It is standard practice to open the archives 70 years after the pope has died. However, the premature opening can be attributed to many in the Vatican wanting to prove Pius XII’s commitment to saving Jews during the Holocaust.
By Balaji Subramanian
On 3rd March the Vatican opened its archives on the wartime papacy of Pius XII, who was also called by his critics as “Hitler’s Pope”.
We will soon learn about the link between the Roman Catholic Church and the fascist forces of Second World War Nazi Germany as the church prepares to break from tradition.
In an unprecedented action, the Vatican will open its secret archives of Pope Pius XII, who was the head of the Catholic Church when fascism and antisemitism were at its zenith.
Pope Pius XII presided over the papacy during the Second World War when six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis.
Incidentally, he took the position of Vicar of Christ when the war began in 1939 and was accused by some Jewish groups and historians of staying silent during the Holocaust.
However, many in the church believe that he used quiet diplomacy to help the Jews and encouraged convents and other religious institutions to hide Jews.
It is standard practice to open the archives 70 years after the pope has died. However, the premature opening can be attributed to many in the Vatican wanting to prove Pius XII’s commitment to saving Jews during the Holocaust.
Cardinal José Tolentino Calaça de Mendonça, the Vatican’s chief librarian, said, “The church has no reason to fear history.”
More than 150 historians and researchers have signed up to access the papers.
When asked if the documents will prove that the church during the papacy of Pius XII did try to save Jewish people during the Holocaust. “Without a doubt,” Pagano said. “As far as I know, there are many.”
It was Pope Benedict XVI, who had expedited the process to open the archives ahead of schedule. Also, there was pressure, that the documents must be made public while Holocaust survivors are still alive.
Pope Benedict XVI who resigned from the papacy due to health reasons had set in motion for the beatification of Pius XII and had declared “venerable.”
However, Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Wiesenthal Center had said, “At no time during the critical years from 1939-1943 did he play any significant role in attempting to rescue Europe’s Jews. On the contrary, he was totally silent.”
Gerald Steinacher, a research fellow at Harvard University wrote a book on how the Vatican facilitated the escape of several high ranking Nazi officials.
In his book Nazis On The Run: How Hitler’s Henchmen Fled Justice, Steinacher offers significant insight into the Vatican and how the Church dreaded the Soviet Union and spread of communism and the thought process to help Nazis was to save European Christianity.
In 1947, a top-secret US State Department report, which was never officially made public, called the Vatican ”the largest single organization involved in the illegal movement of emigrants,” including Nazis.
Charles R Allen Jr, a historian of the Holocaust, obtained the report and made it available to The New York Times.
Although it is an open secret many Vatican priests in their capacity did help many Nazis escape justice, there has never been any evidence to support that the Vatican played a direct role in the illegal trafficking.
Than infamous “Ratlines” which helped several mass murders escape from Europe to South America. prominent names include Ante Pavelić, Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele and it has been alledged that the Vatican Church played an important role in helping them flee.
It is a fact, even the American government helped several Nazis escape justice through Operation Paperclip, which ensured America got the leg-up in rocket technology.
1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians, such as Wernher von Braun who is called the father of V-2 rocket and his team, were taken from Germany to America, which then helped America win the space race against the Soviet Union.
On 3 March, the long vigil was over when the doors of the archives opened to scholars who will determine if the accusation of the Vatican, turning a blind eye during the holocaust that led to the systematic murder at an industrial scale of Europian Jews was true or false.
