Thomas Brechenmacher The Pope and the Second World War The Controversy The controversy surrounding Pius XII and the Second World War has arisen not only from differing assessments of the neutrality and peace policies but also the pope’s personality. Papal neutrality, the critics ar- gue, was, in reality, biased – if not in favor of Hitler then at least in favor of Germany, and if not for Nazism then at least for totalitarian political systems.1 According to these critics, the Holy See’s peace policy ultimately worked to satisfy Pius XII’s “ambition” “to become a judge of judges… the Vicar of Christ the King on earth”.2 Both taken together create the image of a deluded egomaniacal theocrat on the papal throne, whose “failure” in World War II blemished not only the institution of the papacy with moral guilt but also the universal Church that he headed. Since Rolf Hochhuth’s play The Deputy debuted in 1963, the perception of the “universal Church’s failure”, personified by the “silence” of its su- preme shepherd, Pope Pius XII, has gained nearly universal acceptance. Whether simply repeated or polemically amplified, it persists doggedly in a multitude of works, from Karlheinz Deschner and Carlo Falconi to John Cornwell and Daniel Jonah Goldhagen.3 Yet is this really an accurate view? Does the thesis of the pope’s and the Catholic Church’s “failure” in World War II truly capture the fundamental dilemma of the Holy See caught between the powers during the war years? 1 The present article is a fundamentally revised version of my study “Der Heilige Stuhl und die europäischen Mächte im Vorfeld und während des Zweiten Welt- kriegs”, in Kirchen im Krieg, eds. K.-J. Hummel and C. Kösters, 25–46. 2 J. Cornwell, Hitler’s Pope., 223. – Cf. D. G. Dalin, The Myth oft Hitler’s Pope. 3 K. Deschner, Mit Gott und den Faschisten; C. Falconi, The Silence of Pius XII; D. J. Goldhagen, A Moral Reckoning. Beyond this, and as early as the second half of the 1940s, there existed a genre of communist propaganda literature that was wide- spread even in the West and which sought to denounce Pius XII as a declared ally of the fascist dictators, with the aim of undermining the pope’s authority as a warning voice against communism in the postwar period; cf. for example A. Manhattan, Vatican in World Politics. 182 Thomas Brechenmacher Inter Arma Caritas Countering these criticisms is the papal maxim Inter arma caritas: Chris- tian charity between the weapons.4 These words offer a programmatic summary of the concept under whose auspices the Vatican of Pope Pius XII attempted to steer through the Second World War. It is against the backdrop of this guiding principle and its – at no point frictionless or unproblematic – realization in concrete terms that we should con- sider the relationship of the Holy See to the warring European powers and their respective alliances between 1939 and 1945 if we want to find a basis for judging the conduct of the “universal Church” in World War II meaningfully and fairly. Only a few days after the war started in September 1939, Pope Pius XII decreed that an “Office of Information” for prisoners of war be established in the Vatican Secretariat of State. Soon, inquiries into the fate of prison- ers of war, the missing, the kidnapped, and the deported in all theaters of war were being processed at the rate of several hundred a day. The tightly woven, Europe-wide net of Church institutions was suited like no other for achieving this task. Wherever possible, mere “data collection” and documentation was augmented by concrete assistance, visits to prison and concentration camps, deliveries of food, clothing, and medicine. Along with the International Red Cross, the Vatican Office of Informa- tion rapidly became the most important contact point for all who were desperately searching for their disappeared relatives. This humanitarian commitment leads to the heart of the Holy See’s understanding of its own tasks in a war that the pope, despite labored diplomacy, had been unable to prevent. Christian charity “between the weapons” reflected a self-awareness of the Catholic Church’s “universal mission” to all of humanity, not merely its own Catholic clientele. “It is part of the traditions of the Holy See to practice its mission of universal peace and love to all people, whatever social class or whatever religion they may belong to”, Cardinal Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli – later Pope Pius XII – telegraphed the nuncio in Germany, Cesare Orsenigo, in April 1933.5 The urgent question was asked: In what fashion and with what policy toward the obviously criminal totalitarian regimes could 4 Inter Arma Caritas. 5 Pacelli to Orsenigo, Vatican City, 4 April 1933, Archivio della Congregazione per gli Affari Ecclesiastici Straordinari, Città del Vaticano (AA.EE.SS.), Germania, Pos. 643, fasc. 158, fol. 4r; cf., with additional details, my article “The Catholic Church and the Jews” in the present volume..