September 11, 1941. Nuncio protested against the introduction of racial laws with an offi cial protest note
from the Pope.
March 1942. Start of the deportations. Th e bishop’s pastoral letter protesting the deportations from the Pope
resulted in an immediate halt.
Archbishop Borzoi Nuncio, March 1942. “It is not true that Jews deported would be sent to the service
work, the truth is that they are murdered.”
April 1942. Ten thousand girls are in the death camps. Protesting demands from the Pope resulted in an
immediate halt. No more deportations!
February 1943. Protest from the episcopacy prevented the resumption of deportations.
March 1943. Fr. Jozef Tiso, president of Slovakia, was ordered by the Holy See to stop the deportation of
Jews under the threat that he would be excommunicated by the Pope (cf. Acts et Documents du Sainte Siege,
1,457 and 9,246). Th e letter from Rome was presented to Tiso through Bishop Hamvas, auxiliary bishop of
Budapest (cf. Acts et Documents du Sainte Siege, 8, 458).
Beginning 1944, Nazis are calling for “rail shipments of foreign workers” for Auschwitz. Intervention of the
Pope resulted in cancellation of the deportations.
August 1944. Germany takes over control; deportations resume. Following an unsuccessful intervention by
the Pope to stop them, twenty-fi ve thousand Jews are hidden in monasteries.
Telegram to president of Slovakia, President Tiso, August 1944. Pope Pius XII sends a telegram to
President Tiso that he must not deport the Jews and that he is greatly pained by what is occurring.”
Source: Pope Pius XII and World War II: The Documented Truth