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invasion of Europe, the defeat of Germany had become a certainty. It was only a matter of time.
Whereas for the Allies the problem was how best to coordinate their military efforts to give Germany a final knock-out blow, for the Vatican the question became how to ensure that the military/political manoeuvre that had achieved the surrender and yet the partial preservation of Fascist Italy would be repeated in Nazi Germany before the sand had completely run out.
Individuals and groups once more began to work, stirred by political and patriotic feelings but above all by -the fear of the Bolshevist chaos that the complete defeat of Germany would bring in its train. Their objectives: to unseat Hitler, set up a provisional dictatorship, bid for peace with the Western Powers so as to arrest the complete breakdown of social order throughout the Reich. Such a change would prevent the Soviet Armies from entering German -soil, which would be hermetically sealed off once the new Government had accepted the Allies' peace terms.
As in the case of Italy, those planning for the changes to come had been plotting with varying degrees of success for some time past, the tempo of their activities having quickened since the final defeat of Germany had become inevitable.
[An attempt on Hitler's life had been made as far back as 1939, after the Polish campaign. The first organized plot (besides that of 1939) took place in March 1943. (Note date. During the same spring Italian plotters were preparing to get rid of Mussolini.) The plot was conceived by the same elements which in the following year were to attempt to arrest or kill Hitler and, alter the example of the Italians, set up a military dictatorship. In their still-born attempt of 1943, the plot miscarried, owing chiefly to the non-explosion of a bomb put in the plane in which Hitler was traveling (March 13th, 1943).]
As previous to Mussolini's downfall, so now also the Vatican, Great Britain and the United States of America were in complete agreement about supporting those elements inside Germany ready 'to carry out the coup. Nationalistic and patriotic goals were cunningly mixed with religious ones in such a way that these elements (among whom were individuals whose motives were anything but
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religious) would outwardly appear as a movement whose task was purely political. Its immediate aims: the salvage of whatever could be saved from ultimate disaster, and the establishment of a military dictatorship.
After the Italian coup, the Vatican-which although one of the main interested powers behind the scenes in the Italian and German plots acted to all appearances as an aloof observer-having made further approaches both to Hitler and to the Allies in the renewed hope that some kind of a compromise might be reached, seeing its attempts again ending in failure, set to work to avert final military catastrophe from overtaking Germany before a new Government was ready to take over.
It was thus that in the spring of 1944 the Vatican became active in that type of discreet but ominous activity which in the previous spring had preceded the downfall of Mussolini. The Nazi Ambassador paid several official and unofficial visits to the Pope, as did the British Ambassador to the Holy See, while Roosevelt's special envoy, Mr. Taylor, returned to Rome, where he was no less keen than his German and British colleagues on having long private interviews with Pius XII.
Once more the Vatican served as a kind of liaison between the Allies and the German underground charged with the task of replacing Hitler.
The German resisters had been advised to act before the Allies invaded the Continent. For had they been successful in setting up a. new Government, they would have found it infinitely easier to sue. for peace than it was for the Nazis to do so; and thus, by obtaining terms by which the dismemberment of the Reich might be avoided, the gloomy possibility of the Soviet occupying part of Germany would be banished. It should be remembered that at this timespring 1944-the Soviet Armies were steadily advancing Westwards, while the Western Allies had not yet set foot on Europe.
In view of the gravity of the situation, the plotters-instead of planning to eliminate Hitler by arresting him as had been done with Mussolini-decided on his assassination. A plot which had been mapped out during the ten summer weeks of 1943, at the time when, the Italian plan was executed, was now completed, "the military details for -the coup being largely developed by Count Stauffenberg,
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and Maj. Ulrich von Oertzen, in collaboration with General Treschow."
Col. Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg was Chief of Staff in the General Army Office, under Infantry General Friedrich Olbritch, the latter being one of the leading plotters. Count Von Stauffenberg was a most ardent Catholic and belonged to a family which for centuries had been deeply steeped in Catholicism. The Catholicity of the Stauffenbergs was their chief characteristic; they favored the old order of things, and therefore in politics they abhorred Socialist doctrines and all that they implied; as ardent patriots and as pious Catholics, their main goal was to further the interests of Germany and of their Church, and to fight their enemies by every means possible.
