"A cardinal in the service of Hitler." "The Holy Father who never dared to oppose Nazism." Such an image of Pius XII, the wartime pope, is well known. However, it is far from the truth. The head of the Catholic Church was fully aware of the horror of Nazism. And he knew that everything - absolutely everything - had to be done to stop the leader of the Third Reich.
When Eugenio Pacelli was elected new pope after a one-day conclave on March 2, 1939, the greatest dissatisfaction prevailed in the Third Reich. The Nazis have long regarded him as a bitter enemy of National Socialism . They especially remembered his participation in the publication of the encyclical "Mit brennender Sorge" (German "With Burning Concern") by Pius XI in March 1937, which strongly condemned Nazism.
When the world is darkened
The overriding goal of Pius XII, immediately after his election to the throne of Peter, was to prevent the impending storm that would soon spread throughout Europe. Despite the most sincere intentions, he failed to convene a peace conference in May 1939, from which all invited guests exclaimed. The "sincerest" answer was given by Hitler, explaining to the papal envoy that Germany had no intention of bringing about a war .
The Pope tried to remain neutral at all costs. The German aggression against Poland did not affect the way Pius XII operated. He knew that all he could achieve by thundering against the Führer was heavier harassment against the clergy and lay Catholics in Poland and the Reich.
Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1990-048-29A, Adolf Hitler.jpg
By all means tried to dissuade Mussolini from dragging the Italians into the war . At the same time, he led the Church to become widely involved in charity work towards civilian victims of the war.
All this was conducted more or less officially. On the other hand, the actions taken by the Vatican in November 1939 were strictly confidential. Actions that, if found, would compromise the papacy.
A plot against the Führer
From the beginning of the NSDAP rule in Germany, there was an opposition opposed to Hitler, which set itself the goal of removing him from government or simply physically eliminating the leader. Strong opposition circles also existed in the German army, supported by Admiral Wilhelm Canaris who was decidedly hostile to Hitler, the head of military counterintelligence and intelligence - the Abwehr.
The declaration of war on Germany by England and France spurred the oppositionists to action. In November 1939, they made a proposal to eliminate Adolf Hitler. The plan for the coup d'état, devised by Admiral Canaris, was very simple. Two armored divisions were to blockade the Reich capital, while a group of sixty Abwehr commandos were to "neutralize" Hitler.
Of course, the neutralization was to involve the physical elimination of the leader, but it was decided to put it in beautiful words so as not to alienate the partner from the plan, who would soon be informed about the conspirators' intentions. This partner was to be Pius XII.
The biggest problem of the conspirators was the reaction of the Western allies to the coup d'état - they feared that Hitler's death and the internal chaos that would have arisen in Germany would lead to the country's collapse and destruction. It became necessary to learn the opinions of the British and French on the potential effects of the attack. The Catholic Church seemed to Canaris the ideal institution to handle such a delicate matter.
The admiral valued Pius XII very much - he had known him since the 1920s, when he was meeting with the best informed diplomat in Berlin on horseback rides with a mutual friend. Additionally, the cooperation with the Church was facilitated by the ease and breadth of contacts that the pope had with each diocese - there was a kind of "spy network" composed of priests who reported directly to the Vatican.
Canaris knew Pius XII from the 1920s, when he was still nuncio in Germany as Eugenio Pacelli (source:Bundesarchiv; license CC-BY-SA 3.0).
The conspirators decided to contact Pius XII through Josef Müller , a Bavarian Catholic and attorney who, on the orders of Pacelli, was involved in collecting evidence of the violation of the concordat by the Reich authorities. In the book "The Church of Spies. The Pope's Secret War against Hitler ”Mark Riebling reads:
He did a lot of dangerous things, said a Jesuit priest about Müller later. - He was a brave man. He had to have a strong character. He flew his little sports planes from Germany to Italy, bringing documents to Merano. There he passed them on to someone who took them to Pacelli in the Vatican.
Müller, through his friend Ludwig Kaas, who was the guardian of the Vatican crypts, handed over Canaris and the rest of the conspirators to the Pope. The behavior of the head of the Church surprised his closest associates - he usually took his time with making important decisions, now he made it in one afternoon. Pius XII decided to support the German opposition and joined the plot.
The conspirator of the Vatican
Pius XII treated his involvement in the conspiracy not as an open war of the Church or the Vatican against Nazism, but as a conflict between the Pope and Hitler. He did not want the Fuhrer's revenge on German Catholics in the event of a possible failure . While the conspirators in Germany accelerated their actions, the Pope played a diplomatic game probing the opinion of the British.
