Vatican City in World War II Vatican City pursued a policy of neutrality during World War II , under the leadership of Pope Pius XII . Although the city of Rome was occupied by Germany from 1943 and the Allies from 1944 , Vatican City itself was not occupied . The Vatican organized extensive humanitarian aid throughout the duration of the conflict . Background . The Lateran Treaty of 1929 with Italy recognized the sovereignty of Vatican City . It declared Vatican City a neutral country in international relations , and required the Pope to abstain even from mediation unless requested by all parties . In 1939 , the city state was recognized by thirty - eight nations , with a diplomatic corps of thirteen full ambassadors and twenty - five ministers . The prevailing view in the Vatican was that the treaty ' s clause prohibiting the Pope from entering Italian politics prohibited the condemnation of Italian military aggression , visited on Albania on Good Friday 1939 . Foreign relations . Pre - war mediation attempts . As early as April 1939 , Pius XII announced a plan for peace , hoping to mediate a negotiation between the major European powers on the brink of war . The first leader contacted was Benito Mussolini , via Pius XII ' s usual go - between , Jesuit Father Tacchi Venturi . With Mussolini ' s approval , the next day Cardinal Secretary of State Luigi Maglione contacted the nuncio s in Paris ( Valerio Valeri ) , Warsaw ( Filippo Cortesi ) , and Berlin ( Cesare Orsenigo ) and the Apostolic Delegate in London ( William Godfrey ) . The proposed Vatican meeting accomplished very little of substance : if there was any coherent position espoused by the Vatican among its various communications , it was that of appeasement . In particular , the Pope attempted to get Poland to accept the secession of the Free City of Danzig to Nazi Germany , a position Polish ambassador Kazimierz Papée ( the former High Commissioner of Danzig ) and the Polish government could not accept . In his 24 August 1939 Radio Message , just a week before war , Pius warned : " The danger is imminent , but there is still time . Nothing is lost with peace ; all can be lost with war ! " British historian Owen Chadwick drew four themes from the Vatican mediation attempts : a particular closeness to Mussolini , to the point of sending correspondence of his drafting , from the period May – August 1939 ; British and Polish disinterest in Vatican proposals , which were suspected of being pro - Italian and pro - German , respectively ; major European powers viewed the Pope as " no minor pawn upon their chessboard " ; and , above all , Pius XII wanted to ensure compromise between the Western powers to prevent Russian territorial gains . With Poland overrun , but France and the Low Countries yet to be attacked , Pius continued to hope for a negotiated peace to prevent the spread of the conflict . The similarly minded US President Franklin D . Roosevelt re - established American diplomatic relations with the Vatican after a seventy year hiatus and dispatched Myron C . Taylor as his personal representative . Despite the early collapse of peace hopes , the Taylor mission continued at the Vatican . Public statements . Despite intense behind the scenes actions , Pius XII was resolved not to issue any public pronouncement that took sides in the conflict ; this first manifested itself in a refusal to explicitly condemn the German invasion of Poland . Early on , Pius XII believed that the " rapid destruction of Poland meant the end of the war " . Outbreak of war . " Summi Pontificatus " ( " On the Limitations of the Authority of the State " ) , issued 20 October 1939 , was the first papal encyclical issued by Pope Pius XII , and established some of the themes of his papacy . According to Chadwick , " Summi Pontificatus " exemplified both " the hesitancy and the care " of the pontiff . During the drafting of the letter , the Second World War commenced with the Nazi / Soviet invasion of Catholic Poland . Though couched in diplomatic language , Pius endorses Catholic resistance , and states his disapproval of the war , racism , anti - semitism , the Nazi / Soviet invasion of Poland and the persecutions of the Church . With Italy not yet an ally of Hitler in the war , Italians were called upon to remain faithful to the Church . Pius avoided naming the belligerent allies Hitler and Stalin as the evildoers , establishing the " impartial " public tone that was to be a hallmark of his pontificate : " A full statement of the doctrinal stand to be taken in face of the errors of today , if necessary , can be put off to another time unless there is disturbance by calamitous external events ; for the moment We limit Ourselves to some fundamental observations . " Resistance . The Pope wrote of " anti - Christian movements " bringing forth a crop " poignant disasters " and called for love , mercy and compassion against the " deluge of discord " . Following themes addressed in Non abbiamo bisogno ( 1931 ) ; Mit brennender Sorge ( 1937 ) and Divini redemptoris ( 1937 ) , Pius wrote of a need to bring back to the Church those who were following " a false standard . . . misled by error , passion , temptation and prejudice , [ who ] have strayed away from faith in the true God " . He wrote of " Christians unfortunately more in name than in fact " having showed " cowardice " in the face of persecution by these creeds , and endorsed