Refugees and the Vatican: Rebuilding the Social and Gender Order Through Refugee Assistance in the Early Cold War
Résumés
Cet article étudie l’aide du Vatican aux réfugiés et personnes déplacées dans les premières années de la Guerre froide, en insistant sur le rôle des réseaux religieux dans l’aide humanitaire après la Seconde Guerre mondiale. À partir des fonds récemment ouverts des Archives apostoliques vaticanes, il explore la manière dont l’Église, animée par des sentiments tant humanitaires qu’anticommunistes, traita les requêtes individuelles des réfugiés et aida à leur réinstallation, en collaboration avec des organisations internationales, en particulier l’Organisation internationale des réfugiés. L’analyse souligne que le Vatican contribue à la reconstruction d’un nouvel ordre d’après‑guerre en s’efforçant de restaurer les hiérarchies de classe et de genre traditionnelles, et resitue cette action dans un projet plus global de renforcement de la société patriarcale et de lutte contre le communisme.
Entrées d’index
Haut de pagePlan
Haut de pageNotes de l’auteur
This work has been funded by the European Research Executive Agency (REA) under the Grant Agreement No. 101106155 (COMREF-VATICAN).
Texte intégral
- 1 Monicka [sic], fasc. 15, Commissione Soccorsi 515, Vatican Apostolic Archive [hereafter VAA].
- 2 Nina Valbousquet, « L’ouverture des archives du Vatican pour le pontificat de Pie XII (1939‑1958) : (...)
1In 1947, Monicka, a 30‑year‑old Jewish woman, fled Warsaw in fear of communist persecution and made her way to Italy. Placed in a Displaced Persons (DP) camp on Lipari, a tiny volcanic island off the coast of Sicily, she met a priest who was in charge of refugees there and was baptised by him. The priest wrote to the Vatican on her behalf to help her get a residence permit to remain in Italy.1 Thanks to the recent opening of a section of the Vatican Apostolic Archive (VAA, formerly the Vatican Secret Archive) containing documents covering the period of the Second World War and its aftermath, historians can more fully explore the individual and systemic involvement of the clergy and the Catholic Church in the management of refugees.2
- 3 The Allies created the category “Displaced Persons” and defined them as civilians who found themsel (...)
- 4 The historiography on the topic includes: Todd Scribner, “‘Pilgrims of the Night’: The American Cat (...)
2While Catholic networks played an important role in assistance to and resettlement of DPs—mostly former forced labourers, inmates of concentration camps and escapees from the East3—this topic has not been sufficiently explored in the historiography.4 One contributing factor has been the restricted access to primary sources. The above‑mentioned opening of the section of the VAA pertaining to the period spanning from 1939 to 1958 (the pontificate of Pope Pius XII) in March 2020 created new opportunities to explore how the Vatican cooperated with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) and the International Refugee Organization (IRO) in population management in the early postwar years.
3Using these records in conjunction with the files held in the Arolsen Archives (the world’s biggest archive on the victims of Nazi persecution and forced labour, formerly known as the International Tracing Service) and the French National Archives, where the IRO files are stored, this article explores the role that religious networks of belonging and religious assistance played in rebuilding the social and gender order in the early Cold War and highlights the transnational dimension of religious aid. At the end of the Second World War, the Vatican sought to take part in the political, social and moral reconstruction of Europe, by offering aid to war victims. Humanitarian aid was a tool to combat the growing influence of the Soviet Union and transnational communism. With the emergence of the Eastern Bloc, Pope Pius XII became involved in the assistance and resettlement of the displaced victims of war and refugees from Eastern Europe with the aim of strengthening the anticommunist front.
- 5 Jonathan Luxmoore and Jolanta Babiuch, The Vatican and the Red Flag: The Struggle for the Soul of E (...)
- 6 Giuliana Chamedes, A Twentieth‑Century Crusade: The Vatican’s Battle to Remake Christian Europe, Ca (...)
