On April 4, 1933, Cardinal Pacelli intervened for Jews seeking Vatican
assistance to combat anti-Semitic actions in Germany.
On April 4, 1933, three days after the one-day boycott of Jewish shops, Pacelli instructed the papal Nuncio
in Berlin to warn the regime against the persecution of German Jews, asking the Nuncio to become actively
involved on behalf of the Jews. Four months later, he twice expressed to the British ambassador to the
Vatican his “disgust and abhorrence” at the Nazi regime. Th e ambassador reported to the foreign offi ce in
London—on August 19, 1933—that Pacelli “deplored the action of the German Government at home”
including “their persecution of Jews.”—Sir Martin Gilbert
Th is letter was written by Cardinal Pacelli to Archbishop Cesare Orsenigo, the papal Nuncio in Germany,
just a few months after Hitler seized power. A number of authors, forced to acknowledge this intervention,
have claimed that nothing much came of this; but as a result of Pacelli’s written instructions to Orsenigo,
several German bishops made public statements defending the persecuted Jews.
Source: Pope Pius XII and World War II: The Documented Truth