Researcher discovers 1942 letter to Pope Pius XII’s secretary on Nazi war crimes
September 19, 2023
» Continue to this story on AP
CWN Editor's Note: Giovanni Coco, a researcher and archivist in the Vatican’s Apostolic Archives, reported on the discovery of a December 1942 letter from a German Jesuit to Pope Pius XII’s secretary. The letter stated that up to 6,000 Jews and Poles were being deported daily from an occupied Polish town to a death camp.
Father Lothar Koenig, SJ, the writer of the letter, “urged the Holy See to not make public what he was revealing because he feared for his own life and the lives of the resistance sources who had provided the intelligence,” according to Coco.
The Associated Press reported that “it can’t be certain that Pius saw the letter.” Nonetheless, the AP article was accompanied by the headline, “Letter showing Pope Pius XII had detailed information from German Jesuit about Nazi crimes revealed.”
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