4This article argues that rebuilding the social and gender order was an integral part of the Vatican’s transnational reconstruction efforts. The Second World War disrupted gender norms as women took on new roles in the workforce and those traditionally reserved for men, challenging societal expectations of femininity and domesticity. Social class boundaries were blurred as the shared demands of war, including conscription and industrial labour, brought people from diverse backgrounds together in unprecedented ways. Threatened by communism and rightly pinning its hopes on US support, the Vatican tried to re‑establish itself by restoring societal stability and encouraging a return to traditional norms and hierarchies. Yet, it faced many challenges. With its conservative agenda, the Vatican, more than many other bodies, strove to rebuild a version of the old order, focusing on traditional values and a hierarchical social order. At the same time, church dignitaries knew it had to face the old enemy—communism and the Soviet Union—but in new circumstances, with millions of Catholics behind the Iron Curtain and with the growing power of the USSR.5 While the Vatican had already been engaged in intense anticommunist activities in the interwar period,6 now it focused more on refugees as part of this struggle.
- 7 Linda Erker and Raanan Rein, Nazis and Nazi Sympathizers in Latin America after 1945, Leiden, Brill (...)
5Exploring the Vatican’s involvement in population management contributes to the writing of a transnational history of the post‑Second World War refugee crisis, showing that papal aid, which reached far beyond Italy, was part of the wider system of international refugee assistance. This article does so by exploring the Vatican’s cooperation with the IRO in resettlement through the activities of the Vatican Migration Office. While the main focus is on the gender and class dimensions of refugee assistance, it also adds to the strand of literature on how the Vatican “transformed” former Nazi war criminals and collaborators into refugees in order to protect them from reprisals and punishment, using its power to help them pass as refugees and escape to Latin America, among other places.7
- 8 Silvia Salvatici, Senza casa e senza paese: Profughi europei nel secondo dopoguerra, Bologna, Il Mu (...)
- 9 Gerald D. Cohen, In War’s Wake: Europe’s Displaced Persons in the Postwar Order, 1st ed., Oxford/Ne (...)
- 10 George Woodbridge (ed.), UNRRA: The History of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Adminis (...)
- 11 Louise W. Holborn, The International Refugee Organization: A Specialized Agency of the United Natio (...)
- 12 Gerald D. Cohen, In War’s Wake…, p. 61. Pamela Ballinger, “Refugees as Resources: A Post‑War Experi (...)
- 13 David Brydan, “Christian Humanitarianism, Refugee Stories, and the Making of the Cold War West,” Th (...)
- 14 Hiromi Chiba, “The Role of the Protestant Church in the US Refugee Resettlement Program during the (...)
- 15 Jan‑Hinnerk Antons, “The Nation in a Nutshell? Ukrainian Displaced Persons Camps in Postwar Germany (...)
- 16 Fabrice Langrognet, “The Refugee‑Migrant Distinction and the Need for Bridging Analytical Divides i (...)
6The historiography on DPs, which has grown substantially in recent years, has been largely transnational.8 Yet, there has been a strong focus on UNRRA and the IRO and on the resettlement to the United States and other Western countries.9 UNRRA was created at a 44‑nation conference in 1943, predating the foundation of the United Nations, with the mission to provide economic assistance to war‑torn countries and to repatriate refugees.10 In 1947, the IRO assumed many of UNRRA’s responsibilities, focusing more specifically on the resettlement of DPs amid the postwar refugee crisis.11 As aid became increasingly secularised and Americanised in the aftermath of the Second World War, historians have focused mainly on the operations of UNRRA and the IRO.12 Yet in practice, religious groups and networks played a significant role not only in organising cultural communities of refugees but also in providing aid and resettlement,13 the efforts of the National Catholic Welfare Conference (NCWC) to bring Catholics refugees to the United States being a case in point.14 While a strand of the historiography has focused on ethno‑national groups of DPs—such as Poles, Jews, Ukrainians and Latvians—comparatively less attention has been paid to confessional groups, with the exception of Jewish religious aid.15 In the literature on the international dimension of post‑Second World War displacement, as Fabrice Langrognet notes, the focus on ethnic groups is taken to the point of essentialising their experiences.16 In order to look beyond ethnic categories and deepen the understanding of the transnational dimension of refugee relief in this period, it is worth examining how the Vatican and Catholic networks of belonging shaped and influenced the provision of aid, resettlement and the ideological formation of refugees. This perspective underscores the need to consider the multifaceted influence of religious institutions in shaping the post‑Second World War humanitarian project.
