Forgiven and forgotten? Pius XII and denazification

Just a few weeks after the end of the war in Europe, on 2 June 1945, Pope Pius XII gave an address to the College of Cardinals. He stated that the Catholic Church was a victim of the Nazis. The Church had positioned itself early on against the Nazis. Under no circumstances should the Germans fall under collective guilt. If the guilty have been punished, then the Germans should be accepted back into the family of nations. The Catholic Church would be important for the realisation of true peace. And the real threat would lie in Bolshevism.

The historian Gerald Steinacher, who teaches in the USA, sees the Pope's speech as programmatic with regard to overcoming the Second World War and the necessary reorganisation. He recently published two essays dealing with the Pope's influence on the Nuremberg trials.

Criticism with regard to "victors' justice"

The Allies had agreed to bring those responsible for the genocide to justice after the war. Accordingly, a total of 13 trials against the elite of the "Third Reich" took place between November 1945 and April 1949. The best known of these was the first trial against the main war criminals. There were also the denazification tribunals on site.

Historian Steinacher says that Pope Pius XII, his closest collaborators, together with various cardinals and bishops, were fundamentally opposed to the Nuremberg war crimes trials and denazification. Initially, the Vatican only expressed cautious criticism with regard to "victors' justice" and rejected all ideas of German collective guilt. It provided documents on the persecution of the Catholic Church for the first Nuremberg trial. Over time, resistance increased significantly.

The day after the death sentences in the main war crimes trial were carried out (16 October 1946), the Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Josef Frings, spoke out in favour of an immediate end to the trials and denazification. Steinacher noted that the Church made no fundamental distinction between war crimes trials and the denazification tribunals.

Together with the Munich Auxiliary Bishop Johannes Neuhäusler, the Archbishop of Salzburg Andreas Rohracher, the later Papal Nuncio and US Bishop Aloysius Muench, Cardinal Amleto Cicognani, the New York Archbishop Cardinal Francis Spellman and Monsignor Giovanni Montini, the later Pope Paul VI, an informal group came together to protest against the measures taken by the Allies. They could be sure of the support of the Secretariat of State and the Pope.

In addition to their open criticism, they tried to undermine the actions of the Allies, the historian found out. In short, Steinacher summarises, they provided moral, financial and material support for accused or convicted perpetrators. From cardinals to priests in parishes, they stood up for Nazis big and small, always finding a reason to ask for leniency or protection from punishment.

Pleas for clemency for Hans Frank

Pope Pius XII, for example, intervened with a plea for clemency for Arthur Greiser, which sparked outrage in Poland. Greiser was accused of hundreds of thousands of murders, the deportation of Poles for forced labour and the plundering of the Polish people. Pius XII also asked for clemency for Hans Frank and Otto Ohlendorf, who, as head of a task force, had almost 100,000 people killed in the East. The list could be extended, says Steinacher.

He has previously researched the so-called "rat line", i.e. helping suspected or accused war criminals to escape. The historian has found a lot of evidence in archives of how the Vatican was involved in this.

Why did Pius XII support war criminals? He was primarily concerned with saving souls, says Gerald Steinacher, quoting Sister Pascalina Lehnert, the Pope's housekeeper and assistant. "Concern for the salvation of souls was always the most important concern of Pius XII." The Pope was also concerned that harsh denazification would weaken Germany and Western Europe and make them easy prey for communism. He wanted the re-Christianisation of the continent. According to Steinacher, when the Cold War heated up at the end of the 1940s, the Pope's approach was in line with geostrategic realities. The common enemy was in the East.