The Polish Ambassador to the Holy See and the Holocaust

 

Archival research can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. But, along the way, you find some fascinating and even disturbing things of great significance, which you we not seeking.  My field of research is Ukrainian oriented, but Ukraine's story is part of a larger narrative and is interconnected with Polish, Austrian, Russian, and German history. A better understanding of the former can only be had by grasping its context upon the backdrop of the others.

 I used to wonder what the fuss was about in Poland about Auschwitz and why it was considered a memorial for Poles as well as for Jews. Although these reports have an indirect connection to Ukrainian history (there were several Ukrainians at Auschwitz), and perhaps are already published elsewhere, I felt compelled, as a witness before history, to post them. Tragically, the cycle of racial hatred and violence introduced and maintained by the Germans continued, later in the war, between Ukrainians and Poles.

Kazimierz or Casimir Papée (1889–1979), served as Ambassador of Poland to the Holy See from 1939 to 1958. He was born in Lemberg or Lwów, which is Lviv in modern day Ukraine. The majority of the city's population were Poles and in 1919 it became part of the Second Polish Republic. Lwów also had a large Jewish population which exceeded Ukrainians in number. Papée was appointed Ambassador in June 1939, only a few months before the onset of the Second World War. It was a time of high tension between the authoritarian "Regime of the Colonels" in Poland and the Holy See, and the post had remained vacant for two years after the death of long-time ambassador Władyslaw Skrzyński. 

Papée bombarded the Vatican with reports throughout the war. He was one of the strongest voices pressuring the Holy See to speak out against the Holocaust and became a thorn in the side of the papal Secretariat of State (Section for political affairs). He continued to maintain the embassy for the Polish Government in Exile after 1939. Even though his ambassadorial rank was revoked by John XXIII in 1958, he headed the Legation of the Government-in-Exile until his death, in 1979.

Below are English translations of two of Papée's French-language reports to the Vatican Secretariat of State concerning Auschwitz and the Shoah:

Vatican, November 21, 1941 

The situation in occupied Poland

 

[…] III Prison camp in Oświęcim

It is reported from reliable sources that Gestapo agents recently carried out a terrible massacre among those they had locked up in the Oświęcim Camp. It is said that 3,000 inmates were killed there during a single day in October. We still don't know their names.

The Oświęcim Camp – (the Germans gave this locality the name “Auschwitz”) – has existed since the spring of 1940. It was installed in the former barracks of the 73rd Polish Infantry Regiment. The number of prisoners – which can be determined by comparing the numbers that each of them wears sewn into their clothes – comes to 17,000; there would be among them more than 12,000 Poles and more than 4,000 Germans. – It must be emphasized that the vast majority of detainees in this Camp are subject to simple administrative provisions, without any court, in which they could have defended themselves, having ruled against them, and without any accusation made against them: the Gestapo arbitrarily sends there all those who seem dangerous or simply undesirable.

The Camp is surrounded by recently constructed walls, barbed wire and high voltage electrical wires. Surveillance is entrusted to a detachment of the Gestapo, which at its command – a strong military troop of SS men and numerous police dogs. The Camp depends on a higher office of the Gestapo, based in Katowice.

In order to isolate the Camp as far as possible from any contact with the population, last march, the Gestapo deported the inhabitants of the entire two kilometre zone around the barracks. For this purpose, the entire population of 3 neighbouring villages, as well as 80 % of the inhabitants of the town of Oświęcim, were deported. After these expulsions, approximately 5,000 prisoners from the Camp were often employed in work outside the barracks, always under the very strict supervision of the agents. The others never come out.

Recently, 19 prisoners were released. Those who have seen them say that they are almost mad, that several of them have broken limbs and that they are terrible to see. Those who have seen them note, with the deepest emotion, that the very appearance of the prisoners is terrible proof of a cruelty which cries to heaven for vengeance.

Stefan Petekycky from Auschwitz

There are children from 16 months old, and old people over 60 years old. The cold, the hunger, the bodily and moral tortures, to which they are subjected night and day, exterminate them. A crematorium, set up in the middle of the Camp, consumed no less than 10 corpses per day in summer, and up to 60 corpses in winter. Almost none of those who were locked up in the Camp in March 1940 have survived to date. The dead are replaced by new victims who are arrested throughout the country. They are, for the most part, intellectuals, and there are many priests and religious people. Recently, His Excellency Monsignor Wetmański, Auxiliary Bishop of Płock, also joined them.

The women from around Oświęcim, despite the terrible danger to which they were exposed, managed to come to the aid of the prisoners by smuggling them food. The poverty which reigns everywhere restricts these women’s Christian heroic activity to a minimum. No more than 300 prisoners are able to obtain additional food through these clandestine channels, which allows them to survive for some time to come.