7Firstly, the article sketches the organisation of Catholic aid by the Vatican and how the bodies it created to help refugees functioned within international networks. The second section zooms in on individual cases handled by the Vatican to demonstrate how gender, class, ethnicity and religion intersected in the Catholic humanitarian project. The chosen examples show how rebuilding the class and gender order was part of efforts to return to normality and reconstruct the old order. The final section explores the role of the Vatican Migration Office in resettlement to point out how it contributed to rebuilding the patriarchal family and supporting anticommunist refugees within the wider aim of containing communism.
Vatican aid to DPs and refugees
- 17 Mark Wyman, DPs: Europe’s Displaced Persons, 1945‑1951, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 2014 [198 (...)
- 18 R. M. Douglas, Orderly and Humane: The Expulsion of the Germans after the Second World War, New Hav (...)
- 19 Francesca Di Giovanni and Giuseppina Roselli (eds), L’Archivio della Commissione Soccorsi (1939‑195 (...)
8The Vatican watched with concern as an unprecedented humanitarian crisis unfolded during and in the aftermath of the Second World War, leaving millions of DPs and refugees in need of assistance. As of the summer of 1945, estimated seven million people were displaced in western Europe, another seven million in the territories formerly controlled by the Soviet Union, and nearly a million in Italy.17 The number of ethnic Germans who fled or were expelled from Eastern Europe between 1944 and 1948 surpassed twelve million.18 Amid this chaos, the Vatican played a significant role in providing relief through various bodies, including the Relief Commission (Commissione Soccorsi), the Pontifical Aid Commission (Pontificia Commissione di Assistenza [ai Profughi], or PCA), the Vatican Missions in Germany and the Vatican Migration Office.19
- 20 Scopi e caratteristiche della PCA, fasc. 3, POA 1, VAA.
- 21 Paul Weindling, “For the Love of Christ…”, art. cit., p. 481‑484.
- 22 Gerald J. Steinacher, Nazis on the Run: How Hitler’s Henchmen Fled Justice, Oxford/New York, Oxford (...)
9While these bodies aimed to coordinate charitable activities and claimed to offer aid without political or religious distinctions, a closer examination reveals a complex interplay between nominally apolitical charity and the church’s broader mission. The official stance of the PCA was that “spiritual and material assistance must be brought, according to the Lord’s commandment, wherever there is a tear to soothe”, to help anyone “whoever they are, wherever they come from, wherever they go, whatever their political profession and religious belief”.20 The evidence suggests that in some contexts the PCA initially provided medical, material and spiritual support to survivors irrespective of their faith or nationality,21 yet this shifted over time. In particular, the redirection of Catholic aid from victims of Nazi persecution to German Catholics marked a change, showing the limits of the espoused neutral humanitarianism philosophy.22 Despite the official commitment to neutral humanitarianism, assistance was often more readily provided to certain groups of refugees.
- 23 Jonathan Luxmoore and Jolanta Babiuch, The Vatican and the Red Flag…, op. cit. Laura Pettinaroli, L (...)
10Until at least the 1950s, the Vatican strongly supported American leadership in postwar reconstruction and received funding from the United States. In 1946 and 1947, anxieties about communism were exacerbated by the Italian elections, in which a communist victory was feared. In this context, the Vatican aligned itself with the Western Bloc in the Cold War and adopted its framing of DPs and refugees accordingly, seeing them as a resource in the anticommunist struggle and not just as victims of war.23
- 24 Giuliana Chamedes, “The Vatican, Nazi‑Fascism, and the Making of Transnational Anti‑communism in th (...)
11Yet, the Vatican’s struggle against communism had a much longer lineage. Already in the 19th century, the Vatican and the popes took a strong anticommunist stance, as they viewed communism as a threat to religion, social order and private property. The papacy saw communism as a growing ideological movement that opposed Christian principles and sought to replace religious values with secular materialism. This opposition was evident in papal encyclicals and broader church struggles, starting with Pope Pius IX’s Qui Pluribus (1846). In the early 1930s, the Vatican established the Secretariat on Atheism, which spearheaded a transnational anticommunist campaign rooted in Catholic teachings. Its links to Nazi and Fascist forces would later influence the Vatican’s Cold War politics.24
- 25 Agostino Giovagnoli, «La Pontificia Commissione Assistenza e gli aiuti americani (1945‑1948)», Stor (...)
