Holy See at the same time as the implementation of the genocide.
If previously in the Vatican it could be believed that the concentration camps were "only" concentration camps, the information provided by König went much further, since in the letter we read that in the "blast furnace" near Rava Rus'ka, i.e. in Bełzec, " up to 6,000 men die every day, especially Poles and Jews." The death machine is described in all its unspeakable horror.
As is known, Pius XII's silence in the face of the mass crimes of the Third Reich has been the subject of heated discussions for a long time between critics and defenders of Pope Eugenio Pacelli: his beatification process, which has begun in 1967 is very controversial within the Catholic Church itself.
An important turning point occurred on March 2, 2020, with the long-awaited opening of the archives: today all the documents relating to the pontificate of Pius XII, which lasted from 1939 to 1958, can be consulted. The availability of that vast material has obviously allowed scholars to intensify their work to better clarify the events relating to the Pope's behavior.
Coco's research, included in the volume The «Index Cards» of Pius XII beyond the myth, to be released on 18 September by the Vatican Apostolic Archives, is a very important stage in the ongoing work of historiographical reconstruction. And an opportunity to compare the different points of view will be offered by the international conference scheduled in Rome at the Pontifical Gregorian University from 9 to 11 October: The new documents from the pontificate of Pius XII and their meaning for Jewish relations -Christian.
At this point, however, there is no doubt that during the Second World War, while increasingly numerous and detailed news reached the Vatican on the atrocities committed by the Nazis, Pius XII preferred to remain silent, or at most express his pain in generic terms. Significant in this regard is a brief passage from the long Christmas speech given by Pope Pacelli on 24 December 1942, in which he referred to the «hundreds of thousands of people, who, without any fault of their own, sometimes only for reasons of nationality or lineage , are destined to death or progressive deterioration."
It can even be hypothesized that the Pope uttered those words also in the wake of the revelations that had just arrived from König on the Nazi concentration camps. But an explicit condemnation of the Third Reich and its regime was never formulated by the Holy See, nor did Pius XII clearly indicate the Jews as victims of the ongoing extermination. His predecessor Achille Ratti, Pius XI proved to be much more determined in expressing his hostility towards the racist and neo-pagan ideology of the Hitler regime.
The Pontiff probably feared that his clear stance would worsen the situation, making the important work of helping the persecuted that the Church was carrying out in those dark days more difficult. And naturally everything became more complicated after the German occupation of Rome, in September 1943. Various explanations can be found for the prudent conduct of the Vatican: certainly the diplomacy of the Holy See was concerned with maintaining its "impartiality" with respect to the warring parties . Perhaps the heavy legacy of the millenary Christian aversion towards the Jews also had a role.
The Pontiff probably feared that his clear stance would worsen the situation, making the important work of helping the persecuted that the Church was carrying out in those dark days more difficult. And naturally everything became more complicated after the German occupation of Rome, in September 1943. Various explanations can be found for the prudent conduct of the Vatican: certainly the diplomacy of the Holy See was concerned with maintaining its "impartiality" with respect to the warring parties . Perhaps the heavy legacy of the millenary Christian aversion towards the Jews also had a role.
Certainly, however, with the further elements provided by Coco in the interview with Franco, it becomes impossible to maintain that Pius XII was not sufficiently informed about the inhuman treatment that the Nazis reserved for their victims. Not only Polish sources or sources attributable to the side fighting against Germany, but also a German Jesuit had provided the Vatican with solid elements to understand the horror that was being perpetrated in the heart of Europe.
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