The view that Pope Pius XII failed to issue an open and unmistakable condemnation of the Nazi persecution of the Jews until after Hitler’s death because the late Pontiff lived under the constant threat of arrest and deportation by the Nazis, is advanced by the Italian magazine “Oggi” on the basis of interviews with two former German diplomats and an SS colonel who were in Rome during the Second World War.
Those interviewed by the magazine were Rudolf Rah, former German Ambassador to Rome; Albert von Kessel, former embassy secretary to the Holy See; and Colonel Eugene Doliman.The three Germans revealed that Hitler, angered by the fall of the fascist regime and by the Italian armistice, had given orders to occupy the Vatican and deport the Pope to Germany.
The magazine article said that the plan had been prepared by Hitler’s deputy, Martin Bormann, but that eventually Himmler convinced Hitler to give up the idea.
“These revelations, ” it is emphasized, “show that Pope Pius lived under permanent threat. Had he openly condemned Nazism, Hitler would not have hesitated to invade the Vatican and have him arrested. All the assistance the Vatican was carrying out in favor of the Jews and of the people persecuted by the Nazis and Fascists and the moderating influence that Catholic generals and politicians were still able to exercise inside the Nazi regime would have cone to an end and the church’s central organization would have been disrupted.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
