English
Polish
“If the Holy See knew all these things in 1942, why did it not shout [them] out to the world?”The Vatican in the Face of the Holocaust: Information from Occupied Poland and its Reception by the Holy See, 1941−1943
Monika Stolarczyk-Bilardie
monika.bilardie@kuleuven.be BioMonika Stolarczyk-Bilardie is a graduate of German studies (UW, 2008), Dutch studies (UW, 2009) and history with a specialization in Holocaust and Genocide studies (University of Amsterdam, 2017). Since 2020, she has been a FWO Flanders Fellow at KU Leuven (University of Leuven, Belgium), where she is writing her PhD on Pius XII, Poland and the Holocaust. She was one of the first researchers to conduct searches in the newly released Vatican archives from the period of Pius XII's pontificate.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6353-2010
FWO Flanders PhD Fellow, KU Leuven
Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały, No. 20 (2024), pages: 29-84
Publication date: 2024-12-17
Abstract
This article examines the chronology of information received by the Vatican from Poland under Nazi occupation regarding the persecution and mass killing of Jews between June 1941 and the summer of 1943. It analyses the communication channels between Poland and the Holy See, assessing their reliability and trustworthiness. Furthermore, it considers the content of these sources and the Holy See’s response to this intelligence. By focusing on the archival practice, the article analyses Holocaust awareness in the Vatican. It demonstrates that Pius XII was extensively informed about the Final Solution from his trusted sources as it unfolded. The findings imply that this intelligence was concealed diplomatically by the Vatican, highlighting the previously opaque human element influencing backstage decision-making within the Secretariat of State, especially the previously unknown role of the future pope Paul VI as an inhibitor of the information flow about the Holocaust. The article proposes a departure from the interpretation that the Christmas speech of 1942 constituted the Vatican’s reaction to the Holocaust. The documents show that the decision on how to react to the genocide was taken already in the early fall of 1942. Additionally, the article reveals new insights into the attitudes of the Polish Church hierarchy towards the Holocaust. On the one hand, the article dismantles the myth surrounding Sapieha, while on the other, it illuminates the pivotal role played by Bishop Adamski in disseminating information about the unfolding Holocaust.
Keywords
Information about the Holocaust, Holocaust awareness in the Vatican, Pius XII, Giovanni Battista Montini, Giovanni Malvezzi, Adam Sapieha, Stanisław Adamski, Polish Catholic Church during WWII
References
Źródła archiwalne/ Archival sources
Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu
/320, Fondo Ledóchowski
Archiwum Apostolskie Watykanu
Pio XII, Segreteria Stato, Titoli, Anno 1939, Rappresentanze
Pio XII, Segreteria Stato, Commissione Soccorsi 198, 199, 200, 206, 207, 209
Archiwum Historyczne Sekretariatu Stanu, Sekcja ds. Stosunków z Państwami
Pio XII, Parte I, Ebrei 45
Pio XII, Parte I, Extracta, Germania 742, Ebrei – persecuzione e barbarie nei paesi occupati
Pio XII, Parte I, Polonia 207, Delegato Apostolico
Pio XII, Parte I, Polonia 214, Propaganda ostile alla Santa Sede
Pio XII, Parte I, Polonia 216, Situazione politica e religiosa della Polonia, eccettuato il Warthegau, dal febbraio 1942
Pio XII, Parte I, Polonia 220, Katovice [sic!]. Situazione della diocesi
Pio XII, Parte I, Polonia 223, Varsavia. Condizioni di salute di Mons. Stanislao Gall ed eventuale successione nell’Amministrazione dell’Arcidiocesi
Pio XII, Parte I, Polonia 244, Allocuzione pontifica tenuta al Sacro Collegio il 2 giugno 1943
Pio XII, Parte I, Russia 695, 696
Pio XII, Parte I, Stati Ecclesiastici 625 II, Amministrazione ecc.che di territori posti ai confini della Germania, della Polonia e della Slovachia
Pio XII, Parte I, Stati Ecclesiastici 630, (Polonia) Guerra europea 1939. Situazione della Polonia invasa
Pio XII, Parte I, Stati Ecclesiastici 688a, Polonia – Situazione religiosa della Polonia nel secondo anno di guerra (dal settembre 1940)
Biblioteka Jagiellońska
III 95, Druki ulotne z lat 1939–1945
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