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Pope Makes Formal Protest to Germany over Deportation of Jews from Italy

December 9, 1943
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Pope Pius personally protested yesterday to the German Ambassador to the Vatican against the continued deportation of Jews from Rome and other cities in the German-controlled part of Italy, it was reported in the Swedish press today.

The German ambassador, Baron Ernst von Weizsaeker, was given a brief audience by the Pope during which the formal protest was made. Last week, the Observators Romano, official organ of the Vatican, published an article which stated that the Pope viewed with disfavor the Nazi persecution of the Jews in Italy. The Germans, however, paid no attention to the article and continued to deport Jews from Rome to Unknown destinations.

Trains loaded with Jewish deportees are still leaving Rome daily, according to a report by a correspondent of the influential Swedish newspaper Eskilstuna Kuriren. The correspondent writes that thousands of Jews have already been deported from the Italian capital and German authorities plan to expel about 20,000 Jewish families. Some of the Rome Jews succeeded in reaching Switzerland, while others are in hiding in the countryside, the correspondent adds.

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