Recently, in Warsaw, on the square in front of the central station, a film was shown entitled: “Europe on the front lines against the Bolsheviks”. After speaking about this “crusade”, the loudspeaker asked the question: “Where are you, Poles?” Voices immediately rang out from the entire crowd in response: “In Oświęcim!” - The show had to be suspended and various people were arrested. The word “Oświęcim” is written, like the “V” [Victory] on the walls and palisades, despite the Germans.

One of the Germans, a collaborator of the head of the Gestapo, publicly announced that “the Oświęcim Camp is one of Himmler’s glories”. They call this Camp “Todeslager” [Death camp].

Vatican, November 23, 1942

We are informed from Warsaw...  “[…] Mass executions of Jews continued. In Warsaw, Lwów, Wilno, Lublin, Przemyśl, Przeworsk, Tarnów – the number of Jews killed is calculated by many tens of thousands for each of these cities, not to mention all the others. They are killed by means of asphyxiating gas in rooms specially prepared for this purpose (and often in wagons), and by means of machine-gunning, after which the dead and the half-dead are covered with earth together. There are frequent cases of collective suicides of Jewish families; Jewish mothers throw themselves out of high-story windows with their children. In Lublin, the Germans themselves threw Jewish children onto the streets. In Przeworsk, a crowd of desperate Jews gathered around a cross, invoking the pity of Christ. We see everywhere convoys of Jews being led to death. Rumours circulated about the Germans using their corpses in chemical factories (soap factories).

It is already foreseen that the extermination of the Jews in Poland will soon end and that the special detachments, trained for this work, unable to stop shedding blood every day, will have a pressing need for other victims. Already in Eastern Little Poland [Eastern Galicia], men and women beggars have been hunted down and killed. It is feared that a general suppression of the elderly will soon be ordered. All these measures are taken because the aim is to reduce the number of mouths to feed. The sight of these deeds has immense repercussions on the mentality of the Poles: feelings of hatred continue to grow. [...]

A Vatican Memo, Sheptytsky, and the Holocaust

Українські версії тут і тут.

Ven. Andrey Sheptytsky, St George's. Lviv

Recently, a German scholar, Hubert Wolf, gave a "spoiler" interview in which he spoke of previously unearthed documents from Vatican archival collections of 1939–1958, which had been opened briefly this past March. I myself had an opportunity to view some of the newly available files before Italy and the Vatican shut down, due to the Coronavirus quarantine. 

Wolf singled out a memo, penned by a Vatican functionary, regarding a request from the American Government to help confirm the veracity of reports of the Nazi Holocaust against the Jewish People. The memo also mentions parallel reports from the Greek-Catholic Archbishop of Lviv, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky.

As background, Wolf cited a letter that Sheptytsky had written to Pope Pius XII in August 1942. He also made conjectures about the historical significance of the memo. Other journalists picked up his remarks and produced clamorous and sensationalist pieces presenting Wolf's theories as conclusive facts. This "fake news" is now makings its rounds in the Ukrainian press. Some reporters did not refer back to the original interview and assumed that Wolf also claimed to have discovered Sheptytsky's 1942 letter. This is not the case.
   

With over 20 years experience of research in various Vatican collections, I usually notice when something is amiss in reports about those archives. The clearest explanation of the memo's context is offered by Matteo Luigi Napoletano, in his article about the way research should done among newly-opened Vatican files (the English translation is not the best). Napoletano provides the precise archival citation of  Monsignor Angelo Dell'Acqua's internal memo, dated 3 October 1942: Secretariat of State Archives, Affari Ecclesiastici Straordinari [AES], period V, Germania Extracta, position 742, folio 25. Since Napoletano's English translation is awkward, I offer my own rendering here:

No doubt the news contained in the letter by Ambassador Taylor is very serious. But the need arises to ascertain that they correspond to truth, since exaggeration is easy even among Jews. It’s not enough, in my humble opinion, to base it upon information given by the Ruthenian Catholic Metropolitan-Archbishop of Lviv and on Signor Malvezzi (even Orientals are not an example in matters of sincerity). But if we accept the news as true, it would be appropriate to proceed with great prudence in confirming it to Mr. Tittmann, since I also sense something political (if not purely political) in the American Government's initiative. This would bring publicity in the event of confirmation by the Holy See. And that could cause unpleasant consequences, not only for the Holy See but also for the Jews themselves who are into hands of the Germans, and who could be subject to an increase in the hateful and barbaric measures adopted against them.

The information given by "the Ruthenian Catholic Metropolitan-Archbishop of Lviv" refers to a letter of Sheptytsky addressed to Pope Pius XII, dated 29–31 August 1942. Rather than a recent discovery, the document was published 53 years ago in the collections Actes et Documents du Saint-Siège [ADSS], vol. 3/2, document no. 406, pages 625–629. There is a photograph of one of the pages of the handwritten document on page 628. A good English translation of this letter is available here. 

