I think it is always going to be very difficult to ascertain the truth about Pius XII especially from an organisation as wealthy, powerful and influential as the Roman Catholic Church which has had over a thousand years of experience in controlling the narrative in order to protect and promote its image and power. No earthly authority can demand to see a Pope's tax returns or obtain details of meetings and discussions with his close advisors and administrators. Any official details about Pope Pius's actions during WW2 are inevitably going to be heavily influenced by the how the Papacy wanted - and still wants - to present itself.

Nevertheless when the Nazis arrived on the scene in the 1920s, Pius, then Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, like many other fierce anti-communists, saw them as a bulwark against Bolshevism and was quite vocal in their support. It was also Pacelli, now secretary of state for the Vatican, that in 1933 negotiated the Reichskonkordat, the first international treaty recognizing Hitler’s regime. Most importantly from the Vatican's point of view, under its terms the rights of the German Catholic Church were guaranteed - and in return, the church agreed to honour the Nazis’ civil authority in Germany. In itself the Reichskonkordat was not that significant - a dozen concordats had been agreed with various European states throughout the 19th century including the one signed in 1801 between the Vatican and Napoleon Bonaparte allowing the Catholic Church to continue to operate in Revolutionay France which was then at war with most of Europe - nevertheless the Reichskonkordat did serve to give Hitler's new government legitimacy. Hitler crowed that it was "especially significant in the urgent struggle against international Jewry". As Pope (after 2 March 1939) Pius didn't display or promote anti-semitism but his opposition to Hitler’s Final Solution wasn’t exactly staunch.

By means of the concordat the Catholic Church retained ownership of its property in Germany (and after the 1938 Anschluss also in predominantly Catholic Austria) with the right to continue the operation, not just of the churches, but also Catholic schools, colleges, seminaries, hospitals, orphanages and businesses (such as for the publishing and distribution of bibles and other religious works). The Catholic Church therefore retained considerable earthly power, wealth and influence within the Reich: effectively it was to be business as usual. Furthermore the Vatican, being officially neutral, still had great influence in Germany through its diplomatic and humanitarian missions.

The Vatican was thus in a unique position to uncover what was really going on in the Third Reich, and by at least late 1942 Pius must have known from many sources that millions of Jews were being systematically exterminated. Yet he declined President Roosevelt’s request to openly denounce the genocide and he would not sign the Allied Condemnation of Jewish persecution (17 December 1942). A week later in his Christmas broadcast, Pius grieved for victims who, "only by reason of their nationality or descent, were doomed to death or progressive extinction" but he chose not to cite the Jews by name. In October 1943, just a few hundred yards from the Vatican, more than 1,000 Roman Jews were rounded up by German troops stationed in fascist Italy, for deportation to Auschwitz. Pius was urged to intervene but declined. I assume Pius feared that speaking out too clearly against the persecution of the Jews could have brought down the Nazis’ wrath, perhaps even to the destruction of the Vatican itself. Pius certainly did have reason to worry about reprisals: in July 1942, after the Catholic Church in the Netherlands openly condemned the persecution of the Jews, the Nazis responded by deporting to concentration camps hundreds of Dutch Jews who had converted to Catholicism. This so horrified Pius that he reportedly burned his own planned denunciation, explaining that it "could cost the lives of perhaps 200,000 Jews."

I know the Vatican had to be diplomatic and tread carefully when dealing with the Nazis, but I feel that Pius largely failed to speak out against one of the greatest acts of evil in human history and took an overly cautious stance toward opposing the Holocaust, declining to take any steps that might have angered Hitler or caused problems for the Church. He was hardly "Hitler’s Pope" as some have called him, but to my mind if any one person had the moral authority and obligation to hold the Nazis to account, it was his Holiness the Pope, Pius XII.

Meles meles wrote:

Most importantly from the Vatican's point of view, under its terms the rights of the German Catholic Church were guaranteed; in return, the church agreed to honour the Nazis’ civil authority in Germany. In itself the Reichskonkordat was not that significant - a dozen concordats had been agreed with various European states throughout the 19th century including the one signed in 1801 between the Vatican and Napoleon Bonaparte allowing the Catholic Church to continue to operate in Revolutionay France which was then at war with most of Europe - nevertheless the Reichskonkordat did serve to give Hitler's new government legitimacy.

Some good points there Meles. It’s also worth noting the obvious fact that the Concordat allowed Catholic children in Germany to attend Catholic schools. The alternative presumably would have been for them to attend state-run schools which, needless to say, became increasingly aligned with government policies over the following years.

