Lettera smarrita della vedova del colonnello Montezemolo

This post was is written in Italian with a view to reproducing the pertinent documentation and out of respect for the late Colonel Montezemolo's family and the Italian Resistance. 

Solo una volta, in 27 anni di ricerche negli archivi vaticani, mi era capitato di trovare un documento sigillato il cui contenuto non era mai stato esaminato. Oggi è successo di nuovo. Attualmente sto esaminando i fascicoli della Prima Sezione della Segreteria di Stato Pontificia relativi al periodo tra il 1936 e il 1958, alla ricerca di materiale riguardante l'Ucraina. Effettuando una ricerca per parole chiave utilizzando l'indice digitalizzato di questi fascicoli dell'Archivio Apostolico Vaticano, mi sono imbattuto in altri nomi interessanti. Uno di questi era: "Marchesa Montezemolo chiede un automezzo Vaticano le trasporti a Roma da Perugia 5 biciclette di sua proprietà". Ho correttamente supposto che si trattasse della vedova dell'eroe di guerra della Resistenza italiana, il colonnello Giuseppe Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo.

Molti associano la Resistenza italiana ai partigiani comunisti, ma Montezemolo era un aristocratico fedele alla monarchia italiana e un cattolico devoto. Dopo l'occupazione tedesca di Roma, si unì alla resistenza e la sua famiglia si nascose. Suo figlio Andrea, futuro cardinale, si nascose per diversi mesi nel seminario ucraino (il Pontificio Collegio di San Giosafat), fino alla liberazione di Roma da parte degli Alleati nel giungo 1944, mentre suo padre viene catturato dai Nazisti in gennaio e giustiziato alle Fosse Ardeatine le 24 marzo 1944.

Il fascicolo che ho esaminato conteneva due documenti dall'inizio di agosto 1944, o almeno così sembrava. Il primo era una lettera dell'Ambasciata italiana alla Santa Sede e il secondo una busta indirizzata dalla vedova di Montezemolo, Amalia, soprannominata "Juccia." Dopo aver trascritto il primo documento, ho notato che la busta indirizzata alla contessa Nina Guiglia Sartorio era sigillata con lo stemma di Montezemolo e non era mai stata aperta e neppure spedita a destinazione, ma rimasta sigillata per 80 anni, fino a stamattina. Ho chiesto il permesso al personale di aprire la busta, che conteneva non una, ma ben tre lettere: le prime due della marchesa Montezemolo alla sua amica contessa Sartorio, e la terza di Lydia, la figlia maggiore dei Montezemolo, alla figlia della sua amica "Esa" Sartorio. La terza lettera è controfirmata anche dalle altre sorelle, Isolda e Amalia.

Di seguito le trascrizioni dei documenti in parola:

R. Ambasciata d’Italia

presso la Santa Sede

                                                                     Roma 8 Agosto 1944

            Eccellenza Reverendissima,

                                                            mi sono permesso di chiedere l’altro giorno il Suo intervento per un opera buona che interessa la famiglia del compianto Colonnello Montezemolo.

            Si tratta cioè di ottenere che uno dei mezzi del Vaticano transitanti per Perugia possa portare a Roma 5 biciclette lasciate colà (presso la Contessa Nina Guiglia Sartorio, Billa “Il Boschetto”– Monterone, Perugia) dalla Marchesa Montezemolo.

            La famiglia di questa povera signora composta di ben 5 figli si trova in ogni difficoltà per la precarietà dei mezzi di comunicazione e sarebbe per essa un grande sollievo il poter ritirare le biciclette.

            Seguendo il Suo consiglio ho fatto scrivere una lettera dalla Marchesa Montezemolo alla sua amica contenente l’autorizzazione a ritirare le biciclette.

            Veda Lei se dalla cortesia del Governatorato sia possibile affidare l’incarico a persona di fiducia. Il Conte Faina del quale parlammo era purtroppo già partito.

            Con vivissimi ringraziamenti Le rinnovo, Eccellenza Reverendissima, l’espressione del mio deferente ossequio.

                    Roma 4 VIII – 44

            Carissima Nina,

la tua cara lettera con le due suave parole mi ha fatto tanto bene …. se sapessi quanto ho sofferto e quanto soffro! Non mi rendo conto di come io possa continuare a vivere … Prego Dio che mi dia la forza di andare avanti giorno per giorno e di pensare solo ai bambini e a Papà e Mamma.

Ho tanto pensato a te quando ho saputo lo strazio che ti ha colpita, soltanto quando uno soffre molto può comprendere il dolore degli altri…. ho pregato con le bambine perché il Signore ti sostenesse e ti consolasse. Sarò tanto contenta di poterti riabbracciare, voglio sperare che ti faccia presto una gita a Roma - Anche le bambine, che ricordano sempre le tue con tanto affetto, desiderano molto di rivederle –

        Mi ha fatto molto piacere di sentire che la battaglia si è passata vicina senza molestarti troppo. Il Boschetto è stato proprio benedetto da Dio …..

Immagino quali saranno le tue ansie per i tuoi cari di Genova, io pure sono in continuo pensiero per Papà e Mamma di cui non ho più avuto notizie dal 25 maggio. Chissà quando potremo rivederli…. Che Dio ci aiuti tutti e salvi la nostra povera Italia ! Ti prego di dire a Don Giuseppe tutto la parte che prendo ai suoi lutti, ho sentito da tuo marito le tragedie dei suoi nipoti, digli anche che preghi un po’ per me, perché ne ho tanto, tanto bisogno….

