Newly unearthed letter reveals Pope Pius XII knew of Nazi killings of 6,000 Jews and Poles

A previously undisclosed correspondence showed that World War II-era Pope Pius XII had detailed information about the mass killings of Jews by the Nazis, AP news agency reported. The documents, found in the Vatican archives, challenge the Holy See's claim that it could not confirm Nazi atrocities reports in order to condemn them. This has revived the age-old debate over Pope Pius XII's legacy. His actions during World War II have long been a subject of contestation among historians.

His supporters argue that he used quiet diplomacy to save Jewish lives. However, critics contend that he remained silent in the face of the Holocaust.

What does the newly uncovered letter say?

The newly uncovered letter, dated December 14, 1942, was written by a trusted German Jesuit priest named Rev. Lothar Koenig to Pope Pius XII's secretary, Rev. Robert Leiber, who was also a German Jesuit.

This letter is included in an upcoming book by a researcher and archivist in the Vatican’s Apostolic Archives, Giovanni Coco. This letter is now published in the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, sparking the debate overPope Pius XII's legacy.

Koenig's letter, written in German, reported that the Nazis were killing up to 6,000 Jews and Poles daily in Rava Ruska, a town in pre-war Poland (now in Ukraine), and transporting them to the Belzec death camp.

Coco told Corriere that the letter is important because it places the correspondence within the same timeframe when Pope Pius XII was receiving diplomatic notes from British and Polish envoys to the Vatican, reporting that as many as 1 million Jews had been killed in Poland.

While it cannot be definitively established whether Pope Pius XII saw the letter, Rev. Robert Leiber was his top aide and had previously served as the Vatican's ambassador to Germany during the 1920s. Media reports said that this suggested a close working relationship, particularly regarding matters related to Germany.

Revelation

Historian Giovanni Coco stressed the significance of the document, stating that it provides certainty that Pope Pius XII was receiving detailed information about crimes against Jews from the German Catholic Church. However, Coco said that the priest Koenig also urged the Vatican not to disclose the information due to concerns for his safety and the safety of his sources.

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Pope Pius XII's legacy and the revelations from the newly opened Vatican archives will be the subject of discussion at a forthcoming conference at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University.

The conference has received support from various institutions, including the Vatican, Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Research Institute, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the Israeli and US embassies.

The conference will feature scholars like Pulitzer Prize-winning anthropologist David Kertzer, Giovanni Coco, and Johan Ickx, the archivist at the Vatican secretariat of state. This gathering is notable as it might shed light on this contentious period in history.

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