Cardinal Pacelli lodges a confidential protest with the German government against persecution of Catholics of Jewish descent - Sept. 9, 1933

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Sept. 9, 1933 Cardinal Pacelli lodges a confidential protest with the German government against persecution of Catholics of Jewish descent.

English translation

Sept. 9, 1933 Confidential Promemoria of the Holy See, Sept. 9, 1933, from Cardinal Secretary of State Pacelli to the German Chargé d’Affaires, Dr. Klee, around the time of the exchange of ratification decrees for the Reich Concordat:

Far be it from the Holy See to involve itself with internal German governmental affairs. It would like, nevertheless, at this moment when an amicable understanding has been established with the Reich Government by the concluding of the Concordat, to express the following request.

Very many Catholic officials and employees have been dismissed from civil service and employment, according to information transmitted here, because it is feared that they were not reliable from a nationalist standpoint. This concerns particularly those who, up to the time the Nazi movement came to power, stood in opposition to it as the result of another political persuasion, and because they deemed themselves obligated as Catholics to observe, for reasons of conscience, a reserve or distance from the doctrines of Nazism. After the Herr Reich Chancellor’s declarations in March, and even more after the concluding of the Concordat, useful collaboration in the new State was thoroughly possible for them, and they were to a large extent ready for that. It is painful for the Holy See to have to see that these officials and employees, even though the obstacles to useful collaboration in the new State have fallen away, are being harmed by their rejection.

On this occasion the Holy See allows itself to intercede with yet another word for those German Catholics who have themselves converted from Jewry to the Christian religion or who are descended in the first generation or more remotely from such Jews converted to the Catholic faith, and now, for reasons known to the Government, suffer likewise from societal and economic difficulties. It would contribute very much to amicable agreement between the Holy See and the Reich Government if the here-mentioned measures of recent months were re-examined and were, to the greatest extent possible, reversed or ameliorated in their burdensome effects.

Source: Dieter Albrecht, ed., Der Notenwechsel Zwischen dem Heiligen Stuhl und der Deutschen Reichsregierung (1965-1980), vol. 1, pp. 396-397 (hereinafter cited as Albrecht, Note Exchange).

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