        Ti abbraccio, cara, con la speranza di rivederti presto, e ti ringrazio di aver pensato di mandarmi la cappelliera, che mi è venuta molto utile.

                                                                                 tua Juccia.

 

6 - agosto- 1944.

            Carissima Nina,

riapro la lettere che attendevo di consegnare a tuo marito per aggiungervi questo soglio. Il ministro presso il Vaticano mi offre l’occasione di farmi trasportare le biciclette, di cui ho immenso bisogno e mi avverte che spera di poter mandare un camion della Santa Sede (di transito a Perugia) a prenderla direttamente al Boschetto, ti prego perciò di consegnarle senz’altro a chi ti porterà questa lettera. Se per caso ti vedessi che sul camion si fosse ancora posto, e se fossero disposti a caricare, ti pregherei di mandarmi anche altro; di tutto ho bisogno, perciò qualunque cosa mi verrà utile specialmente il forno perché qui si fa una vita impossibile per cucinare e a Roma i forni da campagna costano da 1000 lire in su! (Del letto non ho bisogno).

Pensa la noia e ancora affettuosissimi saluti, baci ai cari piccoli.

                                                                                                       Juccia.

 

            Cara Esa,

Ti ringrazio molto della Tua lettera che ci hai portato Tuo padre; da molto tempo solevo risponderTi ma aspettavo di sapere quando sarebbe ripartito per Perugia, purtroppo però non l’abbiamo saputo e approfitto perciò di questa occasione per scriverti e ringraziarti tanto tutti della parte che avete preso al nostro grande dolore e delle Vostre preghiere che ci sono di gran conforto. 

    Ci ha fatta molta pena la notizia della perdita della Vostra cara Nonna ala quale eravate tanto affezionate; si siano tanto vicine col cuore in questo momento così doloroso anche per voi.

Tuo padre ci ha detto che forse fra qualche tempo verrete a Roma per continuare gli studi siano proprio contente al pensiero di rivederci presto –

Tutti i venerdì andiamo a Trinità [dei Monti] dove restiamo tutta la mattina, dopo la messa, in giardino a chiacchierare e a lavorare con le madri.

Ieri abbiamo visto Eugenia Sansonetti che è arrivata da Mottola, si fermerà qui qualche giorno col padre e con la madre e poi ripartirà. Parliamo sovente di voi con le compagne e con le madri e tutte rimpiangono molto la vostra mancanza. Ti prego di salutari i Forti e di dare un bacio a Raggi e a Checco da parte nostra.

Devoti saluti alla vostra Mammina, a Te e a Amma un abbraccio affettuoso da Lydia.

                         Tanti saluti da Isolda

                              Adriana

Christmas in Liberated Rome: Ukrainian Allied Soldiers Celebrate in 1945

            Until the twentieth century, the Ukrainian population of Rome consisted in a handful of seminarians and priests who studied at the Greek College. A separate Ruthenian College (as Ukrainians were then known) was founded in 1897. In 1904, its direction was entrusted to Ukrainian priests of the Basilian Order. The College was re-christened Saint Josaphat's in 1932, upon moving to a new building on the Janiculum Hill. At that time, the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate took charge of its kitchen. The Basilians transferred their international headquarters from Galicia to Rome and moved into the former college building next to the Church of Saints Sergius and Bachus. 

The few Ukrainian lay people in Rome were mostly political refugees from the failed struggle for independence, or dissidents from the Soviet Union. During the Second World War, the most prominent were: Yevhen and Nina Onatsky and their daughter Nastya, Olha Konovalets (the widow of OUN leader Evhen) and their son Yurko, the mezzo soprano Evheniya Zarytska (Zareska), Professor I. Hrynenko and family, Messers Federonchuk, Kozlovsky, Chernytsya, a student named Shevchenko, the painter Faliev and his wife, Nestor and Ida Small-Stotsky, former UNR diplomat Jan Tokarzewski-Karasziewicz and his wife Oksana, daughter of Oleksander Lototsky.

Bishop Ivan Buchko had studied in Rome before and after the First World War (the seminary had to leave from 1915 to 1920). In 1929, he was named Auxiliary Bishop to Metropolitan Sheptytsky. A decade later, in the summer of 1939, he was dispatched to Brazil and Argentina on an apostolic visitation (fact finding mission). Due to the outbreak of war and ensuing occupations, he was prevented from returning to Lviv. At first, he was assigned to assist the Ukrainian Bishop in USA and serve as parish priest of the floundering Saint George's Parish in Manhattan. There was some discussion of him transferring to Canada to assist an ailing Bishop Ladyka. None of these projects came to fruition as, on denunciations by the Soviet Embassy, US officials deported him. On the morning of 29 November 1941, he arrived in Rome and was given lodgings at Saint Josaphat’s Pontifical College. A bishop in residence made the College a focal point for the Ukrainian colony in Rome. 

