Nazi document from the National Archives and Records Administration, CIA Selected Documents, 1941–
1947, Box 4, College Park, Maryland—an Allied intercept of German war messages. It is dated October
26, 1943—ten days after the Roman roundup of Jews—and it is a German report back to Berlin. It reads:
“Vatican has apparently for a long time been assisting Jews to escape. Th e fear is growing that further actions
to transport factory hands and workers are planned. Communists are speaking of taking measures for the selfprotection
of the workers and this has already been taken up by the enemy . . . Our propaganda inadequate.
We consider it urgently necessary for pro-German Italians to enlighten the population.” Th e document is
numbered 7927, from Group XIII/52, Rome to Berlin, RSS 210/26/10/43 1819 GMT.
Th is is a very signifi cant document. For one thing, it seriously undermines the theory that the Vatican
did not begin taking in/protecting/rescuing Jews, until well after the October 16 roundup. But note: the
October 26 document says that the Vatican has apparently been sheltering them “for a long time,” which
would presumably be longer than just ten days. Priest-rescuer Aldo Brunacci, honored by Yad Vashem as a
Righteous Gentile, has always maintained that his bishop in Assisi, Nicolini, read him a papal letter, dated
September 1943, ordering everybody to rescue/assist Jews at that point. Anti-Pius authors have tried to
undermine Brunacci’s claim, arguing that September 1943 is just too early, since the Vatican didn’t go into
action for Jews, if at all, until after the October 16 roundup. But the new document of October 26 supports
Brunacci’s dating.
Note also in the document that the Nazis are furious that their twenty-four-hour-a-day anti-Semitic
propaganda, in occupied Rome, is having little eff ect upon the Italian Catholics, who were obviously being
infl uenced by Pope Pius XII.
Source: Pope Pius XII and World War II: The Documented Truth