Germany’s Catholics: neither cowed nor craven - The Cross and the Third Reich: Book Review

Francis Phillips hails a stunning study of Catholic resistance to National Socialism

John Frain subtitles this book, Catholic Resistance in the Nazi Era and at first glance it might seem a well-trodden path, adding little to what is already known. For instance, negative publicity given to the alleged "silence" of Pope Pius XII during the War has led to a succession of scholarly studies of his attitude and behaviour towards Jewish victims of Nazi persecution. But Frain's terms of reference are wider than this; he examines every level of Catholic opposition to Hitler, particularly in Germany: the electorate, the bishops, courageous individuals, as well as Vatican diplomatic initiatives.

The author, who modestly describes himself as "neither historian nor theologian", simply a Catholic layman, has done the common reader like me a great service. I must confess that in my laziness and ignorance I had assumed that, with the exception of a few brave souls such as Clemens August von Galen, Bishop of Münster, most German Catholics were cowed and craven before and during the War; indeed, so anti-Communist as to be warily sympathetic to the Nazis.

With his mastery of the facts, the result of painstaking and careful research, Frain completely demolishes this assumption. Beginning with the question, "Why did one of the most intellectually gifted and industrious nations in the world become subjugated to an indolent, argumentative, autocratic, tedious habitué of a Viennese doss-house?" he provides a brief introduction to the state of Germany after the First World War. Then asking a related question: "What did the Church actually do?" During the period under scrutiny, he makes the interesting discovery that it did a great deal, even well before Hitler came to power in 1933.

Frain also explains why the view of Pius XII as either "Hitler's Pope", or at the least a moral coward, is utterly baseless. Learning from his bishops that his public utterances, and the Vatican Radio broadcasts, were causing savage Nazi reprisals against the very people he was trying to protect, the Pope was forced to act largely through secret diplomatic channels involving his nuncios. Many references from Jewish historians and Allied diplomats are cited in evidence here. Yet the Vatican also acted swiftly when necessary, silencing Theodor Innitzer, Cardinal Archbishop of Vienna, when he publicly supported the Nazi annexation of Austria. Again, in Slovakia there were no deportations of Jews between October 1942 and September 1944 because of Vatican efforts.

Having examined the conduct of the Church as a whole, the author describes the lives of some individual Catholics who were prepared to die rather than surrender to the Nazi ideology. Several of these men and women, like Bishop von Galen, Maximilian Kolbe, the Polish Franciscan; Edith Stein, philosopher and later Carmelite; or Franz Jägerstatter, the Austrian farmer, are already familiar figures: others, like Fr Jacques Bunel, Sister Restituta Kafka, Marcel Callo, Karl Leisner and Alfred Delp SJ, are less well-known. Reading Frain's brief yet compelling account of these models of heroic virtue is an inspiring testimony of courage and the cross. Fr Bunel's story has been told in the film Au Revoir Les Enfants by Louis Malle, a former pupil at his school. Restituta Kafka, nun and nurse, was imprisoned and then guillotined simply for praying with dying patients and putting crucifixes in every room of the Mödling hospital, south of Vienna....

It was understood that should the Pope be forced to support Nazism he would have resigned as the Pope and allowed himself to be arrested. Another acting Cardinal would then take over the duties of the Pope.

An extraodinary example of faith that leads.

In 1943,The Pope publicly denounced the first mass arrest of Italian Jews in an article in L’Osservatore Roman and protested their internment and the confiscation of their properties.

In August 1943, Pius XII received a plea from the World Jewish Congress to try to persuade the Italian authorities to release 20,000 Jewish refugees from internment in Northern Italy. They wrote, “Our terror-stricken brethren look to Your Holiness as the only hope for saving them from persecution and death”. In September 1943, A.L. Easterman on behalf of the WJC reported to the Apostolic Delegate in London that the efforts of the Holy See on behalf of the Jews had been successful. He wrote, “I feel sure that the effort of your Grace, and of the Holy See have brought about this fortunate result, and I should like to express to the Holy See and yourself the warmest thanks of the World Jewish Congress.”

Around the same time, the German Chief of Police in Rome threatened to send about 200 Jews to the Russian front unless they produced within 36 hours 50 Kg of gold or the equivalent in currency. The Chief Rabbi approached the Holy See, who immediately placed at the Rabbi’s disposal the 15 Kg. of gold they needed to complete the ransom. More than half of the Jews in Rome were sheltered in ecclesiastical buildings opened on the express instructions of Pius XII himself. The Vatican Secretariat of State saved more Jews by faking their baptisms and sending lists of “baptized” Jews to the German Ambassador, Weizsacker, so that they could be evacuated. Many of those saved were helped to escape by the massive issuing of Vatican passports.

Indeed, Adolph Eichman, the Nazi butcher in charge of the deportation of the Jews in Italy, noted in his diary The Church’s role in the rescuing of Jews. The German Ambassador at the Vatican, Ernst von Weizsacker, a humane man who did not approve of the genocide, was receptive to the Holy See’s complaints. According to Eichman, “the objections given and the excessive delay in the steps necessary to complete the implementation of the operation, resulted in a great part of the Italian Jews being able to hide and escape capture.”

The Chief Rabbi in Rome during the German occupation, Israel Zolli, once said, “No hero in history was more militant, more fought against, none more heroic, than Pius XII.” In fact, Zolli was so moved by Pius XII, with whom he worked closely in the saving of Jewish lives, that he converted to Catholicism after the war and took the Pope’s own name, Eugenio, as his baptismal name.

Rome under German occupation

At the beginning of 1944 Rome had already been under German control for four months. More than six months were yet to pass before the German troops would retreat to the North. The churches, seminaries, and convents, even those solemnly bound to the cloister were opened to all categories of refugees, regardless of political leanings, religion or race (the dispensation was granted by the Pope). More than 180 Church’s facilities were used in the rescue effort. They harbored Jews, military officers and members of the resistance. Of the refugees hidden at Castel Gandolfo more than 3,000 were Jews. In the convent of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Sion there was a group of 200 Jewish men and women for several months. In the Roman Seminary of St. John Lateran nearly the entire National Committee of Liberation was hidden-only a few paces from the headquarters of the Gestapo police. In a raid into the extra-territorial Basilica of St. Paul’s Out-side the Walls; the neo-Fascist police found that the monastery was a shelter for the very people they were seeking. During the German occupation of Rome, more than half of the Jewish population found refuge in The Church’s facilities, including the Vatican itself.

The Vatican City was in imminent risk of being occupied by the German troops. Spain and Brazil offered refuge to the Pope, but the Pope adamantly refused any possibility of abandoning Rome. As Cardinal Tisserant said: ”Everyone knew that the Pope was ready to go to a concentration camp.” Speaking to the College of Cardinals on February 9, 1944, when the fate of Rome was in question, Pius XII surely manifested his courage:

“There is no need to declare that we, whatever may happen, will never leave the Apostolic See or our beloved Rome. We shall yield only to violence. We do not have anxiety for our lot, but we do for yours, Venerable Brothers. Therefore we dispense you from your obligation to share our fate. Each of you is free to do as he thinks most efficient for his own safety.” (18)

German troops advance towards St. Peter Square

As German troops advanced towards St Peter Square, the Pope ordered the Papal Swiss Guards to move to the white demarcation line with their arms ready while machine guns posts were placed on high alert in the surrounding Vatican buildings. The German troops retreated.

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