The College's Basilian superiors invited the bishop to celebrate a pontifical Divine Liturgy in the College chapel each Christmas Day (25 December according to the Gregorian Calendar). In his journal, Bishop Buchko recorded that in 1941 and 1942 the entire Ukrainian colony of Rome attended this service, despite the fact that most of them were Orthodox Christians. During the dark period of German occupation in 1943, a ray of light shone through. On Christmas Eve the Pope received greetings from the Roman Curia. On that occasion, he conveyed to Buchko a general blessing on all Ukrainians and in particular upon Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky in occupied Lviv. The following day, however, only nine members of the Ukrainian colony attended Buchko’s Christmas Liturgy. Some were in hiding, some had left Rome, and Evhen Onatsky had been arrested and was languishing in a German prison.

Most Romans were awaiting the arrival of the Anglo-American forces to liberate the city from the Nazis. Some, however, were a little apprehensive due the Allies war record, and among these was the Spiritual Director of the College, Father Teodoziy Halushchysnsky. Britain and America were known as Protestant countries and were allied with the Catholic Church’s sworn enemy, the Soviet Union. The Allies that destroyed the Basilica of San Lorenzo in 1943 and bombs continued to fall on some civilian areas. In February 1944, the Americans damaged the Papal Palace at Castelgandolfo and destroyed Propaganda Fide’s villa (where many Jews and dissidents had taken refuge). A few days later, they also destroyed the ancient Monastery of Monte Cassino. Some worried that the Allied armies might wreak havoc upon the seat of the Catholic Church. Nevertheless, these apprehensions proved to be unfounded.

The first American battalions entered Rome on the evening of 4 June 1944. Only six days later, the first Ukrainian solider made his way to Saint Josaphat’s College. This was Stefan Fyk of Hamtramck, Michigan, who, before the war, had worked for the American-Ukrainian newspaper Narodna Volya, published in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The following day, 11 June, Sergeant Kulyk from Yorkton, Saskatchewan, paid a visit. His family were Orthodox Christians from Bukovyna. On 18 June, Yaroslav Kolosivsky arrived, and American soldier born in the Ternopil region. He had told stories of Ukrainian bravery and sacrifice in the Allied Forces. He himself had been awarded 3 medals and boasted of how he had painted “The Spirit of Ukrainian Americans” on fighter planes. Only a few years before, Bishop Buchko had blessed his marriage at Saint George’s in Manhattan. Before parting for the Perugia Front, he brought a gift of real coffee for the bishop, who shared it with the College superiors.

More Canadians visited the following month. The first was 47-year-old Flight Lieutenant Andriy Nykoliuk (Anrdew Nikoluk) of Toronto, who came on Sunday, 2 July. Born in the Dolyna district of Western Ukraine, he had served in the Austrian Forces and the Ukrainian Galician Army during the First World War. While stationed in England in 1943, he had been one of the founders of the Ukrainian Canadian Servicemen's Association (UCSA), headed by Flight Lieutenant Bohdan Panchuk. Nykoliuk revealed that 50,000 Ukrainian ethnics had joined the Canadian Forces and 70 had already died in battle to spread freedom throughout the world. Nykoliuk promised to bring the 20 Ukrainians from his own unit to visit Saint Josaphat’s College.

Ten days later, on 12 July, another initiator of the UCSA, Vasyl Kyryliuk (William Kereluk), came to call. Although a Saskatchewan native, his family originated Kitsmanya near Chernivtsi. Bishop Buchko described him as an excellent man, a deeply religious Orthodox Christian interested in church affairs. Kyryliuk was very convivial and remained throughout the afternoon and for supper. The following day, he attended the Wednesday General Papal Audience and then returned to the College. Bishop Buchko was surprised and edified by these young men whom, unlike many other Anglo-American combatants, did not appear to be pleasure-seeking. Instead of frivolities, they sought out the company and conversation of their fellow Ukrainians. Kyryliuk left a monetary gift for Mrs. Onatsky, whose husband was still in German captivity, and for Yurko Konovalets hiding in the French Seminary, whose mother had been arrested by the Americans at the request of the Soviets.

In the following months, Canadian soldiers named Onyschuk, Bendziak (brothers), and Nahirnyi visited Saint Josaphat’s, and Kolosivsky and Kyryliuk made repeat visits. The latter was appointed Liaison Officer with the Soviet Army. On 2 September, he recounted to Buchko of meeting 15 Ukrainian Soviet officers who were, at first, reluctant to speak with him. He gave them copies of the Canadian newspaper Novyi shlyax and encouraged them and others in the Soviet Army to visit the College. Other Ukrainians came to Saint Peter’s but were prevented from attending the Papal Audience by their Russian superior officers.

In September 1944, there were 13,000 Ukrainians in the Polish Corps serving in Italy. Mykola Kulishko from Volhynia called at Saint Josaphat’s College on 10 September. He told of the discrimination against Ukrainians in the Polish Army and confessed that many wanted to transfer to the other Allied divisions. Hryhoriy Sydor, from Vaneva in the Sokal Region, had been deported to Siberia by the Soviets. He visited on 12 September and also spoke of poor treatment in the Polish Corps. Ivan-Isydor Senyshyn had been a Basilan lay brother in Zhovkva and joined the Polish corps when it was reconstituted in the USSR. He stopped into the College on 17 September. The names of Yaroslav Zhaba, N. Sperkach, Mykola Kornuta are also recorded in the college journals. With an influx of Ukrainian soldiers in Rome, two of the College’s doctoral students, Rev. Romuald Rudnytsky and Ivan Bilanych, offered their services as guides.