12The Commissione Soccorsi, which started operating in 1939 and was formally established in 1941, led by Giovanni Battista Montini, substitute secretary of state and future Pope Paul VI, became the central coordinating institution for the charitable activities of the pope.25 Initially focused on the needs of war victims, its scope expanded in the postwar period to include relief missions to liberated territories as well as concentration camps and DP camps. In 1944, Pius XII created a more specialised body: the PCA. Its aim was twofold: to help displaced victims of war and to combat the threat of Soviet communism.
- 26 Pontificia Commissione di Assistenza, 21 November 1945, fasc. 1, POA 1, VAA.
13The PCA’s wide scope reflected its commitment to aiding various groups, including youth, refugees, war veterans, convicts and the impoverished. With numerous national committees operating under its umbrella, the PCA provided both material and spiritual support. It operated in DP camps, particularly in Italy, and co‑organised activities, such as professional workshops and cultural events, with UNRRA. Moreover, the Magazzino, a private papal charity office located in the cellars of the Apostolic Palace, played an important role in collecting and distributing aid. Its assistance extended beyond Rome, reaching various parts of Europe.26
- 27 Scopi e caratteristiche della PCA [senza data, 1947?], fasc. 3, POA 1, VAA.
14While the Vatican publicly asserted its apolitical stance, the PCA’s actions were not divorced from political and religious considerations. The tension between providing apolitical charity and advancing the church’s broader mission quickly became apparent. While the PCA described its aims in terms of universal assistance, its acknowledged role in religious infiltration and the promotion of Christian values underscored the multifaceted nature of its endeavours, guided by the overarching aim of combating the threat of Soviet communism.27
15The following section explores how individual requests for help were handled, focusing on several case studies and other examples to illuminate ideas on rebuilding gender and social class order through humanitarian action.
Individual requests for assistance and the intersection of social class and gender
16During the war and in the subsequent years, the Holy See received a large number of letters from refugees and those advocating on their behalf, seeking assistance and intervention. Most of the requests are preserved within the Commissione Soccorsi fonds. An examination of how the Vatican addressed these individual cases, especially the appeals directed to the pope, whether made in person, through letters or via intermediaries, reveals a complex and, at times, somewhat incoherent decision‑making process. Multiple factors, including nationality, social class, gender, age, religion and personal circumstances, played a role in shaping the response to and assessment of each refugee’s request. This intersection of various factors highlights the pragmatic, ideological and selective approach the Vatican took in handling these appeals.
- 28 Tara Zahra, ‘“The Psychological Marshall Plan”: Displacement, Gender and Human Rights after World W (...)
17One notable aspect that emerges from the analysis of the sources is the Vatican’s particular willingness to assist women and children, as part of its effort to strengthen patriarchal values and reconstruct the traditional family. In particular, women of aristocratic origins or high social standing and those devoted to religion were likely to gain the sympathy of Vatican officials. They were also more likely to possess the resources needed to write to the pope, including cultural capital such as knowledge of foreign languages and belonging to prewar social networks, which provided access to established communication channels and influential connections that facilitated advocacy efforts. Indeed, while the Vatican extended aid to working‑class women, it was more likely to refer them to local ecclesiastical authorities or provide food parcels, rather than direct cash transfers or documents. This formed part of broader efforts to restore normality by rebuilding the hierarchies of social class and gender order. At the same time, the revival of religious values underpinned those societal structures and reinforced traditional roles. However, this was not unique to the Vatican’s approach: research has shown that many UNRRA workers placed significant emphasis on restoring gender and social roles among refugees.28
- 29 Natalia Núñez Bargueño, “Recovering the Legacy of the Thought of Catholic Lay Women (1945‑62)”, Jou (...)