The 29–30 August 1942 letter is perhaps the most informative of approximately 30 letters the Metropolitan wrote to Rome, during the Second World War. The majority of these were addressed to Cardinal Eugène Tisserant, head of the Vatican department responsible for the Eastern Churches (Sacred Congregation of the Eastern Church, as it was known at the time). Sheptytsky also addressed about seven letters to Pope Pius XII directly, and  a few others to the papal secretary of State, Cardinal Luigi Maglione. The Metropolitan also communicated with three other churchmen in Rome: he sent 30 letters to his auxiliary bishop, Ivan Buchko, at least four to the Jesuit General Superior, and three to Father Cyrille Korolevskij.

In subsequent letters to Bishop Buchko, Metropolitan Andrey explained why, previously, he had not provided more candid and detailed information. With his couriers being captured and arrested, Sheptytsky was reluctant to send details which could fall into the wrong hands, "even in Rome." That reference, from a letter dated 3 May 1943, likely refers to interception by Fascist agents, which were allied with the Hitler regime. This could also provide an explanation as to why a letter to the Pope dated March 1942 was never sent. It was likely superseded by the more detailed August report, dispatched when a reliable courier was found.

The memo's reference to "the Orientals" (Eastern Catholics and Orthodox) not being examples "in matters of sincerity" means that the curial official in question, Angelo Dell'Acqua, had some doubts about the veracity of the Metorpolitan's information. Why was that? While most inquiries focus on deciphering Dell'Acqua's remarks regarding Jewish sources, I would offer a brief explanation of the comments on Sheptytsky. 

There are a number of distinct departments in the Papal bureaucracy (the Roman Curia). The most influential is the Secretariat of State, the head of which is like a prime minister to the Pope and a moderator of the whole curial system. Another department is the Congregation for the Eastern Churches or Oriental Congregation as it has been popularly known for almost a century. Each department has a different portfolio and a different view of Church affairs as well as matters that effect the Church from without. Each department vies for the Pope's ear and hopes that their their view of things will prevail and become Vatican policy. 

One of the responsibilities of the State Secretariat is to attend to political matters and relations with sovereign entities. Thus it holds a somewhat political view. The Oriental Congregation is concerned with the wellbeing of the Eastern Churches, and thus holds a more Eastern view. In the early twentieth century, the State Secretariat relied on information sources such as the Polish Ambassador and the Polish-Latin hierarchs. They both represented the Polish view, which was antagonistic toward the Eastern Churches. Ukrainians had no diplomatic representative to present their views at the Vatican. It is no surprise then, that the State Secretariat was very suspicious of Andrey Sheptytsky. On he other hand, the Oriental Congregation, headed by the orientalist scholar Eugène Tisserant, understood and highly valued Sheptytsky's views and plans. 

When it came to Sheptytsky, Pius XII gave his diplomatic Secretariat a hearing, but usually took the advice of his eastern expert, Tisserant. This was manifestly the case regarding Sheptytsky's two most beloved projects: the appointment of his successor and the creation of exarchates in the territories where they had been suppressed or hindered by antagonistic civil governments (especially Russia and Poland). In both cases Papa Pacelli approved to the Lviv Metropolitan's projects over the head of diplomatic objections from his State Department.

If the August 1942 letter tells us nothing that we have not already known for 50 years, there are other letters from Sheptytsky, not yet been made public, which refer to the situation in Ukraine and to the Holocaust. Below is an excerpt from his letter to Tisserant, dated 28 December 1942:

The terror is increasing. For the last two months they executed in Lviv, even without a trial, more than 70,000 Jews. […] Also the arrests continue. From day to day it is becoming clearer that this is aimed at the anahilation of all the intellectuals, both Ukrainians and Poles. 

And here is an expert from his letter to Buchko, dated  30 January 1943:

All the time there is more proof that they want to completely annihilate us. For example, a German supervisor of an interpreter (seminarian) working in Greater Ukraine admitted to him confidentially that the plan for the country is this: to leave only a half million people in all of Ukraine. And to his question, "what about the rest," he received the reply: "Well, that’s obvious..." And truly it is beomming more obvious every day. They place prisoners and workers under such conditions that it is abundantly clear that they intend for the majority to perish. Elderly folk, in various places, are afraid to ask for assistance, since those who ask are arrested and shot within the hour. Thus some old men that lived at the base of Saint George's in Lviv, were all gunned down. In villages and towns people are shot daily, not merely without any trial but also without any reason. The prison on Lącki (Lonsky) Street in Lviv constantly fills up but then empties out. They are taken away in vehicles to be killed somewhere else. In the last few days Father Kovch was arrested and some say that it is not over yet. In prisons and camps (the worst in Auschwitz where Diakiv is with many Banderites). You know about the fate of the Jews in Lviv. In the last two months about 60,000 perished. I don’t know when I’ll send that letter. The nuncio [Orsenigo] won’t accept them so perhaps the Order of Malta’s train.