When Pope Francis opened the complete archives of Pope Pius XII to scholars, there were some surprise revelations. These surprises included the existence of a back channel of discreet direct communications between Hitler and the Pope that was so secret that not even the German ambassador to the Vatican knew about it.
How was this back channel between Hitler and Pope Pius XII setup? Hitler and Mussolini when, after the death of the troublesome Pope Pius XI, who had publicly criticized the Nazi regime and their persecution of the Jews, Cardinal Pacelli was crowned as the next Pope Pius XII. When he was cardinal, Pope Pius XII had negotiated the Reich Concordat between Nazi Germany and the Vatican.
Script with Amazon book links: https://www.slideshare.net/BruceStrom1/pope-pius-xii-wartime-pope-back-channel-to-hitler
This YouTube video: https://youtu.be/6xdxvchkWyY
Pope Pius XII, Wartime Pope, Axis Powers March Across Europe
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/pope-pius-xii-wartime-pope-axis-powers-march-across-europe/
YouTube video: https://youtu.be/L1bkOQNrlzg
Pope Pius XII, Wartime Pope, Allied Powers Turn the Tide of War
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/pope-pius-xii-wartime-pope-allied-powers-turn-the-tide-of-war/
YouTube video: https://youtu.be/pjMa3JdjW48
Pope Pius XII, Wartime Pope, Could the Pope Have Done More To Save the Jews?
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/pope-pius-xii-wartime-pope-could-the-pope-have-done-more-to-save-the-jews/
YouTube video: https://youtu.be/ONnAcLLBNog
Early in the pontificate of Pope Pius XII, Hitler summoned the Nazi Prince Phillip von Hessen to his headquarters to initiate secret talks to see if a deal could be reached with the new pope. Hessen was an ideal intermediary, he had married the daughter of King Victor Emmanuel III, Princess Malfada. Prince Phillip even joined the SA, the Nazi storm troopers, and was appointed governor of his home province in Prussia.
Near the end of the war, in a tragic turn of events, after the King deposed Mussolini, Hitler’s forces managed to capture Princess Malfada, and she died in the Buchenwald concentration camp.[1]
The history of this back channel was excerpted in this Atlantic article to promote the book that is our main source, The Pope at War, by David Kertzer:
Why did the pope participate in these secret back-channel talks with Hitler? Likely to safeguard the survival of the church in those dark times. The history of both the Catholic and the Protestant Churches in Nazi Germany, and elsewhere, suggests the primary goal of the church is to guarantee its survival, freedom of worship, and the freedom to educate the youth in the faith.
https://youtu.be/QP9UR8fqfvs and https://youtu.be/QZgIv9rNP_8
The record shows that the pope was eager to reach an agreement with Hitler to safeguard not only the rights of the church and its members not only in Germany but in all Catholic lands of the Third Reich. Even after the invasion of Poland, he was eager to open up talks with Hitler.[2]
What did Pope Pius XII demand from Hitler before he would give Hitler the propaganda victory of another public agreement? Kertzer lists these demands:
- “Ending the attacks against Christianity and the Church in Party and State publications, and the withdrawal of particularly offensive past publications.”
- “Cessation of anti-Christian and anti-Church propaganda targeted at youth, in the school and beyond.”
- “Restoration of religious education in schools in accordance with the principles of the Catholic Church and led by Church-approved teachers, in most cases Catholic clergy.”
- “Restoration of the Church’s freedom to defend itself publicly against public attacks against Church doctrine and Church organization.”
- “Cessation of further sequestrations of Church property.”[3]
MEETING BETWEEN POPE PIUS XII AND RIBBENTROP
Importantly, the pope wanted these talks to continue, and we get the impression that neither Hitler nor Pope Pius XII were eager for these talks to end. One of the goals of the secret talks was to setup a meeting between Pope Pius XII and a problematic visitor, Joachim von Ribbentrop, who was in Hitler’s inner circle, in March 1940, shortly after the invasion of Poland.
As can be expected, Hitler wanted the pope to offer concessions and live up to his obligations under the Concordat, while Hitler was content only to make promises. Like Napoleon, Ribbentrop was not going to kneel before the pope, but offered to speak frankly. Kertzer quotes him, as saying that “Hitler believed settling their differences ‘was quite possible’ but depended on first ensuring ‘that the Catholic clergy in Germany abandon any kind of political activity,’ that is, not offer any criticism, explicit or implicit, of government policies.”
Ribbentrop noted that Hitler “had quashed no fewer than 7,000 indictments of Catholic clergymen, charged with a variety of financial and sexual crimes,” and was continuing the government’s policy of subsidizing the church, including paying the clerical salaries. The pope responded by saying that much “was also being taken away from the church, including its educational institutions and its properties.”
This meeting between Ribbentrop and Pope Pius XII lasted about an hour, the pope brought up the dreadful restrictions placed on the Catholic Church in Poland. The pope said he did not deny Hitler’s good intentions, but the fact was that the German state was waging a war against the Catholic churches, and how many Catholic schools had been closed. For his part, Ribbentrop predicted that Germany would surely win the war by the end of 1940. Afterwards, Ribbentrop told a cardinal how “pleased he was that Pope Pius XII was eager to reach a ‘solid, long-lasting understanding with Hitler,’ as the Fuhrer wished for the same thing.”[4] We could find no pictures of Pope Pius XII posing with Ribbentrop, suggesting that the Vatican had no desire to publicize these talks.
David Kertzer speculates the obvious, that Hitler was stringing the pope along so he would not criticize the Nazi regime, and these talks continued after the Ribbentrop visit.[5] But who was stringing along whom? Pope Pius XII had no love for the Nazis, the ugly reports of the Nazi brutalities streamed across his desk in real time. You could also forcibly argue that Pope Pius XII was stringing along Hitler, hoping to temper the active persecution of Christians as long as he could. They were both stringing the other along, for opposing reasons. What is true is that this back channel fizzled out when the tides of war started turning against the Third Reich and the Axis powers, the last secret meeting was in 1941.
[1] David Kertzer, The Pope at War, (New York: Random House, 2022), pp. 58-60, and also the Atlantic article.
[2] David Kertzer, The Pope at War, pp. 91.
[3] David Kertzer, The Pope at War, p. 108.
[4] David Kertzer, The Pope at War, pp. 112-116.
[5] David Kertzer, The Pope at War, p. 199.
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