resistance : Invasion of Poland . Pius wrote of a persecuted Church and a time requiring " charity " for victims who had a " right " to compassion . Against the invasion of Poland and killing of civilians he wrote : In Poland , the Nazis murdered over 2 , 500 monks and priests and even more were imprisoned . Opposition to Racism and anti - Semitism . In a further rejection of Nazi ideology , Pius reiterated Catholic opposition to racism and anti - Semitism : 1940 meeting with Ribbentrop . When in 1940 , the Nazi Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop led the only senior Nazi delegation permitted an audience with Pius XII and asked why the Pope had sided with the Allies , Pius replied with a list of recent Nazi atrocities and religious persecutions committed against Christians and Jews , in Germany , and in Poland , leading the New York Times to headline its report " Jews Rights Defended " and write of " burning words he spoke to Herr Ribbentrop about religious persecution " . 1942 Christmas message . In 1942 , Pius XII delivered a Christmas message over Vatican Radio , which voiced concern for the victims of the Nazis ' genocidal policies . From May 1942 , the Nazis had commenced their industrialized slaughter of the Jews of Europe - the " Final Solution " . Gypsies and others were also marked for extermination . The Pope addressed the racial persecutions in the following terms : The New York Times called Pius " a lonely voice crying out of the silence of a continent . " The speech was made in the context of the near total domination of Europe by the armies of Nazi Germany at a time were the war had not yet turned in favour of the Allies . According to the Encyclopædia Britannica , Pius refused to say more " fearing that public papal denunciations might provoke the Hitler regime to brutalize further those subject to Nazi terror — as it had when Dutch bishops publicly protested earlier in the year — while jeopardizing the future of the church " . Holocaust historian , Sir Martin Gilbert , assesses the response of the Reich Security Main Office calling Pius a " mouthpiece " of the Jews in response to his Christmas address , as clear evidence that all sides knew that Pius was one who was raising his voice for the victims of Nazi terror . Contacts to the German military opposition . In the winter of 1939 / 40 , the Bavarian lawyer and reserve ' Abwehr ' officer Josef Müller , acting as an emissary for the early German military opposition against Hitler then centered around General Franz Halder , the chief of staff of the German army , contacted Monsignore Ludwig Kaas , the exiled leader of the German Catholic Zentrum party , in Rome , hoping to use the Pope as an intermediary to contact the British . Kaas put Müller in contact with Father Robert Leiber , who personally asked the Pope to relay the information about the German resistance to the British . After more than a day of " quiet reflection " , Pius XII agreed to pass the information along to the British . However he refused to pass the information along to the French or even to his own Secretariat of State . The Pope ' s Private Secretary , Robert Leiber , met with Müller , who visited Rome in 1939 and 1940 . The Vatican considered Müller to be a representative of Colonel - General von Beck and agreed to offer the machinery for mediation . Oster , Wilhelm Canaris and Hans von Dohnányi , backed by Beck , told Müller to ask Pius to ascertain whether the British would enter negotiations with the German opposition which wanted to overthrow Hitler . The British agreed to negotiate , provided the Vatican could vouch for the opposition ' s representative . Pius , communicating with British envoy D ' Arcy Osborne , channelled communications back and forth in secrecy . The Vatican agreed to send a letter outlining the bases for peace with England and the participation of the Pope was used to try to persuade senior German Generals Halder and Brauchitsch to act against Hitler . Negotiations were tense , with a Western offensive expected , and on the basis that substantive negotiations could only follow the replacement of the Hitler regime . Hoffmann wrote that , when the Venlo Incident stalled the talks , the British agreed to resume discussions primarily because of the " efforts of the Pope and the respect in which he was held . Chamberlain and Halifax set great store by the Pope ' s readiness to mediate . " Pius , without offering endorsement , advised Osbourne on 11 January 1940 that the German opposition had said that a German offensive was planned for February , but that this could be averted if the German generals could be assured of peace with Britain , and not on punitive terms . If this could be assured , then they were willing to move to replace Hitler . The Pope admitted to " discomfort " at his role as mediator , but advised that the Germans involved were not Nazis . The British government had doubts as to the capacity of the conspirators . On 7 February , the Pope updated Osbourne that the opposition wanted to replace the Nazi regime with a democratic federation , but hoped to retain Austria and the Sudetenland . The British government was non - committal , and said that while the federal model was of interest , the promises and sources of the opposition were too vague . Nevertheless , the resistance were encouraged by the talks , and Muller told Leiber that a coup would occur in February . Pius appeared to continue to hope for a coup in Germany into March 1940 . Chadwick wrote that Pius XII met personally with D ' Arcy Osborne , telling him that he knew the names of the involved German generals but did not wish to share them . Pius XII insisted to Osborne that he was merely passing on a message and that " he did not wish in the slightest degree to endorse it or to recommend it " . When Osborne pressed the Pope on the vagueness of his message , Osborne reported that Pius XII replied " perhaps , after all , it was not worth proceeding with the matter and he would therefore ask me to return his communication to me as not having been made " . The Pope further declined Osborne ' s request to guarantee the good faith of the generals , or whether they could accomplish their goal . In a second meeting , Pius XII flashed a typed , four - page letter in German in front of Osborne , but declined to let him read it or have a copy . After the German attack on Denmark and Norway , the British refused any further contacts with emissaries of the German military opposition , fearing another Venlo incident . The opposition largely dissolved after the German conquest of France in summer 1940 because Halder no longer dared to stand up against an apparently successful Hitler . It only regained momentum in 1944 when a new generation of younger officers decided to conspire against the ruthless Nazi regime . Leiber remained the point of contact at the Vatican for communications from Colonel - General Ludwig Beck in the lead up to the 1944 July Plot . Mid - war . In late 1942 , senior Italian officials first approach the Vatican with peace feelers . In the eyes of the Vatican , " the neutrality of the Vatican , achieved at such cost , was paying a dividend at last " . When Mussolini sent his son - in - law , Count Ciano , as ambassador to the Vatican in 1943 , the Germans and others speculated about the possibility of Ciano negotiating a separate peace . The British for their part doubted any such intentions and wanted nothing to do with Ciano . Military history . The closest thing the Vatican had to troops were the Swiss Guard , eponymously of Swiss national origin ; the sympathies of the Swiss varied widely and , < nowiki > in December 1940 , the Vatican prohibited them from talking about politics . < / nowiki > Extraterritorial status . With the German occupation of Rome in 1943 after the fall of Mussolini came rumors of a plot to kidnap the Pope ; modern scholars are still at odds over the authenticity of such allegations . The Vatican City itself was never occupied ; in fact , the chief concern within the Vatican was the potential for lawlessness in the period between the German and Allied occupation , not the potential for German occupation . Ultimately , there was no interval between the occupations , although there was a period of reduced policing . Bombing of Rome . One of Pius XII ' s main diplomatic priorities was to prevent the bombing of Rome ; so sensitive was the pontiff that he protested even the British air dropping of pamphlets over Rome , claiming that the few landing within the city - state violated the Vatican ' s neutrality . Before the American entry into the war , there was little impetus for such a bombing , as the British saw little strategic value in it . After the American entry , the US opposed such a bombing , fearful of offending Catholic members of its military forces , while the British then supported it . Pius XII similarly advocated for the declaration of Rome as an " open city " , but this occurred only on August 14 , 1943 , after Rome had already been bombed twice . Although the Italians consulted the Vatican on the wording of the open city declaration , the impetus for the change had little to do with the Vatican . Prisoners of war . After the Italian surrender , Allied prisoners guarded by Italians were released , and many headed for Vatican City . The Vatican feared such an event would compromise its neutrality and gave strict instructions to the Swiss Guard to prevent any such person from entering the city state ; a system of identity cards was instituted to prevent non - Vatican personnel from entering St . Peter ' s . Some Vatican officials , however , did act independently to assist such persons ; the most famous example is Hugh O ' Flaherty , whose exploits were made famous in the film " The Scarlet and the Black " . Media . " Osservatore Romano " . The " Osservatore Romano " , the Vatican ' s newspaper , published in Italian , was the only newspaper in Italy not censored by the Italian government . Despite its relatively moderate content , the paper was lionized by the British and French press and vilified by the Italian Fascist press . By May 20 , 1940 , the paper ceased publishing any articles about the war not authored by the " official Italian war communique " per an agreement with the Italian government . By August 1940 its weather reports were also eliminated when the Italian government protested that they might aid British aircraft . Vatican Radio . The Vatican Radio was in a similar situation ; for example , it ceased news about prisoners - of - war , which the Italian government worried would hint at the location of ships . It also ceased reporting on the weather , for the same reason . After Cardinal August Hlond issued a fiery , Polish - language message to Poland over the radio ( which could scarcely be