Pius XII Against Forced Repatriation

 Letter of Bishop Ivan Buchko to Pope Pius XII

Pax Christi in Regno Christi!

Rome, December 16, 1945.

Most Holy Father,

prostrate at the feet of Your Holiness, I humbly implore Your most benevolent paternal intercession with the American military authorities in Germany on behalf of the Soviet Ukrainian refugees, who, despite repeated assurances given by the aforementioned authorities that they will no longer be subject to forced repatriation, are being forced in these very days to that unwanted repatriation on the basis of an order given to all refugees of former Soviet citizenship, who are in the American occupation zone, to move by the 8th of December to concentration camps under Soviet command in Neunkirchen and Stuttgart and to surrender themselves into the hands of the Bolsheviks. Today, within the  hour, I received an urgent telegram from the Ukrainian Aid Committee in Malines, Belgium, which informed us that 22,000 (twenty-two thousand) refugees are threatened with forced repatriation, to whom the American command has already refused to give food and lodging in the American camps. The recalcitrant Ukrainian refugees, refusing to surrender to the Soviet command and preferring death, have asked for 15 days of delay or postponement to be able to prepare for a Christian death. The postponement was granted by the friendly officials but the deadline expires on the 23rd of December. In the meantime, refugees in the Hannau camp, refusing to be transferred to the Soviet camps in Stuttgart and Neunkirchen, have committed suicide. Those who are still alive have only hope in the paternal benevolence of Your Holiness, whose powerful intercession and most benevolent paternal protection could still save their lives. On behalf of those unfortunate beings, as a most humble son of Your Holiness, I have permitted myself to submit before the feet of Your Holiness this my most humble supplication, imploring at the same time for them and for myself the most benevolent paternal Apostolic Blessing.

 Audience of Cardinal Eugène Tisserant with Pope Pius XII

Msgr. Bučko informed the Sacred Congregation that he had humbly placed in the hands of the Holy Father through His Excellency Msgr. Montini a petition aimed at obtaining the intervention of His Holiness with the American authorities in order to prevent the forced handover to the Soviets of 22,000 Ukrainian refugees from their zone of occupation, a handover that would be carried out despite the assurances given to the contrary.

The Sacred Congregation is profoundly grateful to the Holy Father for all that has already been done and will be done to avoid the forced repatriation of those refugees, who prefer death by suicide to handover to the Soviets.

Ex audientia Sanctissimi 22 December 1945

The Holy Father expressed His desire to see all Ukrainian refugees spared and to assist them in every way.