At this stage it should be noted that whereas previous unsuccessful schemes had never been fully approved by Rome, now that the Vatican had given its blessing a most devout Catholic suddenly came in-to prominence (many Catholics took part in the earlier plots, but had always remained in the background). Whether this was due to the unusual organizational experience of Von Stauffenberg or to other causes, it is difficult to say; the significant fact remains, however, that from this time onwards-that is, as the Soviet Armies advanced-zealous Catholics became more active than ever.
Besides the military details of the plan, Count Von Stauffenberg and his friends had prepared a careful scheme in the political field. Many of his associates belonged to the Christian-read CatholicConservative opposition to Hitler, and were to become the leaders of the Christian Democratic Union Party, or Christian Socialist Union, headed by the devout Dr. Mueller.
According to this project, as soon as Hitler was eliminated the plotters would set up a military dictatorship. This would last long enough to prevent revolutionary disorder and to come to terms with the Allies. It was estimated that such provisional military dictatorship-to be modelled upon that of General Badoglio in Italywould exist approximately three months. [According to Fabian Von Schlabrendorjq. In the military dictatorship, the two leaders would have been Col. Gen. Ludwig Beck, who "was to serve as Chief of State until a final decision was made as to the form of Government," and Dr. Goerdeler, as Chancellor. Dr. Goerdeler was nominally a
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representative of the Bosch industrial enterprises (see Collier's. 27.7J946).]
Once subversive elements had been safely neutralized, a Civil Government with two houses of Parliament would take the place of the temporary dictatorship. The interplay of various political forces would be resumed. Parliament would be controlled by an institution which would stand above it to "guarantee" the stability necessary for an ordered society: that is to say, above the Government there would be a King. We quote here the words of one who took part in the plot: "There would be a two-house Parliament, along the lines of the English system. The chief executive would be Chancellor, corresponding to a Prime Minister. In addition, it was felt that there must be one department that stood above political discussion, for the character and history of the German people are such that leadership cannot be built up exclusively from below. To meet this need, many of us favored a monarchy."
The reader should note the significant phrase: "leadership cannot be built up exclusively from below"-one of the main political doctrines of the Catholic Church, which teaches that Authority derives from God and not from the people.
The plotters persuaded many high German officers to side with them. Among these were Col. General Otto Von Stulpnagel, Commander-in-Chief in France, and General Alexander Von Falkenhausen, Commander-in-Chief in Belgium and Northern France. (One should remember the harmonious relationship between Von Falken. hau-sen and the Primate of Belgium, whom the General thanked "for the solicitude you have been good enough to show for the interest which I represent.")
It was decided to kill Hitler during one of his usual military conferences. At first there was great difficulty in finding volunteers for -the task, until finally Maj. Gen. HeRmuth Stieff, of the High Command, came forward, and two others, Maj. Kuhn and Lt. Albrecht von Hagen, offered to help him.
Owing to lack of favorable circumstances, however, the attempt was postponed from week to week, until at last the plotters gave up hope. There were other plans also, but they all came to nothing. (Another plan was to have Hitler repeat his earlier visit to the Central Army Group in Russia, where Trekow and Von Schlabren
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dorff had almost brought about the Fuehrer's death in March 1943. However, nothing could prevail on Hitler to journey there again.)
Meanwhile, events quickly succeeded one another, the date of the Allied landing was approaching, and the plotters saw with dismay that they had as yet done nothing to realize their plans. "We wanted desperately to stage our coup before the expected Western invasion by the Allies took place. But one unfortunate accident followed another, until on June 6th, 1944 the invasion began."
At this point some, having -abandoned all hope, decided to give up -their project. Not so others, especially those representing the Christian Conservative opposition. For although the first disaster that led the whole of Germany to the precipice, that is the Allied invasion of Europe, had already overtaken them, the second, the advance of Bolshevist legions on German soil, might yet be averted providing no time was lost.
The Red menace became an even more horrifying nightmare when, shortly afterwards (22nd June 1944), the Russians followed up the Western invasion with their offensive in the East.
At this stage, what neither patriotism nor fear of social revolution, political upheaval or national defeat had had the force to do, religious conviction and the will of men believing it their duty to take any risk, cost them what it may, to defend the interest and perhaps even the very existence of their Church from its archenemy, made them spring to action.
As the Red Armies advanced and none of the other plotters acted acted, the devout Catholic Count Von Stauffenberg stepped forward and himself offered to kill Hitler. (Von Stauffenberg, by the way, hid been destined to be the key man with General Olbricht in the future home Army set-up whose task would have been to crush all subversive elements in post-Hitler Germany.)
