An article defending the late Pope Pius XII against charges made in the play, “The Deputy” – that the Pontiff deliberately maintained-silence instead of speaking out publicly against Hitler’s program for the annihilation of European Jewry – was printed here this weekend by l’Oservatore Romano the official newspaper of the Vatican.
The article, opening a series, was written by Raimondo Manzine, editor of the Vatican organ and was cued to the fact that the controversial drama, by German playwright Rolf Hochhuth, opened its run in New York last week.
Mr. Manzine quoted at length from a letter by Dr. Robert M.W. Kempner, a former German political scientist now in the United States, and a leading prosecutor of German diplomats and Cabinet members at the Nazi war crimes trials in Nuremberg from 1945 to 1949. Dr. Kempner’s letter had ‘absolved Pope Pius of the charges in the Hochhuth play, stating, among other things, that a public declaration by Pope Pius XII would have been a “suicidal provocation” that could have resulted in the death of many more Jews and Catholic priests.
According to Mr. Manzine, the “preferable” course for Pope Pius was the one he took “To continue untiringly, even in silence the work of aid and protection carried on fervidly by Pope Pius XII, and, through diplomatic channels and the hierarchal network to attempt to prevent and limit the horrible initiatives and to comfort and support the victims.”
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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.
