740.00116 European War 1939/689: Telegram
The Minister in Switzerland ( Harrison ) to the Secretary of State
[Received 5:15 p.m.]
6144. From Tittmann:55
212. My 169, October 10.56 In a recent conversation with the Cardinal Secretary of State57 I referred to the Joint Declaration of the United Nations on the mass extermination of the Jews in German occupied countries and asked him whether there was not something Holy See could do along similar lines. He replied as before to the effect that Holy See was unable to denounce publicly particular atrocities but that it had frequently condemned atrocities in general. He [Page 71] added that everything possible was being done privately to relieve the distress of the Jews. Although deploring cruelties that have come to his attention he said that Holy See was unable to verify Allied reports as to the number of Jews exterminated et cetera.
There are rumors to the effect that the Pope in his Christmas message58 will take a strong stand on this subject but I am afraid that any deviation from generalities of his previous messages is unlikely. [Tittmann.]
- Harold H. Tittmann, Assistant to President Roosevelt’s Personal Representative to Pope Pius XII.↩
- See telegram No. 4675, October 16, 1942, 10 a.m., from the Minister in Switzerland, vol. iii , section under Vatican entitled “Efforts by the United States and other governments to have the Pope protest publicly against Nazi atrocities in German-occupied areas.”↩
- Cardinal Luigi Maglione.↩
- For extracts from the Pope’s Christmas message, see World Peace Foundation, War and Peace Aims of the United Nations, September 1, 1939–December 31, 1942 (Boston, 1943), p. 626.↩