Complaints from Ukrainian soldiers reached the ears of General Anders and the Polish Military Ordinary, Bishop Gawlina. On 23 October, two officers from the propaganda section of Anders Second Corps, Zielicki and Jerzy Giedroyc, came to discuss the situation with Bishop Buchko, and Bishop Gawlina came himself to call, two days later. Buchko was invited to visit the Polish Army propaganda unit on 26 October. The Poles were courting him as part of a desperate campaign to retain Eastern Galicia and Volhynia in postwar Poland. During these meetings and with Vatican authorities, Buchko lobbied for Ukrainian soldiers to have access to liturgical and spiritual care in their own rite, which was not being provided even by the appointed chaplain.

On 15 November 1944, Andriy Nykoliuk wrote to Bishop Buchko to ask the College superiors to allow the UCSA to hold a Julian-Calendar Christmas celebration (on 7 January 1945) for the Canadian soldiers in Italy. The USCA would provide all victuals and beverages if the Sisters Servants would agree to prepare the meal. A Winnipeg Ukrainian Women’s association had also donated 300 cigarettes. Visiing soldiers began to deliver packages on 28 December. Bishop Buchko also wrote to London to invite UCSA head, Bohdan Panchuk.

On the evening of New Year’s Day 1945, Kyryliuk arrived from Bari. He informed the bishop that not all the Ukrainian Canadians would be able to attend the celebration because many were at the front fighting the Germans. Nonetheless, the Canadian High Command had promised that each attendee would receive a package of food from which the Sisters could prepare the festive meal. 

Despite treacherous snowed-in roads and non-stop rain, on 4 January the invitees began to arrive in Rome. Most took lodgings at pensions and hotels, but seven were put up in spare rooms at the College. The next day, a transport of 5 soldiers arrived, led by Sargeant Tykholis from Welland, Ontario. In the afternoon, a second convoy arrived led by a Sarchuk, a church cantor in Tvey, Saskatchewan, with a lively sense of humour. The last to arrive was Nykoliuk’s transport. The College clergy observed that some of the soldiers spoke Ukrainian “like natives” while others had lost the ability to converse in their ridna mova (mother tongue). 

On Saturday afternoon, 6 January, the UCSA held the inaugural meeting of its Central Mediterranean Branch in the College Recreation Room, adorned for this puroose with a cross, the UCSA symbol, and with Ukrainian and British flags. Nykoliuk was elected President, Mr. Kryschyna of Holden, Alberta, Secretary, and Kyryliuk head of Supervisory Board. Ivan Bilyak and Vasyl Tkachuk of the Polish Corps also took part.

The original plan foresaw a single celebration on 7 January, Christmas according to the Julian Calendar. But as the guests were in attendance for the Gregorian celebration of the Feast of the Theophany on 6 January, the College Superiors and the Sisters decided to prepare them the traditional svyat vechir (Christmas Eve Supper). 

The following day, Sunday, 7 January 1945, the whole Ukrainian colony, 39 Canadian soldiers and several other guests, where invited to the extraordinary Christmas feast, about 90 altogether. The celebration began with a Pontifical Divine Liturgy celebrated by Bishop Buchko and the College superiors, followed by Panakhyda for the fallen Canadian servicemen and women. Rev. Ivan Radio of Northampton, Pennsylvania, heard Confessions throughout and helped distribute Holy Communion, while the service was photographed by Captain Williams. 

Carols were sung during the luncheon of traditional Ukrainian dishes, including pyrohy (varenyky) and holubsti, prepared by the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate. At the head table, to the right of the bishop sat Captain Davidson from Pennsylvania, Captain Williams, Vasyl Kyryliuk, and to his left British Major Edward Sedgwick, Andriy Nykoliuk, Father Dionisiy Holovetsky (the interim Basilian Superior), and the College Spiritual Father, Teodoziy Halushchynsky. At the second table were the College Rector, Father Josaphat Labai, and other clerics. Members of the Ukrainian colony sat with the Canadian soldiers which included a Kovalsky from Winnipeg, Tykholis, Sarchuk. Petro Bohun from Habsburg, Alberta, Mykhaylo Nepypilo from Edmonton. Two Scotsmen, their transport drivers, were also included. 

Bishop Buchko welcomed the soldiers in broken English and speeches were given by Fathers Holovetsky, Father Labai and Yuriy Mylanyk. Of the soldiers, Kyryliuk, Nykoliuk, Davidson, Williams, and Sedgwick spoke. Olha Konovalets, Professor Hrynenko, and Nestor Smal Stocky brought good wishes from the Ukrainian colony. The luncheon lasted from noon until 4:00 P.M. In his journal, Buchko recorded that he had contributed financially toward food and drink because nothing was too good for the Canadians “who were to have been be my flock.” For in 1928, he had turned down the appointment as Bishop for the Ukrainian Catholics of Canada.

Kyryliuk was given a festive send-off from the College on 10 January 1945. He and Nykoliuk were so moved by the welcome and hospitality that they wrote to thank the Eastern Congregation which was responsible for the College. Subsequently, Nykoliuk sent cigarettes and conserves which the Bishop distributed among the Ukrainian laity and clergy.

