Apostolic Nuncio to Hungary
Which position did Angelo Rotta hold from Feb 1930 to Feb 1931?
Angelo Rotta Angelo Rotta ( 9 August 1872 – 1 February 1965 ) was an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church . As the Apostolic Nuncio in Budapest at the end of World War II , he was involved in the rescue of the Jews of Budapest from the Nazi Holocaust . He is a significant figure in Catholic resistance to Nazism . Early years . Rotta was born in Milan , Italy , on 9 August 1872 . He was ordained a priest on 10 February 1895 . On 16 October 1922 , Pope Pius XI named him titular archbishop of Thebes and Apostolic Internuncio to Central America , which then covered Costa Rica , El Salvador , Honduras , and Nicaragua . He received his episcopal consecration from Cardinal Pietro Gasparri , the Vatican Secretary of State , on 1 November 1922 . He was named Apostolic Internuncio to Panama as well on 21 September 1923 even as his responsibilities toward other countries in Central America continued . On 9 May 1925 , Pope Pius appointed him Apostolic Delegate to Turkey . During his diplomatic service in Bulgaria , he saved many Bulgarian Jews by issuing them baptismal certificates and safe conducts for the trip to Palestine . Nuncio to Hungary . On 20 March 1930 , Pope Pius named him Apostolic Nuncio to Hungary , a position he held for fifteen years . As Papal Nuncio representing Pope Pius XII in Hungary , Rotta actively protested Hungarys mistreatment of the Jews , and helped persuade Pope Pius XII to lobby the Hungarian leader Admiral Horthy to stop their deportation . According to historian of the Holocaust Martin Gilbert , With Arrow Cross members killing Jews in the streets of Budapest , Angelo Rotta , the senior Vatican representative in Budapest , took a lead in establishing an International Ghetto , consisting of several dozen modern apartment buildings to which large numbers of Jews - eventually 25,000 - were brought and to which the Swiss , Swedish , Portuguese , and Spanish legations , as well as the Vatican , affixed their emblems . Rotta also got permission from the Vatican to begin issuing protective passes to Jewish converts - and was eventually able to distribute more than 15,000 such protective passes , while instructing the drafters of the documents not to examine the recipients credentials too closely . A Red Cross official asked Rotta for pre-signed blank identity papers , to offer to the sick and needy fleeing the Arrow Cross , and was given the documents with Rottas blessing . Rotta encouraged Hungarian church leaders to help their Jewish brothers , and directed Fr Tibor Baranszky to go to the forced marches and distribute letters of immunity to as many Jews as he could . In 1944 - 1945 Rotta contributed greatly to the saving action of the Neutral Powers ( Portugal , Spain , Sweden , Switzerland , the Vatican ) and the International Red Cross Committee in Budapest ( initiated by Carl Lutz , and led , among others , by Giorgio Perlasca , Friedrich Born , Raoul Wallenberg , Angel Sanz Briz ) . As the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps , he vehemently protested several times to the Hungarian Governments against the Jewish Deportations . On 15 November 1944 , the Hungarian Government established the Big Ghetto for 69,000 Jews , while a further 30,000 with protective documents went to the International Ghetto . On 19 November 1944 , the Vatican joined the four other neutral powers - Sweden , Spain , Portugal and Switzerland - in a further collective protest to the Hungarian Government calling for the suspension of deportations of the Jews . The government complied , and banned the death marches - but Budapest was by that stage near anarchy , and deportations continued from 21 November . The Arrow Cross continued their orgy of violence , raiding the international Ghetto and murdering Jews , as Soviet forces approached the city . Rotta and Wallenberg were among the few diplomats to remain in Budapest . Following the Soviet conquest of the city , Wallenberg was seized by the Russians and taken to Moscow , from where he was never released . Gilbert wrote that of the hundred and fifty thousand Jews who had been in Budapest when the Germans arrived in March 1944 , almost 120,000 survived to liberation - 69,000 from the Big Ghetto , 25,000 in the International Ghetto and a further 25,000 hiding out in Christian homes and religious institutes across the city . Post-war . Rotta retired from diplomacy in 1957 . Pope Paul VI paid him a surprise visit at his Vatican residence on Easter Sunday in March 1964 . He was recognized as Righteous among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 1997 . External links . - A short biography - A short biography - budapestvacationservice.com