Arthur R. Butz – The Hoax Of The Twentieth Century

Arthur R. Butz, The Hoax of the Twentieth Century
claimed: ‘But why doesn’t the Holy See intervene against the terrible slaughter
of the Jews’
I recalled for him that the Holy Father had already asserted, in his messages,
the right to life, to a peaceful existence, and to a sufficient share in the
goods of this world for all men, whatever their race or religion.
One must not ignore, I added, how much the Holy Father has done and is
doing to alleviate the plight of the poor Jews. These people know it and frequently
thank the Holy See for how much it is doing for them.
The Minister insisted on this point: it would be necessary that the Holy See
intervene to stop the massacres of the Jews. [end of note]”
Later the same day, Osborne ran into Msgr. Domenico Tardini, Secretary of
the Congregation of Extraordinary Ecclesiastic Affairs (the Vatican Foreign Office),
and regarding the departure of the Italian military command headquarters
from Rome, Osborne assured Tardini that “It changes nothing!” Tardini summarized
his conversation with Osborne in his notes and concluded: 459
“The removal of the military commands may help put better in evidence
that whoever bombs Rome is barbaric (and thus it is well that the Holy See be
an interested party), but it will not spare Rome from the bombs.”
We thus see the background of the Pope’s Christmas Eve remark. To the Vatican,
it appeared from the exchange between Osborne and Maglione that the English
were in effect proposing a deal: the Pope condemns extermination of Jews
and the Allies do not bomb Rome, a persuasive position that can convince even a
Holy Father. Aside from any possible ethical considerations, it was obvious to the
Vatican that it could not wreck its official neutrality by publicly accusing the
Germans of completely fabricated offenses and, in any case, the Germans were
still the dominant military power on the Continent at that time, so the remark appeared
in the Christmas address without specific reference to Jews or Germany
(along with other remarks that sounded more or less anti-German without being
specific). However, the Allied bombing threat to Rome did not diminish after
Christmas 1942. Thus, except for a brief similar remark ignored by the world
press, which occurred in a long papal address of June 2, 1943, no more talk of this
nature came from the Vatican. Pope Pius made a favorable reference to the
Christmas remark in his letter of April 30, 1943, to his friend von Preysing, but
even in that confidential communication his specific words were milder than those
of the Christmas remark. 460
Although the Vatican was entirely justified in interpreting Osborne’s remarks
as a specific proposition, it is most likely that this was a misinterpretation nevertheless
and that Osborne did not imagine himself as offering a deal. It is possible,
for example, that Osborne felt that Maglione had a relatively strong position and
thus he grasped at something somewhat out of context in order to supplement his
side of the verbal exchange. The official Allied declaration on extermination of
Jews came three days later, and thus the matter was no doubt somewhat in the air
in the diplomatic corps and came to Osborne rather naturally.
459
460
354
Actes et documents, vol. 7, 138f.
Actes et documents, vol. 2, 326; vol. 9, 40; Rhodes, 348f.