Those soldiers that had not been able to participate in the Christmas festivities visted the college in the days and months following. Among these were Flight Lieutenant Sushko (son of Professor Oleksander), Dmytro Kostiv from Brooklyn, Petro Zatsny and Petro Restefaniv from Manitoba, Ivan Bayrak, Antin Senyk of Edmonton. Polish soldiers also visited including Ivan Danyliv, Yustyn Basiuk, Bohdan Sperkach, Mykola Kulishko, Lev Terletsky, Mykola Malytsky, Mykhaylo Koza, Teodor Burnyak, Yaroslav Shpikula, Oleksa Storozhynsky, and Oleksa Mostovy, Buchko’s minor seminarian future and the choir director in London, England, and Calgary, Alberta. Some made their Confession and asked for the Bishop’s blessing before returning to the frontlines.

After this brief period of celebration, a terrible crisis manifested itself as Ukrainian displaced persons began to arrive in Italy without lodgings or means of support. On 31 May 1945, Bishop Buchko established the Relief Committee for Ukrainian Refugees assisted by the staff of Saint Josaphat’s College, other Basilian and secular priests, and prominent members of the Ukrainian colony. 

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. [...]

General Pavlo Shandruk to Pope Pius XII

Shandruk in Polish uniform

 Your Holiness! 

            On the solemn day, for the whole world of 80th Birthday Jubilee of Your Holiness,

On behalf of 20,000 soldiers of the 1st Ukrainian Division of the Ukrainian National Army and tens of thousands of their relations, I bend my knee in reverence with deepest gratitude before Your Holiness for having saved those soldiers from certain death.

Those soldiers, and thousands of others of that Division who perished at [the Battle of] Brody were the finest sons of the Ukrainian Nation.

They joined the 1st Ukrainian Division to arm themselves in the hope that, at the opportune moment, they would drive out the old enemy of our beautiful yet somehow unfortunate Ukrainian homeland. And 90% were the flower of the Ukrainian intelligentsia.

 Red Moscow [The Communist Kremlin] demanded their repatriation and the Western Allies, ignorant of the Ukrainian people’s struggle for freedom and independence, were on the verge of handing them over.

At that moment, the one and only hope for us all was the profound faith that only the intervention of Your Holiness could rescue all of those brave patriots. It was with this hope that I, along with delegations from those very soldiers, approached our beloved Prince of the Church, Archbishop Ivan [Buchko], to plead with Your Holiness for help and deliverance.

Your Holiness,

as the Great Patron and Protector of all who are sorrowful and oppressed, You did not refuse His Excellency Archbishop Ivan. We were all saved by the Apostolic See of Your Holiness. And I, their commander, prostrate in filial humility before the Greatest, Worthiest, and Holiest Figure of Your Holiness, we have the greatest honour and good fortune on the day of the 80th jubilee of Your Holiness, to beg the Merciful Saviour and His Most Holy Mother, to bestow endless gifts upon Your Holiness, long life and excellent health for the good of all humanity. All of us without exception will always offer our humble prayers for Your Holiness. We beseech Your Holiness for Your Apostolic Care and intercession before the Throne of the Most High on behalf of our poor humiliated Nation. 

            Prostrate in profoundest respect and endless gratitude          

                        Pavlo Shandruk

Lieutenant-General

Ex-commander of the Ukrainian National Army

May 1956 Anno Domini

 

Documentation from the reign of Pius XII (1939–1958) was opened to scholars in March 2020. Shortly after this, I discovered an Italian translation of the above letter, made by Archbishop Ivan Buchko, in the Archive of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches. The original letter, written in Ukrainian, was only discovered last month in the Vatican Apostolic Archive.

            Finally, scholars will be able to clarify the role played by the Apostolic/Holy See, through its various officials and representatives, in rescuing the Ukrainian Division from being repatriated to the Soviet Union, as demanded by Joseph Stalin. Several books and many articles have been written on the Division but the role of the Pope and his Curia have hitherto been shadowed in mystery and innuendo, since the relative source documents were not accessible. My friend, Professor Myroslav Shkandrij, will touch on this question in his upcoming book on this controversial topic. 

Buhcko visits the Division 1946

          Bishop Buchko brought the desiderata of Ukrainians refugees to the Pope directly and via his Roman Curia, especially through the Congregation which was then called Pro Ecclesia Orientali (today it is Congregation of the Eastern Churches), headed by the indomitable Cardinal Eugène Tisserant. The refugees included both Catholic and Orthodox Christians, and the Apostolic See assisted all of them without discrimination. Among these was the future Metropolitan Ilarion Ohienko, who requested help with research in Switzerland. Buchko asked Tisserant to intervene and the latter obtained access for Ohienko to the University of Fribourg. In arranging this, Tisserant wrote to the Nuncio in Switzerland, in June 1946: “It is the wish of Holy Father that the Oriental Congregation also takes an interest in the material and moral wellbeing of the Orthodox Bishops, in seeking to help them and to assist them with all their just requests.”

In the Spring of 1945, Bishop Buchko wrote to the Pope, to Cardinal Tisserant, and to Monsignors Montini and Tardini of the Papal Secretariat of State. As a Frenchman in Italy who had made his sympathies clear during the War, Tisserant was highly respected by the victors. He lobbied his Allied political and military contacts and the Papal Secretariat of State, which in turn lobbied Allied authorities all over Europe not to forcibly repatriate Ukrainians to the Soviet Union. The Division was only one among several groups in danger of repatriation. Tisserant also brought the Ukrainians’ appeals to the Pope in an audience of 14 and 28 July 1945 and on subsequent occasions.