In the meantime, two events took place that had a huge impact on the further fate of the plot. First, on November 8, shortly after 9 p.m., a bomb planted by German communist Georg Elser exploded in a Munich beer hall where Hitler had just spoken.
Josef Müller (first from the left, with a cigar) was the Pope's most important German informant and liaison officer. The photo was taken after the war in 1948 (Source:Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild-F046120-0027 / Vollrath, license:CC-BY-SA 3.0).
A day later in Venlo, the Netherlands, SS henchmen kidnapped two British spies with whom Walter Schellenberg, later SD boss, played a game, introducing himself as one of the conspirators to overthrow Hitler.
These events called into question the plans of the conspirators gathered around Canaris and the Pope. On the one hand, these two incidents sharpened the vigilance of the SS, and on the other, reduced the confidence of the British in the anti-Nazi opposition in the Reich. In addition, the German security forces have started to tighten the tentacles around Müller.
However, against all odds, Pius XII continued his commitment to the cause. On December 1, Kaas presented the papal offer and the plot to the British ambassador to the Vatican, D'Arcy Osborn. On February 7, the Pope personally conveyed the information of the conspiracy to the ambassador who had come to the Vatican in secret while asking for the opposition's demands to be met, that is, to quickly conclude peace and leave Germany connected with Austria.
The initially skeptical British, thanks to the activities of Pius XII, were ready to agree to German demands. The plan, however, backfired for very mundane reasons. First, the chief of staff, General Franz Halder, who was supposed to shoot Hitler, gnawed at the conscience. As Mark Riebling writes about the conspirators in his book The Church of Spies . The Pope's secret war with Hitler ": Christian scruples touched their hearts, but also paralyzed their hands.
General Franz Halder, his adjutant was to kill Hitler (source:Bundesarchiv; lic. CC-BY-SA 3.0).
Secondly, the further postponement of the date of the assassination led Hitler to increase his popularity in the army and the nation - on April 9, the invasion of Denmark and Norway began, which brought Germany further successes. The chances of the army backing the rebellion decreased drastically. The British, despite the information coming from various sources, including the Vatican, were surprised again.
Nazi supporter in the silent fight against the Nazis
Information about the German invasion plan to the west was also communicated to the Allies by envoys of Pius XII. This lasted for the first days of May, until the beginning of "Fall Gelb" (German "Variant Yellow", code name of the French campaign of 1940). Again, it was of no avail. Papal critique of the invasion drove Hitler and Mussolini furious. The latter even called the Vatican a "cave of spies" and threatened to seize it. Upon hearing of the "final solution of the Jewish question" Pius XII encouraged religious orders and church dignitaries to join in quietly helping Jews . However, he was afraid to stand up openly in their defense, and in a way history has proved him right.
When in April 1942 the Dutch bishops condemned the deportations of Jews, the Nazis retaliated not only by speeding up their pace, but also including converts from Judaism to Christianity (this is how the later Saint Edith Stein was sent to Auschwitz Birkenau).
In Rome alone, less than five thousand Jews found refuge in Vatican monasteries and estates. Castel Gandolfo also became a place of refuge for nearly three thousand Jews.
At the beginning of 1943, the pope again began to cooperate with conspirators planning to assassinate Hitler. And this time Pius XII was to ensure the neutrality of the Allies at the time of the change of authorities in the Third Reich. However, two attempts to assassinate Hitler in March failed. In addition, individual conspirators began to fall into the hands of the Gestapo.
Pope Pius XII, while still Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli - apostolic nuncio in Germany, proved to be an opponent of Nazism.
On August 10, the pope again became a "prisoner of the Vatican" - after the overthrow of Mussolini, the Germans decided to take the country of the former ally. Pius XII was accused of complicity in the conspiracy against Duce . In September, Hitler ordered SS General Karl Wolf to prepare plans to seize the Vatican and deport the Pope.
Wolf, aware of what his future would look like after such an action, began to postpone and delay it, and finally he himself informed the Vatican about his task. After the liberation of the Italian capital, Pius XII was called by the inhabitants of the city "the savior of Rome" - the head of the Catholic Church was credited with leaving the city from the hands of the Nazis almost unscathed.
Josef Müller survived the war thanks to the protection of his friends at the highest levels of power. Were it not for her, he would have ended up hanged on a piano string for participating in a plot against Hitler. The other conspirators weren't so lucky.
Pius XII for his quiet policy of helping Jews is called a friend of the Nazis. It is one of the most deceptive pieces of propaganda that emerged during and after the war. Greater involvement could be counterproductive.
The papal cooperation with the opposition seeking to overthrow Hitler is not remembered for a very simple reason - it does not fit the propaganda image of a "Nazi lover". Also, many do not believe that the pope may have been involved in the planning of the assassination. And yet…