In the words of Fabian Von Schlabrendorff:
"Ten days later (dating from 22nd June) I received a message from Count Stauffenberg. He had decided it was impossible to wait any longer. He was going to kill Hitler himself. We would be prepared for the assassination to take place any day."
This was all the more remarkable as "in -the original planning, Stauffenberg had not been considered as a possible assassin, since he had only one hand, from which two fingers vere missing. But
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he was fearless and able, and one of the few resistance men who were in a position to get at Hitler."
On July 20th, 1944, Count Von Stauffenberg acted. That day he took into Hitler's office a brief case loaded with explosives, timed 'to go off within a few minutes. Having deposited the case, he de'parted unsuspected. There followed an explosion so terrific that Von Stauffenberg had no doubt that Hitler and those with him had been killed.
Immediately after the attempt wild confusion seized Berlin. Von -Stauffenberg, General 0lbritch and others started to put their de. plans into operation, beginning by holding General Fromm, Commander of the home Army, their prisoner. (Fromm, who after. wards executed Von Stauffenberg, in turn was himself executed by Hitler, who suspected that he had known of the plot.)
But the schemers had their way for only a couple of hours. Hitler had again escaped, and was still alive. [It is noteworthy that certain Jemi-official quarters in Allied countries, with particular regard to
British Broadcasting Corporation, in addition to large portion$ of the British and American Press, particularly the Catholic, usually very reticent, now stressed time and again that the man who had dared to attempt to rid the world of Hitler was a "Roman Catholic." This was all the more remarkable when one remember$ that in similar circumstances the Church to which a political assassin betongs is rarely it ever mentioned. (Broadcasts from the B.B.C. on the 20th and 21st July, 1944.)
Stauffenberg and Olbritch were immediately executed. General Beck was allowed to commit suicide, others died before the Fuehrer's firing squads.
Thus the plan which in the case of Italy had worked out so smoothly and so successfully, in the case of Germany miscarried completely.
Immediately the attempt was known to have failed, Cardinal Faulhaber, Archbishop of Munich, sent his own and his Bishops' congratulations to Hitler on his escape from the attack on his life. This was followed by the singing of the Te Deum in Munich Cathedral.
The Vatican for a time remained mute. But after a few days, as it powerlessly watched the unfolding of the final catastrophe, it began once more loudly to warn the victorious nations on two main
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subjects: First, that the Allies had to be generous to Germany; and, secondly, that they had to take measures to prevent the spreading of Communism and to prevent "Godless Russia" from conquering Europe.
As the end of Nazi Germany's military resistance was approaching and as the Russian armies advanced towards Berlin, Roosevelt continued his efforts to bridge the immense gap that separated the Vatican and the Kremlin. As late as March 1945, after prolonged negotiations with the Vatican, Roosevelt sent another personal envoy, Mr. E. J. Flynn, to Rome. Mr. Flynn saw the Pope on several occasions, and also the Papal Assistant Secretary. The purpose of the visit was a well-known "secret'--another of Roosevelt's many attempts for a rapprochement between Moscow and the Vatican. But once more the President's efforts failed, owing to the intractability of the Pope.
The "winter" disintegration of Hitler's armies reached a climax during the spring of 1945, when the Soviet armies rushed towards the Nazi Capital, while the Allies were occupying the great towns of Western Germany. During April and May the Nazi armies were collapsing, and on May 7 Germany surrendered unconditionally, preceded and followed by the surrender of various armies in different parts of Europe. Thus ended Nazi Germany and the Second World Warin Europe.
A few weeks after the Allied and Russian armies had installed themselves in an utterly ruined and smoking Germany, after Hitler had been reported dead in Berlin, after a horror campaign had been let loose upon the world on the opening of the concentration camps, and after the German people had become the target of world-wide hatred and unheard-of national and individual humiliation and degradation, German voices began to be heard. They were the same voices that the German people had been hearing for years during Hitler's regime; the same voices that, a few years before, had prayed for Hitler's armies and for the "Great Fuehrer"; the voices that, when daring to whisper protests against Nazism, complained only when "breaches of the Concordat" were at stake.