On 30 September 1955, a general letter of homage was sent to the Pope by the Association of ex-members of the Division. On 15 June 1956, Buchko entrusted Shandruk’s private letter to Cardinal Tisserant, who sent it to the Pope via the Secretariat of State. At the time, the ex-general was residing in Trenton, Ohio, as indicated on Buchko’s Italian translation of the letter (where he substituted “Trenton” for  “травень” (May) 1956. Buchko also airbrushed himself out and substituted the passages referring to himself with thanks to the Oriental Congregation. Although Shandruk had not made that reference in his original letter, Buchko was aware that, without Cardinal Tisserant’s dogged perseverance (as evidenced by internal notes between Tisserant and his own officials), the papal Secretariat of State would not have intervened so vigorously for the Ukrainian prisoners and refugees. In response, the Pope ordered his underlings to thank the old General and to assure him of the Pope’s enduring concern for the “severely tried” Ukrainian people.

Shandruk in UNR uniform

            
General Shandruk was an Orthodox Christian from Volyn. In the First World War he served as a officer in the Russian Army and later in the army of the Ukrainian National Republic. After the war he continued his association with the UNR in Exile. In 1936, he joined the Polish Army and fought to defend the Second Republic against the German Invasion of September 1939 (for which he was posthumously decorated by the Polish Government-in-Exile, in 1965.) In February 1945, he was appointed commander of  a Ukrainian National Army and was dispatched to Austria to organize the former Galicia Division, for that purpose. On 8 May 1945, he surrendered the Ukrainian Army to the British and American Allies. There has been talk of the intervention of Polish General Anders, but it is clear that Shandruk attributed the salvation of his men, at the most critical moment, to the intervention of the Pope. 

Shandruk mentioned the papal intervention on p. 291 of his 1959 book Arms of Valor.

Karol Wojtyła appears in Vatican Archives

Karol Wojtyła (1920–2005) is arguably the most famous Pole in history but he also made a major impact on Ukrainian history, especially on the fate of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church. Even before his election to the papacy as John Paul II in October 1978, Wojytła had become a pivotal pubic figure in his homeland where, as Archbishop of Kraków, he held the highest offices in the Church, second only to that of Polish Primate. A few days ago, I stumbled upon a letter written in September 1946, which might represent the first time he was brought to the attention of the Vatican.*

Wojytła’s path to leadership was anything but standard, and is perhaps better described by the old Christian proverb “The ways of Providence are infinite.” To be sure, his call to priestly service came about during a period of wartime terror, where millions were slated for destruction by racial hatred and totalitarian dictatorships.    

The Nazis not only sought to destroy the body, they also sought to destroy the soul. While the Jewish people were their particular focus, they also targeted others for destruction, and among the first victims of Hitler’s racist plan was Poland. Hypothetically, it would be interesting to observe the reaction of a Holocaust denier faced with the mountain of testimonies in Vatican archives. Combing through the Foreign Affairs section of the Archive of the Secretariat of State, a researcher is overwhelmed by reports from diplomats, military chaplains, church and civic leaders, many of which were eyewitnesses to the genocides and ethnic cleansings being perpetuated in the name of the Third Reich.

From 1942, reports began to observe that German atrocities against the Jews pointed towards an intention to bring about their complete annihilation. But Hitler’s eventual plans for the Slavic peoples were not entirely dissimilar. While the Catholic Church was barely tolerated in western Europe, in the east it was being destroyed. Polish bishops, clergy, and religious were imprisoned and killed, seminaries and universities were shut. Church leaders had to find creative ways to provide ministry to their suffering flocks. The Archbishop of  Kraków, Adam Sapieha, demonstrated fearless strength in dealing with the occupiers, who were perhaps a little in awe of a man who held the rank of prince of the Holy Roman Empire.

Unlike like his protégé Wojtyła, who was of humble origins, Sapieha came from an ancient noble line and was groomed for the highest offices in the Church from an early age. He studied in Vienna, Kraków, Lwów (Lviv), Innsbruck, and Rome. From 1905 to 1911, he worked in the Roman Curia as consultant on Polish affairs. In November 1911, he succeeded Cardinal Jan Puzyna, as Prince-Bishop of Kraków. In the normal course of things, the Austrian Emperor would have asked the pope to name Sapieha a cardinal (as per the imperial prerogative). Then came the First World War, the fall of Austria-Hungary and Polish Independence. Together with his friend Archbishop Teodorowicz, Sapieha went against Vatican’s plans for the Polish Church and opposed the papal nuncio, Achille Ratti. After Ratti was elected Pope Pius XI, in February 1922, Teodorowicz and Sapieha were forced to resign their seats as senators, and remained under a partial cloud, as far as Rome was concerned, until the end of the pontificate. The two prelates were also in opposition to the Piłsudski dictatorship and Sapieha had his windows broken by devotes of the late dictator, when he moved the latter’s tomb to a less prominent part of the Wawel cathedral crypt. In 1939, Pius XI and his successor Pius XII refused Sapieha’s resignation. Then, the outbreak of the Second World War changed everything. 

The Archbishop of Warsaw had died in 1938 and the Primate, Cardinal Hlond, was prevented from returning from abroad. Sapieha remained the senior churchmen with the burden of acting as the leader of the bishops within the country. This brought him up against German authorities, who had slated his church and his people for destruction. His reputation quickly changed from unpopular or unpatriotic to being considered a national hero.

