174 1-:tll:ra on Germ/lLJ Studies Sekundarliterarur The Priorities of Pope PillS XII during the Holocaust Althoff. Gerd. Spidn;gtbt tkr Politi):;111 MifteialIu. lWHmuflikoliolf ifr Frnde" II"J FthJt. Darmstadt Primus, 1997. Bauer, Barbara. ''Aptum, Decorum." ReaJJcakon tier· Deutsche" UtmJlufJlimnuho/i. Jason Williamson Bel. I. Hng. Klaus Weimar. Berlm, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1997. 115-11 9. Brall, Helmut. CnzLrudu ,I1,d AJelthal Sll(dilll!(!/ Wo{fWlIJ Par.:;jwl Heidelberg: Carl .... he sununcr of 2001 marked the most recent breakdown in relations Winter, 1983. ..between Jewish and Cadlolic officials. The loternational Jewlsh­ Bumke, Joachun. WoffWJl'",1f Euht"bath. 7", vOllig neu bearbe.tete Auflage Stutt­ Catholic Liaison Committee, formed twO years ago to review the Va llcan's gart, Weunar: Metzler, 1997. (Sammlung Metzler; Bel. 36) BwnJce.Joachim. " Hofische KDrpel' - H6fische KuJtur." Mot/mlts Millt1alw: NUit a.ctivities during World War n. dissolved amid growing tensions among Bibkr tintr fXJPulimn EpodJl. Hrsg. Joachim Heinzle PrankJurt am Main: leadingJewish and Catholic scholars concerrung access to still inaccessIble losei, 1994. 67- 102. archival materials in the Vatican. Jewisb leaders lamented that the Vatican Christoph, Siegfried ...G~muret, Heruloyde, and Parzlval's ,erbe'." CDlbqMia denied the comrrussion full access to the archives, willie the Vatican CO\U1- GermuN(U 17 (1984): 200-219. tered thatlhe Jewish scholars 00 the committee were guilty o f «irres[){)n­ Cucuel. Ernst. Die Ein§JII!,lblidltr des POI"{jtui und dar GesUnf(u'erk. Frankfurt a. M.: sible. behavior" and a <'defamatory campaign" (Perelman). At dle heart of Diesrerwcg. 1937. all the contrOvcrsy srands onc man: Pope Pius XJI (1876-1958). Francke, \v,utcr K "The function of 'wis' in ilie char.llcteriz:uion of Gahmurc:t, On the one hand arc thoSt who contend that PIUS XlI was Silent Gawan and Parzival." kfLN 81 (1972): 409418. during the Holocaust, and that if he had only spoken out publicly he could Geitner, Ursula. Die SprwlN der Vmu/lung. Tiibingen: Niemeyer. 1992. have saved many byes. On the o ther are those who believe that Pius was a Green, Dennis H ...Der Auszug Gahmurets.. '" WoflWll-Sludien 1 (1970): 62-86. Hartmann. Hedro. Gahmllnt lind HUZdttJde- KiJmlfuntar'{!llll zv·tilen Buch del ,Pmziuu' benevolent man, and that he should be beatified by the Catholic Church, 1 WoflWll Wit Euhubach. Heme: Verlag rur Wissenschaft und Kunst, 2000. which is dle fi rst step toward evennlal samthood. My goal here is not to Jaeger, C Ste phen. The origi"J of «Jllrt/i"UJ. Qlilizin!, trt1"ds and tIN flrmatioll of tl)urt!J argue for or against Pius' holiness, but ralher to present evidence suggest­ idea/J 939.1210. PhIladelphia: U of Pennsylvama P, 1985. ing that many o f his words and actions, sometimes and some­ e~pllc ltl y Kratz. Henry. Wofnzmw" EJdJuJbadJ} ,Por.dtui~ AlI'altll1ljJlatahJtaieluINatuill. Bern: times implicitly, were anti-J udaic and therefore lent themselves to lhc anti­ Francke, 1973. Semitism of the day.l Intentionall y Or nOl, Pope Pius XlI did, in fuCI, play Meyer, Herbert. Dm /-lmuFlmai tJl.r Gm"thtJwahrzddun del fitiell Guchkchtr bei dell a key role U\ Hitler's Firul Solution. Get7IIaMlL U"tmUrhll"lP' 11M- AhM"&~ ErlIbt(, Add IIltd Ur.CJ(lItk. Weimat", 1934. Christian Allti-Jlldoisll' and the Plltllrt Pope No!t:ze, Holger. GahlllllrtfS Orienifahrt. Kommen!ar ~(III mien Buch wn Woffrom ,Parzi­ w1'(4. 27 -58, 26). Wilrzburg: KOnigshausen und Neumann, 1995. (\Viirz­ As pope, Pius XJ] was able to enloy near-absolute contro l over Germa.n burger BeIrr3ge zur deutschen Phllologie). Ortmann, Christa. ,,'Rutenchaft'. wr Prage nach dec Bedeutung der Gahmuret­ Catholics largely because o f work he had done in the years precedu1g his Geschichte im ,Par-zivaJ' \':blframs von Eschenbach." Dt.:JS 47 (1973): 664- papacy. During that time, he was still Eugenio Pacelli - a. young Roman 710. man born intOa family Wl lll a history of close ties to dlC Church (Cornwell Schmid t - \Vi ~d. Rum . .. holtll.emmlik (Parzival 6, 19): RtthtsWOrt und Reclus­ 4).l One of his first encounters WIth anti-JudaJc sentime nt may have oc­ sinn bei Wolfram von Eschenbach.;' Studielt?JI WofrrJlfl ~Clf Euht"badJ. Flit­ O lrred as a schoolboy in the late nmeteenth cenntry when, accordlllg to f(hrijt fiJr WerneT SchrMer!?JIm 75. Gtburtsta,g. Hrsg. Kurt Gartner und Joa­ biographer John Cornwell, Pacelli's schoolmastcr, Signore Marchi, !":lnted chim Heinzle. T ubingen: Niemeyer, 1989: 333-342 frequently about the '<hw-heartedncss» and "obstinacy" of til e. Jews Weber, W "Handgemal." Ha"d1lWter/JlIlh ~r deNtstbtn Ruhts/,tUhi<hlt (HRG). Hesg. Adalbert Erler und Ekkehard Kaufmann. Berlin: Erich SchmIdt. \960- 176 Focus on Germ:m Studies Priorities of Pope Pius XlI during the Holoca.ust 177 (Comwell16-17. 