German cardinals and German bishops, when showing foreign journalists the ruins of their cathedrals, began to thunder against "wicked Nazism," "the primary cause of all -this havoc in so many sacred buildings." They repeatedly assured the British and Amer
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Americans that they, the cardinals and bishops, as well as the Catholic Church, had always not only condemned Nazism, but fought it from its very beginning. The amazing statements of these dignitaries would fill whole books, but we shall content ourselves with two typical examples of this sudden conversion: two high prelates whom we have already met in this book, namely Cardinal Faulhaber and Archbishop Groeber.
Only ten days after the German capitulation, Cardinal Faulhaber, after having given a tirade against Nazism to American correspondents, was asked why he was so violently opposed to the former regime. He unhesitatingly declared: "Because Nazism was against Christianity and Catholicism." He then gave four main reasons why Nazism created difficulties for Catholicism:
1. The weekly inspection of the Hitler Youth, held always on Sundays, clashed with the Church services.
2. Abolition of religious instruction in schools for all pupils over twelve years old.
3. The all-pervading anti-Christian atmosphere engulfing Germany.
4 The ceaseless propaganda for militarism and the insidious methods of weaning the children away from family influences.
After giving these reasons, the Cardinal declared: "Nazism must not be allowed to rise after the war" (May 12, 1945).
[With the receding of the war into the background, however, several members of the German Hierarchy began to come out in defence of the Nazi regime. A typical example was Cardinal von Galen, who in February 1946 delivered an address in the Church of Santa Maria dell'Anima in defence of Nazism. The address was subsequently printed in pamphlet form, under the heading Law and Lawlessness, and distributed first in the British zone and then in other parts of occupied Germany. (See Kirchlisches Amtsblatt fuer die Diozese Mfinster, July 1946.)]
Almost at the same time Archbishop Groeber published a pastoral letter in which, at last, he dared to condemn Nazism. He tried to explain why a "Catholic revolution against Hitler was an impossibility":
It was not only because the Hitlerites had usurped power by means of a regular vote and could therefore claim the legality of their regime [he said],
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but every resistance against them collapsed in the face of a force that was bare of all scruple and ruthless to the core.
He continued: "Never were the German people deceived as much as they were during the past thirteen years." Finally, remembering the part he and the Catholic Church played, he significantly exclaimed: "However, in the eyes of God at least, we bear quite a bit of responsibility."
Then, more than a month after Germany's complete defeat; above the moans of the millions of bereaved, homeless, wounded, humiliated, and bewildered Germans; above the 9,000-10,000 Catholic Churches out of the total of 12,000 in Germany proper which were completely destroyed or seriously damaged by Allied air-raids or land battles; above the burned-out shells of cathedrals looming grimly against the sky-for the first time since the rise of the regime the Pope dared to breathe the word "Nazism" in condemnation. During a short allocution Pius XII had the moral courage to declare that it was "a good thing" that "Satanic Nazism" had been destroyed.
That was all. The Pope had spoken against Nazism at last.
[When the Allies-Great Britain, the United States of America, Soviet Russia, and France-staged in 1946 what Hermann Goering called (September 1946) "the framed-up trial" of Nuremberg (the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal), to which the principal Nazi survivors were brought, Pius XII sent Baron Ernst von Weizasecker, former German Ambassador to the Holy See, after having granted him a long audience (May 1946), to give evidence against the men responsible for having helped Hitler to power. It should be noticed that not a single word was spoken on the part played by Pope Pius XI, Pope Pius XII, and the various German cardinals and bishops. On the contrary, the Vatican was publicly thanked by the Chief American Prosecutor at Nuremberg, Justice Jackson of the United States Supreme Court, who expressed his "gratitude to the Vatican for making available to the Nuremberg trials documents touching upon the charges of persecution of religion in Germany and Nazi occupied countries. . . . The part of the Nuremberg trial that was concerned with proving the persecution of the Churches was greatly expedited and aided by documents provided for us by the Vatican" (Justice Jackson, in a statement to the N.C.W.C. News Service, Washington, August 1946). While helping the victors and indicting the former Nazi leaders, presenting itself as one of Nazism's victime, the Vatican was using all its influence to save those Nazis who had helped to place the Catholic Church in a privileged position in the Third Reich and her satellite countries. This with particular regard to von Papen (see Pravda and Osservatore Romano, third week of March 1946), who was acquitted October 1, 1946; Mgr. Tiso, Prime Minister of Slovakia; Arthur Greiser, former Gauleiter of Western Poland, sentenced to death (July 15, 1946), and in an effort to save whom the Vatican sent a special cable to the President of Poland (see The Observer, London, July 21, 1946).]