WWII Pope Pius knew about death camps as early as 1942, new Vatican letter suggests
- The relationship between Pius and Nazis, especially Adolf Hitler, has long been known, but the Vatican argued he didn’t know about the Holocaust killings
- A recently discovered letter suggests otherwise, and the Vatican is thought to have received regular updates from Germany about the death camps
A letter published today by the Italian news outlet Corriere della Sera appears to confirm that World War II Pope Pius XII could have known details about the Nazi mass killings of Jewish and Polish populations as early as 1942.
While the relationship between Nazi top ranks and the Pope had previously been revealed, the Vatican argued that Pius could not have openly taken action against the mass killings because the Holy See couldn’t verify they were taking place, according to historian David Kertzer’s book The Pope at War, as cited by The Guardian. But this new letter suggests otherwise.
This message is “the only remaining proof of a correspondence that likely took place over a long period of time,” Giovanni Coco, the Vatican archivist who found the letter, told Corriere. The Vatican is thought to have received regular updates from Germany about the death camps.
The typewritten letter was authored by a German anti-Nazi Jesuit priest and sent to one of the Pope’s top aides, Pius’s secretary Robert Leiber.
Written in German, it opens with the line “Dear friend!” suggesting the two had a close relationship. It describes the use of crematoriums and mass murder in the Polish town of Rava-Rus’ka, now in modern-day Ukraine, where up to 6,000 people were killed. Thousands were transported to the death camp of Belzec in Nazi-occupied Poland. It also mentions the camps of Auschwitz and Dachau.
There’s no proof that the Pope saw the letter – and the author, German Reverend Lothar König, urges caution and care against leaks to prevent the anti-Nazi network from being betrayed.
