2. Monseigneur Angelo Dell’Acqua et la Shoah

Résumé 0

The recent Vatican archives release for Pius XII’s papacy has revealed Angelo Dell’Acqua’s significant role. Initially a low-ranking Secretariat of State member, he handled affairs regarding Jews in Europe from the late 1930s through World War II and after. Despite no clear Jewish expertise, Pius XI and Pius XII tapped him to address appeals from persecuted Jews and requests for papal condemnations of Jewish persecution and extermination efforts. Utilizing newly opened Vatican Secretariat of State archives, this article reconstructs Dell’Acqua’s role and assess his counsel to the Secretary of State and Pope. His advice often reflected ingrained anti-Jewish views within the Church. During World War II, his cautious stance aligned with Pius XII’s aim to not jeopardize Vatican-Axis relations. After the war, Dell’Acqua rose to the position of Sostituto, leading a major Secretariat of State division. In this influential role, he rebuffed Jewish leaders urging the Church to return Holocaust orphans from Catholic facilities to surviving relatives and pressuring the Pope to acknowledge the Church’s history of anti-Jewish teachings.