RELIGIOUS ASSISTANCE FOR THE POLISH CATHOLIC WORKERS IN GERMANY
On November 18th 1942, His Eminence the Cardinal Secretary of State addressed a letter to His Eminence the Cardinal Archbishop of Breslau in which he recommended his kindly interest in the lot of the Polish workers transported to Germany for whom the German civil authorities had forbidden or made very difficult the fulfilment of their religious duties. His Eminence Cardinal Bertram replied on December 7th 1942, describing and deploring the sad condition of these unfortunates. We reproduce both documents.
I
SECRETARIATE OF STATE
OF HIS HOLINESS N. 8111/42
Vatican, November 18th 1942
Your Eminence,
In the past you have with praiseworthy zeal taken up the cause of the Polish Catholics, both those who lived in Polish territory, especially in the part of it which adjoins or is near the boundaries of your Archdiocese, and those who found themselves, because of their employment or for other reasons in the "Altreich".
On this account I approach you with more confidence, to ask you to turn your attention, with your accustomed comprehension and charity, to two matters relating to the Polish Catholics. It is possible and even probable that you have already acted in regard to them.
In the first place I would ask you to give your consideration to the regulations of the Ministery of the German Reich for Ecclesiastical Affairs, of which you were informed in a letter of September 2nd of this year.
I need not tell you how much anxiety such regulations have caused to the Apostolic See. For by them an immense multitude of Catholics is deprived of the consolations of religion, and finds
difficulty in frequenting the Sacraments of Holy Church. There is, besides, the fact that the civil authorities arrogate to themselves the right to legislate for the administration of the Sacraments, and expose them to the danger of nullity and even sometimes forbid the administration of the Sacraments as in the case of matrimony.
Since matters have reached this grave and harmful state, please employ, as you have done in the past, your greatest endeavour to secure that the Polish Catholic workers employed in various occupations in the "Altreich" and their children be granted liberty to practise their religion and to profess their faith and to frequent the Sacraments without hindrance, as is their right.
The second question refers to the Polish priests who are detained in certain concentration camps. As far back as October 1940 the Apostolic See, at the request of a German Bishop, commissioned the Apostolic Nuncio at Berlin to approach the Government there, and request that it should allow the many Polish ecclesiastics who were interned in certain localities to emigrate to neutral countries in Europe or America. But the petition scarcely met with a favourable response. For the German Government refused to grant the request, and only promised that it would grant some mitigations of their treatment sought by the German Bishops, viz. that all ecclesiastics in question should be collected in one camp (Dachau), should be relieved of over-strenuous work, that some of them might say Mass every day and that others might assist at it.
In fact, although not a few priests remained in concentration camps elsewhere, the conditions at least for those in Dachau were made somewhat more tolerable. ,
But once again, a few months ago, their lot changed for the worse.
The Apostolic See knows that besides the Polish priests there are others, including Germans, detained in the above mentioned concentration camps and it embraces them all with the same zeal and solicitude in its endeavour to bring them, as far as it can, some alleviation in their bitter sufferings.
Among other things it has recently been learnt that the number of German piests who die there—a number which before was certainly unprecedented and undoubtedly too great—has been reduced to the average; but alas, that the death-rate of Poles—even of young men—is unfortunately still on the increase. The Apostolic Nuncio at Berlin is constantly meeting with increased op-
3265-PS
position in his efforts to help the Catholic Poles; and this to such a point, that many of them suffer and die without knowing what anxious endeavours the Holy Father is making on their behalf.
Accordingly I recommend them to your merciful zeal and intervention and I know that I shall not appeal for your help in vain. You know too that His Excellency the Most Rev. Michael Kozal, titular Bishop of Lappa, auxiliary to the Bishop of Wladi-slavia has been put into the Dachau concentration camp, and that His Excellency the Most Rev. Vladislaus Goral, titular Bishop of Meloee in Isauria, Auxiliary to the Bishop of Lublin, has probably been put into Oranienburg-Sachsenhausen. If you can do so, and it is permitted, give them a special proof of Christian charity by your help and sympathy.
Be assured that whatever you do to comfort these afflicted ones whom I have mentioned will be very pleasing to the Holy Father, Who is greatly concerned for them, and deeply sympathizes with them in their misfortunes, as He does with all poor sufferers.
In the meantime, with all due veneration I kiss your hands, and remain
Your Eminence's Most devotedly and faithfully
L. Card. Maglione.
Certificate, and a letter to Cardinal Bertram (archbishop of Breslau), on the German government's restrictions on religious services for Polish workers in Germany and the detention of Polish priests in concentration camps
Authors
Domenico Tardini (secretary of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, Vatican (1945))
Domenico Tardini
Catholic cardinal
- Born: 1888-02-29 (Rome)
- Died: 1961-07-30 (Rome)
- Country of citizenship: Italy (period: 1946-06-18 through 1961-07-30); Kingdom of Italy (period: 1888-02-29 through 1946-06-18)
- Occupation: Catholic deacon (since: 1912-03-23); Catholic priest (since: 1912-09-20); diplomat; theologian
- Member of: Pontifical Academy of Sciences
- Position held: Cardinal Secretary of State (period: 1958-11-17 through 1961-07-30); Catholic bishop (since: 1958-12-27); cardinal (since: 1958-12-15); titular archbishop (diocese: Laodicea in Syria (Roman Catholic titular see); since: 1958-12-14)
- Educated at: Pontifical Roman Seminary; Pontifical Urbaniana University
- VIAF ID: https://viaf.org/viaf/105921
Luigi Maglione (Cardinal, Secretary of State, Vatican)
Luigi Maglione
Catholic cardinal
- Born: 1877-03-03 1877-03-02 (Casoria)
- Died: 1944-08-22 (Casoria)
- Country of citizenship: Kingdom of Italy
- Occupation: Catholic priest (since: 1901-07-25)
- Member of: Pontifical Academy of Sciences
- Participant in: 1939 papal conclave
- Position held: Apostolic Nuncio to France (of: France; organization directed by the office or position: Apostolic Nunciature to France; period: 1926-05-24 through 1935-12-16); Apostolic Nuncio to Switzerland (of: Switzerland; since: 1920-09-01); Cardinal Secretary of State (period: 1939-03-10 through 1944-08-22); Catholic archbishop (since: 1920-09-26)
- Educated at: Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy; Pontifical Gregorian University
Date: 13 November 1945
Literal Title: [second page:] Religious Assistance for the Polish Catholic Workers in Germany
Total Pages: 3
Language of Text: English
Source of Text: Nazi conspiracy and aggression (Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946.)
Evidence Code: PS-3265
HLSL Item No.: 450468
Notes:Tardini certified Maglione's letter (18 November 1942) on 13 November 1945. For the reply by Cardinal Bertram, see document PS 3266.
Trial Issues
Conspiracy (and Common plan, in IMT) (IMT, NMT 1, 3, 4) IMT count 1: common plan or conspiracy (IMT) Nazi regime (rise, consolidation, economic control, and militarization) (I… Persecution of political, religious, and ethnic ("racial") groups (IMT, NM…
Document Summary
PS-3265: English translation of a Latin letter from the Secretariate of State of His Holiness, to the Cardinal Archbishop of Broslau, re 'Religious Assistance for the Polish Catholic Workers in Germany'