26). Laler, as a young man, Pacelli attended the St. dinates to M:u: Levien, the head o f the Munich soviet, to argue the Apollinaris Instimte where he studied cano n law. The theme of his doc­ nunciature's diplo matic immunity. Pacelli then descobed his suOOrdume's tara.! dIssertation was the narure o f concordats, that is, speclal treaties be­ expenence -as foUows: tween nanons OC emplres and the Holy See. It was also during his student yea£s that the Jesuit Journal Citiltd Cot/oam was arguing the guilt of Alfred [ ... ) a gang of young wo men, of dubiOUS appearance,Jews hke all Dreyfus, as well as publLshingarticles accusing the Jews of blood libel and the rest o f them, hanging UOlUld m all offices With lecherous instigating the French Revolutio n (Cornwell 24, 28). Although Cornwell demeanor and suggestive smiles. The boss o f this female rabble does not comment o n Pacelli's personal views at this time, twO things are was Levien's mistress. 3. young Russian woman, a Jew and divorcee, clear: the future pope was very ulterested in papal authoDty. and he was who was in charge [... ), [I )his levIen is a young man, of about growing up in dose contact with anti-Jewish sentiment. thirty or dtirty-five, aJso Russian and a Jew. Pale, dirty, Wi th drugged eyes, hoarse voice, vulgar. repulsive, with a face that is both lore!­ ligenr and sly. (qtd. in Comwe11 74-75)S In 1917 Pope Benedict XV named Pacelli the papal nuncio to Munich Why did Pacelli find it necessary to mention repeatedly the (repulsive) (Cornwell 63). He later moved to Beruo, serving as nuncio there until Jewishness of these people? We know that many Germans at this time 1929. AldlOugh Pacelli's years in Geunanyare mostly marked by his nego­ believed that Jews had instigated the BolsheVIk revolution. and it appears tiating concordats with individual German states and e,'ennWly the Third that Pacelli's views were also of this nacure.' But the fact that he used Reich, losrances of anti-JewIsh feehogs o n his part do surface a few times descriptions such as " lecherous demeanor", "suggestive smiles," and " in­ in the years prior (0 his papacy. telligent and sly" - epithets commonly found in anti-Se1lll 11c racial folk­ fn o ne instance, a rabbi in Munich approached the nunclature for lore - suggests dlat his feelings toward Jews may have been mo re than JUSt help in obtaining palm frOllds from Italy for the Feast of Tabernacles. T he political in narure. Jewish community had purchased the fro nds already, but the Italian gov­ I n December 1929, Pacelli renuned to Rome as the newly ap­ ernment had forbidden their exportation and was holding the fro nds in pointed Cardinal Secretary of Stale, the most powerful POSI m the VaucaH the Italian city of Como (Cornwell 70). Pacelli's letter to his superio r in the next to the Pope (Comwe1l 104). HIS renure in this position (1929-1939) Vatica.n's Foreign Affairs Office indicates his stance o n the request: was flUrked by his frequent negotiations for concordats betv.'cen lhe Church and individual German states, culminating with the Reich Concordat of r ( seemed to me that 10 go along with this wouJd be to give the 1933 after heated debates with, among o Lhers. IIltler himself. Although Ilot Jews special assislaflce within the scope of practical, arms'­ such dea1ngs appear purely polil1ca1 on the surface, the repercussions of (0 length, purely ow or naruraJ rights common all human beings, the Reich Concordat o n Jews as well as Pacelli's ambivalence loward [he but in a positive and duect way to assist them in th e exercise o f <jeW1sh question" are worth a closer examination. their Jewish cult [ ... ]. (qtd. in Comwel1 70-71t T he Baden Concordat of 1932 is an CJample o f Pacelli's lOadvert­ ently lending support to anti-Semitism. In the montilS preceding the Con­ Thus is appears that Pacelli did in fact thim somewhat negatively o f Jews cordat, the Baden government was engaged in an lIneasr standoff be­ in terms o f thel,[ rehgion, and that he was nOt willing to help dlern in any tween the ruling Cathohc Center Party and the Social De.mocrars. Due to way if II ruded them Ul the pr.lccice of their «culL" this volatile polItical clinute, the Center Party's leader 10 Baden, Peter Fohr, P-acelli wrote anodler letter to the same superior less than one year urged Pacelli to postpOne a concordat (ComweIl125). Pacel!J, wanting to later at a time when Communist revolutionaries were staging a violent further his own agenda of Church-Sute relallons posthaste, tllen threat· cou; in Munich. Pacelli, loadling Communists, had sent one of his suOOr- ened to pull rank on the local church authorities and appoint a new arch- 178 FoCUJ on German Studies Prioriti es o f Pope Pius XII during the llolocallst 179 bishop to Freiburg aftcr the previous one had unexpected ly died.