On 2 November 1942, Sapieha appealed directly to the governor of German-occupied Poland, Doctor Frank and, the following year, convinced the bishops still at liberty to join him in a second appeal. In the name of humanity, the episcopate decried the killings, arrests, and restrictions on church ministry. They asked for Roman Catholic seminaries to be allowed to reopen, but a response from Berlin was not forthcoming. Their pleas were heard by Pius XII, who first instructed his nuncio in Berlin to submit a diplomatic protest to the German Government but the note was sent back. Further messages elicited a dismissive reply from Joachim von Ribbentrop, the German Foreign Minister.

Having failed to influence the German government directly, Pius XII protested on behalf of the Church in Poland in an allocution to the College of Cardinals in June 1943. Translated into Polish, it was read from the pulpit in Warsaw Cathedral. His messages received effusive thanks from the episcopate, from Prime Minister Sikorski, and President Raczkiewicz, who declared himself “profoundly moved by Your Holiness’s words.”

In the meantime, imprisoned and murdered priests had to be replaced, Sapieha opened a clandestine seminary and informed Rome of the situation. When Pius XII learned of the seminary, he instructed the Secretariat of State to send the following message to the Archbishop: “The August Pontiff, with good wishes and fervent prayer, supports this initiative, which is so important for the future of the Church in those regions.” Little did the pontiff know how important the underground seminary would become for the entire world it was already preparing his successor in the Chair of Peter.

No sooner had the Nazis been defeated when Poland, abandoned by the European Allies, was forced by the victorious Soviets to accept another totalitarian regime. Adam Sapieha was finally created cardinal in February 1946 and, undeterred, remained at his post until his death, in 1951. In the meantime, he began to prepare the Polish Church to bring forth new laborers for the spiritual harvest.

On 22 September 1946, Sapieha sent the following letter to Monsignor Domenico Tardini, head of the Secretariat of State’s section for Extraordinary (Diplomatic) Affairs: 

 

Most Illustrious Monsignor,

You will easily understand that we very much want to send our seminarians to Roman universities in order to give them the possibility to perfect their studies and to live, for a time, in the capital of the Church. However, in order to enter Italy, it is necessary to have permission from the Italian Government and to be provided for financially. Wherefore, I am asking if, in some way, You could obtain this permission for us. As to being looked after, they would stay at a College that would provide for them. 

For the moment, we hope to be able to obtain passport for two students, that is, Karol Wojtyła and Stanisław Starowiejski, students of Kraków Diocesan Seminary. I apologize, Monsignor, for disturbing You, but it was necessary to take advantage of the occasion. 

(translated from the Italian original)

 

With the two seminarians' curricula vitae enclosed, Cardinal Sapieha’s letter arrived at the Vatican on 1 October 1946, although the official charged with the correspondence , Monsignor Antonio Samoré [future Cardinal Archivist and Librarian of he Holy Roman Church] was at a loss to explain how it had been delivered. On 4 October, Tardini presented a nota verbale to the Italian Ambassador to the Holy See, asking for his assistance and mentioning the names of the two students. 

For a seminarian to be ‘mentioned in dispatches’ by name is a rare thing. And this letter might well represent the first mention of Wojtyła in correspondence with the Apostolic See, contained in Vatican archival collections.* Sapieha had not specified but, in fact, neither seminarian had yet been ordained. Wojtyła was to receive minor orders and subdiaconate on 13 October, diaconate on 20 October, and priestly orders on 1 November. He was already in Rome on 15 November and registered at the Pontifical Athenaeum (later University) of Saint Thomas Aquinas (known as the Angelicum) on 26 November. This author, who studied Philosophy and Theology at the same university, was privileged to have been present in 1994, when John Paul II came to the Angelicum’s aula magna, which had been renamed in his honour.

* Update  (28.10.2020): The director of the Archive of the Second Section of the Secretariat of State, Dr Johan Ickx, has recently released his new book: Le Bureau: Les Juifs de Pie XII. Upon acquiring a copy today, I discovered that the correspondence pertaining to Wojtyła is mentioned. Ickx also reproduces a photo of the cv sent to Rome but does not provide the text of Sapieha's letter, as I have above, nor mention some of the other details, regarding the incident, mentioned here in this blogpost. The book had not been released at the time I published my findings.

On 27 October 2020, John Burger published an article about this post on Aleteia.

The Vatican and Events in Soviet Ukraine

Next month, I will be presenting an overview on post 1939 Vatican sources pertaining the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, in a conference organized by the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv. Much of this information comes from a book I am publishing about Metropolitan Sheptytsky and from recently opened archives.

During the Second World War, the Holy See (the Vatican) struggled to obtain reliable information about the situation of the local Churches in war-torn Europe. This was particularly difficult in areas under the control of Soviet forces, which did not permit communication with the rest of the world.

  Soon after the Nazis and Soviets partitioned Poland, in September 1939, rumours began circulating in the west that Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, Greek-Catholic primate and Archbishop of Lviv-Halych, had been arrested, deported, or killed by the Soviet invaders. Indeed, Sheptytsky himself had been expecting such a scenario, since the Imperial Russian authorities had deported and imprisoned him in 1914. But no such orders were issued, neither in September 1939 nor when the Soviets returned to Lviv in the summer of 1944, following a German interregnum. Kyr Andrey’s moral authority had become too great and Stalin preferred to wait for his imminent demise before setting in motion his plans to suppress and merge the Greek-Catholic Church with his own state-controlled entity, staffed (especially in Ukraine) by clerics working for the Soviet secret services.

