Pope Pius XII and Poland - Polish Losses

Polish Losses

It is estimated that, despite all public and private protests and numerous diplomatic initiatives, two-thousand and three hundred and fifty-one (2.351) members of the clergy and religious were murdered (four bishops, 1996 priests, 113 clerics, and 238 female religious). Sent to concentration camps were 5.490 Polish clergy and religious, (3642 priests, 389 clerics, 342 lay brothers and 1117 female religious) a majority of which perished there. In addition the Germans occupiers decreed, that the Church in the Polish territories annexed immediately to the Reich lose all legal standing as an entity and thus all legal recourse. All Church organizations were disbanded, and, Germany outlawed: All baptisms for persons under 21 years, religious education, confessions in Polish language, male and females religious orders, schools, Church charities, Church collections, Catholic cemeteries and Sunday school. The Papal nuncio was appointed as Nuncio to Poland as well, a step which the German government could not object to, since he was already accredited. However, his protests notes and interventions, were not even accepted by the German Secretary of State Ernst von Weizsäcker, an SS officer, who informed the nuncio, that Poland is outside the geographical area of the Reichskonkordat, and therefore not his business. Attempts by German clerics to improve the Polish situation by including the annexed Polish territory into German hierarchical jurisdiction, and thus make it de facto subject to the protective measures of the Reichskonkordat, were rejected by both the Vatican and the Polish government in exile as a de facto recognition of the German annexation. The Vatican did however, at the request of desperate Polish clergy appoint temporary German administrators in two Polish dioceses, after the occupation authorities killed the local bishops, blocked the nomination of any Polish national for the vacancies and refused to negotiate with any Polish bishop.