It’s also a bit of a canard to say that the Concordat was concluded ‘with Nazi Germany’. The head of state of Germany at the time was President Paul von Hindenburg while the Vice-Chancellor (who signed the concordat on behalf of Germany) was Franz von Papen. Neither von Hindenburg nor von Papen were members of Adolph Hitler’s party. Although it could be argued that the Concordat gave legitimacy to Hitler’s government, the Concordat was, however, signed with Germany as a state and not with Hitler’s government per se. This is why it is still in effect today.

Furthermore (and staying with international recognition and diplomatic legitimacy) then France, the UK and Italy signed the Quadripartite Agreement with Germany on 15 July 1933 which was 5 days before the signing of the Concordat. The British embassy in Berlin (along with many others) remained extraordinary and plenipotentiary before and after Hitler’s appointment as chancellor. It didn’t close until 1939.

Some good points there too, Viz, about it being a concordat with Germany and not with the Nazis themselves. It also should be noted that the 1933 Reichskonkordat signed with Germany was preceeded by a very similarly worded concordat agreed in 1932 with the government of Engelbert Dollfuß, the Chancellor of Austria. Dollfuß was assassinated shortly after ratifying the concordat (almost certainly by Nazi agents) but it remained in force until the 1938 Anschluß and Austria's annexation by Germany. The concordat with Austria then fell into abeyance until revived in 1958 (interestingly some clauses from the 1932 concordat - principally a few concerning religious education - are still enshrined in Austrian law, but that's another matter).

However it should also be noted that the 1933 Reichskonkordat with Germany included a secret supplement. This was an annexe that was added at the request of the German prelate Ludwig Kaas almost at the very last moment before it was signed. Nevertheless, despite the late demands, these supplementary clauses were duly agreed and subsequently included into the final agreement. The clauses of this annexe were however never publicised at the time and indeed the contents of this supplementary protocol were kept so secret that Ernst von Weizsacker, State Secretary in the German Foreign Ministry from 1938, did not know of its existence until a year after he'd taken office (five years after it had been signed) and then only when he'd been informed of it, privately, by the Papal Nuncio. This annexe provided for Catholic clergy to be exempt from conscription in the event of military mobilisation, whilst allowing the Church to appoint Catholic military chaplains in support of German remilitarisation. Even now the supplement is still omitted from the official online Vatican translations of the concordat in both German and Italian, which suggests that the Catholic Church doesn't want to admit that in 1933 it already suspected Hitler was about to start re-armament in preparation for a future war, in violation of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, and that moreover it was ready to go along with it.


Reichskonkordat Secret Supplement/Der Geheimanhang des Reichskonkordats (taken from the Originaltext und deutsche Uebersetzung der geltenden Konkordate).

In case of a change in the present German armed forces in the sense of the introduction of universal conscription, the induction of priests and other members of the regular clergy and the orders into military service will, with the understanding of the Holy See, be arranged within the framework of approximately the following guiding ideas:

a) Students of philosophy and theology at Church institutions who are preparing themselves for the priesthood are to be freed from military service and the preparatory drills for it, except in the case of a general mobilisation.

b) In the case of a general mobilization clerics who are employed in the diocese administration or the military chaplaincy are freed from reporting for duty. This applies to ordinaries, members of the ordinariate, provosts of seminaries and Church residences for seminarians, professors at the seminaries, parish priests, curates, rectors, coadjucators and the clerics who provide a church with worship services on a continuing basis.

c) The remaining clerics, insofar as they are considered suitable, are to join the armed forces of the state in order to devote themselves to pastoral care for the troops under the Church jurisdiction of the military bishops, if they are not inducted into the medical unit.

d) The remaining clergy in sacris or members of orders, who are not yet priests are to be assigned to the medical unit. The same shall apply when possible to the candidates for the priesthood mentioned in a) who have not yet taken their final vows.

Newly discovered correspondence dated 14 December 1942 suggests that Pope Pius XII had detailed information from a trusted German Jesuit that up to 6,000 Jews and Poles were being gassed each day in German-occupied Poland. The documentation undercuts the Vatican's argument that it couldn't verify diplomatic reports of Nazi atrocities to denounce them.

The Guardian 17 Sept 2023 : Letter suggests Pope Pius XII knew of mass gassings of Jews and Poles in 1942.

This upsets me as a Catholic.