18This approach was reflected in the Vatican’s treatment of refugee women, who were considered to be particularly vulnerable to the changing gender dynamics of the chaotic postwar era. The Catholic hierarchy could no longer ignore the increasing role played by Catholic laywomen in bringing about institutional, social and religious change in the early Cold War period, including their activity in international Catholic organisations.29 While Pius XII acknowledged the changing role of women in social and political life, he insisted that the majority of women should focus on home and family as mothers and wives:
- 30 Pope Pius XII, Papal Directives for the Woman of Today, 1947, <https://www.papalencyclicals.net/piu (...)
Your own role is, in general, to work toward making woman always more conscious of her sacred rights, of her duties, and of her power to help mould public opinion, through her daily contacts, and to influence legislation and administration by the proper use of her prerogatives as citizen. Such is your common role. It does not mean that you are all to have political careers as members of public assemblies. Most of you must continue to give the greater part of your time and of your loving attention to the care of your homes and families. We must not forget that the making of a home in which all feel at ease and happy, and the bringing up of children are very special contributions to the common welfare.30
19For those women who chose political activity, their role, according to the pontiff, should be related to safeguarding the patriarchal family as the foundation of society:
- 31 Ibid. supra.
Towards the center converge all the rays of activity of woman in her social and political life, an activity of which the object is above all else, to protect the dignity of the daughter, of the wife, of the mother; to preserve the home, the family, the child in their primordial order; to safeguard the rights of the family, and make all efforts bear toward the safekeeping of the child under the guardianship of his parents.31
- 32 Fasc. 15, Commissione Soccorsi 515, VAA.
- 33 Matteo Sanfilippo, «I Campi in Italia Nel Secondo Dopoguerra», Meridiana, no. 86‑(Profughi), 2016, (...)
20The case of Monicka, with which this article begins, shows how social and gender expectations, especially as regards model religious virtues, shaped the way individual refugees were assisted. Her story emerges from a letter written by the priest in Lipari to Montini in May 1949. According to his account, Monicka fled Poland for Italy after the war, having been persecuted by the communists and having witnessed the murder of her husband, parents and her only son. She was described as a wife of a professor of medicine and a chemistry graduate herself.32 In Italy, she was placed in a small refugee camp on Lipari.33 There, she converted to Catholicism and received the sacraments of baptism and confirmation from the priest who had been helping her.
- 34 On conversions of Jews to Roman Catholicism before and during the Holocaust, see Ion Popa, “Sanctua (...)
- 35 Michael Phayer, The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930‑1965, Bloomington, Indiana University P (...)
21The nature of the source material does not indicate whether her conversion was voluntary or forced. Nonetheless, it should be understood in the context of the aftermath of the Holocaust, since many Jews converted to Roman Catholicism as a means of survival during the war.34 As Michael Phayer suggests, papal nuncios in Eastern Europe engaged in conversions as part of rescue efforts.35 Monicka’s conversion might have been motivated by a desire to fit in, genuine religious devotion, fear of communism, fear of antisemitism as well as all those factors combined. The records, as they were created by the priest with a practical goal in mind, leave it unclear. Monicka was not presented in them as a victim of Nazi persecution, nor as a victim of the Second World War (even though she was Jewish before her conversion), but as a victim of postwar communist persecution. She subsequently moved to Catania, a town on Sicily’s eastern coast, where she started living in a community of French nuns.
- 36 Curia Vescovile di Lipari a Montini, 7 May 1949, fasc. 15, Commissione Soccorsi 515, VAA.
22The priest described Monicka as a distinguished woman of exemplary morals who took the sacrament of communion every day with the nuns. She supposedly expressed a wish to spend the rest of her life with them in a convent. The case was referred to the Italian Ministry of the Interior with a recommendation to grant Monicka a residence permit.36 Four things worked in Monicka’s favour in particular: her prewar social position as a wife of a professor and an educated person; her gender, making her appear in need of protection and as a model of religious virtues; her anticommunism; and her new religious devotion.
- 37 Dossier or Jadwiga P., 80461629, Arolsen Archives.
