Wartime Pope Pius XII: Unveiling Disturbing Evidence of Early Holocaust Knowledge

During World War II, Pope Pius XII was aware of the specific details regarding the Nazi's systematic extermination of Jews in the Holocaust by 1942. This information contradicts the Holy See's official stance at the time, which claimed that the information they possessed was uncertain and unverified. The letter, which is yellowed and typewritten, was found in the Vatican archives by an archivist affiliated with the Vatican and has been disclosed to the public with the support of Holy See authorities.

Dated December 14, 1942, this letter was penned by Father Lother Koenig, a Jesuit who took part in the anti-Nazi resistance within Germany. It was specifically addressed to Father Robert Leiber, the personal secretary to the Pope, who hailed from Germany as well. According to Vatican archivist Giovanni Coco, this letter holds immense significance, standing as a remarkable instance, as it reveals the Vatican's awareness of the grim reality that labor camps were serving as death factories.

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The Vatican's World War II dilemma

Koenig informs Leiber in the letter that sources have confirmed that approximately 6,000 Poles and Jews were being systematically executed daily in the "SS-furnaces" located in the Belzec camp near Rava-Ruska. At that time, the camp was situated in German-occupied Poland and is now located in western Ukraine.

Coco, speaking to the newspaper, emphasized the significance and novelty of this document as it provides solid evidence that the Catholic Church in Germany had indeed sent Pius XII precise and detailed information regarding the atrocities being committed against the Jewish population. The headline of the article in the newspaper reads: "Pius XII Knew".

Asked by the Corriere interviewer if the letter showed that Pius knew, Coco said: "Yes, and not only from then."

Documents sorted haphazardly

The letter alluded to two additional Nazi camps, namely Auschwitz and Dachau, and implied the existence of other correspondences between Koenig and Leiber that may have been lost or remain undiscovered.

Advocates of Pius argue that he covertly aided Jews and refrained from openly condemning the atrocities to safeguard the well-being of Catholics living under Nazi rule. On the other hand, his critics claim that he lacked the resolve to denounce the information he possessed, despite appeals from Allied forces combating Germany.

The letter was among documents Coco said were kept in haphazard ways in the Vaticans Secretariat of State and only recently handed over to the central archives where he works.

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Inside the Vatican archives, folders containing documents on Pope Pius XII, whose reign spanned from 1939 to 1958, were observed. This was in anticipation of the secret archives being made available to researchers on March 2, 2020, at the Vatican.

According to Suzanne Brown-Fleming, the director of International Academic Programs at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC, the Vatican's release of the wartime archives indicates its commitment to Pope Francis' statement that "the Church is not afraid of history" in 2019. In an email to Reuters, she expressed that there is a genuine interest in conducting a thorough evaluation of the documents from a scientific standpoint, regardless of whether the findings are positive or negative.

David Kertzer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "The Pope at War", a book published in 2022 about the Pius years, described Coco as a highly respected scholar who holds a prominent position within the Vatican and is dedicated to uncovering the truth. A significant conference on Pius and the Holocaust is scheduled next month at the Pontifical Gregorian, with the participation of Brown-Fleming, Coco, and Kertzer, as well as various Catholic and Jewish organizations, the US State Department, and Israeli and American Holocaust research groups.