            Having endured most of the Second World War, following a long and painful illness, Metropolitan Andrey finally succumbed on 1 November 1944. His brother, Hieromonk Klymentiy, wrote a note to their other brother, General Stanisław, which read: “This very day, at a quarter-to-two in the afternoon, our dear Metropolitan fell asleep in the Lord.” Four days later, news of the venerable prelate’s death was already appearing in the European press, and the Polish Ambassador to the Holy See informed the Papal Secretariat of State of the fact on 12 November. A brief notice was published on the front page of the Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano on 14 November followed, the next day, by a longer panegyric containing laudatory declarations from the Cabinet of Ministers of the Polish Government in London. The Government-in-Exile also ordered a solemn requiem Mass to be said by the Polish Military Ordinary on 2 December, at the Church of Saint Stanislaw in Rome.

Confirmation of Sheptytsky’s death from Lviv was not forthcoming for three months. On 6 March 1945, a letter arrived from Sheptytsky’s successor, Metropolitan Yosyf Slipyi, addressed to Pope Pius XII and dated 19 November 1944. Cardinal Eugène Tisserant, head of the Congregation for the Eastern Church (Oriental Congregation), presented the letter to the Pope when he was next received in audience, on 10 March.

News of Slipyi’s succession presented a problem for the Vatican. According to the Concordat between the Holy See and the Second Polish Republic, episcopal appointments required a nihil obstat from the Polish President. But Slipyi had been appointed secretly as coadjutor-successor to Sheptytsky in November 1939, shortly after the Soviet takeover. The Vatican foreign ministry (a section of the Secretariat of State) chose to keep the appointment secret until the end of the war, in order to avoid an inevitable clash with the exiled government. After news arrived that Slipyi succeeded to the post, this became unavoidable.

Monsignor Domenico Tardini, head of the Vatican foreign office, informed Polish Ambassador Casimir Papée that Yosyf Slipyi had succeeded Andrey Sheptytsky in the primatial Lviv-Halych See. Papée had no choice but to issue a diplomatic protest, but his government was in a precarious position. In July 1945, the United States followed by the Allied Governments gave in to Stalin and transferred diplomatic recognition from London to Lublin, where the Soviet occupiers had set up a supposed coalition which was really a Communist regime. Although Papée tried everything to countermand the appointment, in the end diplomatic notes were exchanged stating that it was an exception to the rule, made under wartime conditions. Rather than the exception, it became the new norm: No further placets would be solicited from London, and the Polish People's Republic declared the concordat to be void.

Unbeknown to either party, three days before the Holy See and the Government-in-exile resolved the theoretical conundrum, the entire Greek-Catholic hierarchy, including Slipyi, was arrested and deported by the Soviet secret police. The first news of their arrest reached the Vatican three months later from a Greek-Catholic priest of Polish origins, Count Piotr Rzewuski (later known as Bronsisław Kreuza). He had been a eyewitness to Sheptytsky’s death and the events that followed. As a Pole, he was permitted to leave Soviet Ukraine on 15 June and immediately made his way to Rome. 

After checking his story with the exiled auxiliary-bishop of Lviv, Ivan Buchko, Cardinal Tisserant informed Pius XII on 11 August 1945. At the audience’s conclusion, the Pope kept the typed agenda (foglio di udienza), containing the details, among his own papers. Tisserant’s second in command, Bishop Antonio Arata, sent official notification to the Secretariat of State on 17 September. A week later, further details arrived, via Bishop Buchko, from five sources that had contact with Ukraine via underground agents. The sources specified the exact date of the hierarchs arrest, 11 April 1945, and confirmed their deportation to Kiev, the capital of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. In October, Rzewuski would be allowed to present to the pontiff the homage of the loyal Ukrainian clergy, who had been “deprived of their shepherd.” In December, the Pope issued an encyclical letter, Orientales omnes, decrying their imprisonment only days after the Russian Patriarch issued a call to Greek-Catholics to join his fold (a call which would be implemented by force by the NKVD at a fake synod, the following year).

No concrete news of the Ukrainian Catholic bishops’ condition would be be forthcoming for a decade. False reports were published announcing Slipyi’s demise, the first of these appearing in January 1945 in the British Catholic paper, The Tablet. Following the hierarchs’ condemnation by a Soviet military tribunal, on 3 June 1946, the Holy See assumed that Slipyi had died, and Tardini said as much to the peeved Polish ambassador. It was only after Stalin’s death, and the release of some of the bishops and clergy from the gulag, that news to the contrary reached Vatican City. In January 1954, Buchko (now Archbishop), reported that Slipyi was still alive and in prison. The news prompted an elderly and ailing Pius XII to include Slipyi’s name at the top of hierarchs to which he addrressed his encyclical Novimus nos in May 1956. The following December, he sent a formal apostolic letter to Slipyi on the occasion of the latter’s seventieth birthday, congratulating him on his fidelity. We know that a copy of the papal message reached the imprisoned metropolitan. Pius XII did not live to greet Slipyi upon his arrival in Rome seven years later, in January 1963. Negotiations for the longsuffering prelate’s release were carried out by curial officials of Pius’ successor, Pope John XXIII.

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.