By Stefanie Stahlhofen
“Dear God, help me”— this desperate cry was not only whispered in prayer by those persecuted by the Nazis during World War II, but also written down and sent as an appeal for help to Pope Pius XII.
On Mar 2, 2020, the Vatican opened the archives of Pope Pius XII’s pontificate (1939–1958) to researchers.
Since then, historian Hubert Wolf and his team at Germany’s University of Münster have uncovered at least 10,000 such petitions – scattered across 1,000 boxes and six different archives, spanning approximately 17,400 pages and written in 17 languages.
The historians recently presented their research findings at the German Embassy to the Holy See, where Professor Hubert Wolf spoke to Vatican News.
A cry for help
One of these 10,000 pleas for help uncovered by historian Hubert Wolf and his team comes from Martin Wachskerz.
“You can feel in these words,” says Professor Wolf, “how deeply moving and emotional these letters are—written in desperation, a cry for help. These people lay out their lives before the Pope with astonishing openness.”
How did the Vatican respond?
The historian knows the text of Martin Wachskerz’s petition letter almost by heart. He and his team at the University of Münster have made it their mission to give a voice to the people behind these letters—to decipher, transcribe, and make them accessible to the public.
At the same time, their research also seeks to answer a crucial question: How did Pope Pius XII and the Vatican respond?
“In the case of Martin Wachskerz, his letter dates back to Dec 20, 1942. It likely arrived in Rome by Jan 3, 1943,” explains historian Hubert Wolf. “And in this instance, the Cardinal Secretary of State—the Vatican’s equivalent of a foreign minister—acted immediately, without consulting the Pope. This is one of those cases where Pope Pius XII was not directly involved.”
Instead, the Cardinal Secretary of State instructed the papal nuncio in Switzerland: These Jews are at risk of being deported to an extermination camp. Please inform the Swiss immigration authorities that the Holy Father wishes for these four individuals to be granted visas for Switzerland.
“A relatively clear appeal,” Wolf notes. However, the head of the Swiss immigration police in Bern refused the request, responding: We already have too many Jews. Such a visa cannot be granted.
“This shows that the Curia did attempt to help—but their efforts depended on the cooperation of third parties, in this case, Switzerland,” Wolf summarizes.
Yet, for Wolf and his team, the research doesn’t stop there. They want to uncover what happened to the family after their plea was denied. And so, the search for answers—sparked by a single petition letter in the Vatican Archives—continues.
A complex investigation – with the help of a former police commissioner
For the historians, it’s not just about uncovering how Pope Pius XII and the Vatican responded.
Their mission goes further: to trace the fate of each individual who wrote a plea for help and make their stories accessible to the public. This means painstaking work for every single letter.
It is a Sisyphean task—difficult, time-consuming, and complex. Often, researchers must dig through archives from various Vatican departments, different countries, embassies, immigration offices, and Holocaust memorial institutions such as Yad Vashem or the U.S. Holocaust Museum. Given the scale of the challenge, Professor Wolf and his team have sought support from a variety of sources.
“We have a whole group of ‘citizen scientists’—people who have retired and now contribute to historical research,” Wolf explains. “For instance, a retired senior criminal investigator. I wrote to her saying: We have no further information on this individual. I’ve conducted my own research but hit a dead end—can you help?
She worked on it for three days. And then—she cracked it. She found the answer.”
Preliminary findings – and a 25-year wait for definitive answers
Of course, the researchers also aim to provide precise historical answers to key questions. For example: What did Pope Pius XII know? And how did he respond?
The petition letter from Martin Wachskerz, along with the other letters examined so far, has led to at least one preliminary conclusion: Wolf and his team believe that the Pope personally learned of only about ten percent of the pleas for help. Some appeals never even reached him.
“He was entirely dependent on what his staff selected and presented to him as important,” Wolf explains. “But when he did see a case, he would make decisions—sometimes even deviating from their recommendations. That’s why I argue we must move beyond the narrow focus on Pius XII and the Holocaust. Instead, we need to examine Pius XII, the Roman Curia, and the Holocaust.”
However, according to the researchers, it will take at least another 25 years of analyzing and processing the more than 10,000 petition letters before solid conclusions can be drawn about the role of Pius XII—and his inner circle—during the Nazi era.
“In the future, we won’t just be making qualitative assessments—we’ll also be able to present quantitative, statistical findings,” says Professor Wolf. “Then we’ll be able to say: Exactly this many letters requested visas for the U.S. The Holy See supported this percentage of them. The American government approved this percentage and rejected this many. In other words, we’ll gain precise insight into the contexts in which things happened. Everything else—impressions, general observations—can still evolve as hypotheses are refined.”
Even five years after the opening of the Vatican Archives covering the pontificate of Pope Pius XII (1939–1958), only a fraction of the at least 10,000 letters have been analyzed, and the fates of their authors reconstructed. So far, this has been possible for about a dozen letters, including the one from Martin Wachskerz.
Website
Professor Hubert Wolf and his team at the University of Münster have already made around 40 petition letters available to the public on a dedicated website: Asking the Pope for Help.
There, visitors can read and even listen to letters like Martin Wachskerz’s plea. The site also offers educational materials, making it a valuable resource for schools and researchers. – Vatican News
