Pope Paul VI who, in 1940, served in a highly trusted position in the Vatican under his name of Giovanni Batista Montini, had acted as a “particularly trusted intermediary” for the late Pope Pius XII in informing the British and French Ambassadors in Rome that Hitler was about to attack their countries, it was revealed here this weekend. The disclosure was made in a paper read to the convention of the American Historical Association by Prof. Harold C; Deutsch, head of the history department at the University of Minnesota. He identified himself as a man of “no particular religious affiliation.” (In Rome today, the Vatican confirmed the present pontiff’s role in the events related by Prof. Deutsch.)
The paper by Prof. Deutsch was one of a number on the role of the Vatican prior to and during World War II presented to the historians by a number of scholars, Catholic and non-Catholic. Prof. John L. Snell, of Tulane University, New Orleans, the official commentator at the session, saying that Pius had been “no admirer of Hitler,” noted nevertheless that the wartime Pope had been in error for not speaking out against Hitler’s program for the annihilation of European Jews.
Dr. Snell said that, had it not been for “The Deputy,” the drama about Pius’ silence on the subject, written by a German playwright and creating controversy around the world, the papers here would probably not have been on the program. He accused one of the Catholic speakers at the session of having “glossed over” this issue. “Historians,” he held, “must grapple with the silence of Pius XII.”
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