picked up in Poland ) , " nothing like this broadcast was ever allowed to happen again " . After German complaints , the radio ceased any discussion of the situation in Poland , and later ceased discussing the situation of the church in Germany . Pius XII personally spoke over the radio on several occasions , most notably during his 1942 Christmas address in which he voiced concern at the murder of " hundreds of thousands " of " faultless " people on the basis of no more than their " race or nationality " . The Holocaust . In his 1939 " Summi Pontificatus " first papal encyclical , Pius XII expressed dismay at the invasion of Poland ; reiterated Catholic teaching against racism and antisemitism ; and endorsed resistance against those opposed to the ethical principles of the " Revelation on Sinai " and the Sermon on the Mount . Pius protested the deportations of Slovakian Jews to the Bratislava government from 1942 . In 1943 he protested that " The Holy See would fail in its Divine Mandate if it did not deplore these measures , which gravely damage man in his natural right , mainly for the reason that these people belong to a certain race . " In June 1942 Pius personally protested against the mass deportations of Jews from France , ordering the papal nuncio to protest to Marshal Pétain against " the inhuman arrests and deportations of Jews " . In his 1942 Christmas address , Pius voiced concern at the murder of " hundreds of thousands " of " faultless " people because of their " nationality or race " . Following the Nazi occupation of Italy , the Pope ordered Rome ' s Catholic institutions to open themselves to the Jews , sheltering 4715 of the 5715 listed for deportation by the Nazis in 150 Catholic institutions . 477 Jews were sheltered in the Vatican itself . As German round - ups continued in Northern Italy , the Pope opened his summer residence , Castel Gandolfo , to take in thousands of Jews and authorized institutions across the north to do the same . From 1943 , Pius instructed his Bulgarian representative to take " all necessary steps " to support Bulgarian Jews facing deportation and his Turkish nuncio , Angelo Roncalli ( later Pope John XXIII ) arranged for the transfer of thousands of children out of Bulgaria to Palestine . Roncalli also advised the Pope of Jewish concentration camps in Romanian occupied Transnistria . The Pope protested to the Romanian government and authorized for funds to be sent to the camps . In 1944 Pius appealed directly to the Hungarian government to halt the deportation of the Jews of Hungary and his nuncio , Angelo Rotta , led a city wide rescue scheme in Budapest . Upon his death , Pius was praised emphatically by Israel and world leaders for his war time leadership . But his insistence on Vatican neutrality and failure to explicitly name the Nazis as the evildoers of the conflict became the foundation for later criticisms . Hugh O ' Flaherty : the Vatican Pimpernel . From his Vatican office , and in co - operation with Pius XII , Monsignor Hugh O ' Flaherty , an Irishman , operated an escape operation for Jews and Allied escapees . In 2012 , the Irish Independent Newspaper credited him with having saved more than 6 , 500 people during the war . From 1943 , he began to offer shelter to allied servicemen seeking sanctuary in the Vatican . Using fake documents and a clandestine communications network , O ' Flaherty defied the Gestapo ' s war criminal commander of Rome , Herbert Kappler , and evaded capture through the German occupation of Rome . O ' Flaherty ' s ' " Rome Escape Line " hid British and American soldiers and Jews in safe houses around the city . Kappler had a white line drawn around the boundary of the Vatican and offered a bounty on O ' Flaherty ' s head . O ' Flaherty forgave Kappler after the war , and became a regular visitor to his prison cell - eventually presiding at his conversion to Catholicism . O ' Flaherty ' s story was dramatized in the 1983 film " The Scarlet and the Black " and Ireland honors his work with the Hugh O ’ Flaherty International Humanitarian Award . Church organization . Occupying powers often requested that Pius XII reorganize conquered Catholic dioceses . Although such reorganization was generally refused , the decision of Pius XII to appoint German apostolic administrators to occupied Poland was " one of his most controversial decisions " . These actions were the primary justification of the Polish Provisional Government for declaring the Concordat of 1925 null and void in 1945 , an act that had tremendous consequences for post - war Polish - Vatican relations . There was no Apostolic Nuncio to Poland between 1947 and 1989 . Immediate postwar aftermath . The Allies entered Rome on June 4 – 5 , 1944 . The Pope was the greatest celebrity on the Italian peninsula during this period , and — given the tarnishment of the King of Italy with fascism — there was even talk of extending the temporal power of the papacy . The Pope granted audiences with Allied soldiers and leaders , which were prominently photographed . Pius XII had refrained from creating cardinals during the war . By the end of World War II there were several prominent vacancies : Cardinal Secretary of State , Camerlengo , Chancellor , and Prefect for the Congregation for the Religious among them . Pius XII created 32 cardinals in early 1946 , having announced his intentions to do so in his preceding Christmas message .