23Similar considerations were also at play in the case of Jadwiga, another refugee who received the Vatican’s aid, this time through the PCA’s Polish committee. The PCA’s national committees provided refugees with food parcels, clothes, medicine, small financial aid, documents and spiritual support. Born in Warsaw in 1873, Jadwiga came from an affluent, aristocratic background. When the war started, she was a widow of a landowner. In 1939, she was visiting friends near Białystok in Poland. When the Soviets occupied this region, she feared deportation and returned to Warsaw, where she sheltered refugees in her house. Fearing arrest by the Gestapo, she, along with her friends, went on foot to Zakopane in the Tatras Mountains, a known escape route for Polish resistance members, Allied agents and others escaping Nazi occupation en route to Hungary, which was initially more permissive towards refugees. From there, she walked across the German border and then took a train to Vienna.37
24In 1944, Jadwiga managed to reach Rome, where she got involved in Red Cross activities and earned some extra money by giving French and English lessons and doing translations. The 76‑year‑old lived impoverished and alone in one room and took her meals at the home of a friend. Another elderly aristocrat paid for her room so she could avoid living in a DP camp. That was not an option for the vast majority of refugees and DPs. In Germany and Austria the displaced typically lived in camps, while in Italy there was a higher percentage of refugees living in private accommodation in towns and cities.
- 38 Ibid. supra.
- 39 Ibid.
25As a former landowner and factory owner, she was presented in her refugee dossier as an enemy of communism at risk of deportation. A delegate of the PCA papal commission wrote a strong recommendation letter on her behalf, which referred to her as a countess, to the IRO screening commission, requesting rapid assistance. The IRO interviewer commented in her favour: “A spirited and fine old lady who will accept what fate brings to her door, and will be game to the end.”38 She wanted to join her daughter in Argentina and received a promise of a visa from the committee in Rome. In 1950, another official described her as “very distinguished old lady. Speaks fluently several languages. [Of] Very high intelligence.”39
26For the Vatican, Jadwiga embodied the ideal refugee: Catholic, highly educated, conservative, and a victim of Soviet persecution. She was impoverished yet lived in dignity. Most importantly, she was an enemy of communism and the Soviet Union. As an elderly woman, she was seen as deserving of protection and respect.
- 40 Maria Cristina Tyszkiewicz, fasc. 6, Commissione Soccorsi 515, VAA.
- 41 24 September 1944, Rome, fasc. 354, Commissione Soccorsi 212, VAA.
- 42 Maria Winowska, Paris, 14 March 1948, fasc. 614, Commissione Soccorsi 219, VAA.
- 43 Fasc. 615, Commissione Soccorsi 219, VAA.
- 44 Montini, telegramma per Berlino, 4 January 1945, fasc. 367, Commissione Soccorsi 212, VAA.
27Similar examples abound. When Countess Maria Cristina Tyszkiewicz asked for help, the Vatican sent her money, justifying the decision on the basis of her difficult circumstances, advanced age and the notion that she was accustomed to a different sort of life because of her social position.40 Princess Teresa Lubomirski received a subsidy of 10,000 lire when she presented a letter to the pope.41 Maria Winowska, from the Catholic University of Lublin and then in exile in Paris, supported an “elite group” of young Polish displaced women in obtaining an education. The apostolic nuncio in Paris recommended Winowska to Montini and the archives suggest that the Vatican sent the requested 50,000 francs.42 Baroness Nina De Hildebrandt, a 70‑year‑old refugee who fled to France from the Bolsheviks and lost a son in the Second World War, received several subsidies of several thousand francs each on the orders of the Vatican.43 Already during the war, the Vatican was involved in tracking and gathering information on persecuted members of the aristocracy, such as Princess Cecylia Czartoryska, Countess Isabella Bninska and Countess Elisabetta Szoldrska, as well as providing help to those deported and imprisoned.44
28The case of Austra Augenberg from Latvia offers another example in which gender and social class played a strong role in the process of obtaining aid. At the request of Marta Rasupe of the University of Rome, the Secretariat of State decided to extend help to Austra, who was described in the following way:
- 45 Fasc. 11, MSA 8, VAA.
Professor Augenberg deserves to be helped and warmly recommended to those who could sort out her existence: very delicate by nature, inspired by high ethical ideals, tenacious in her human dignity, she is not capable of pushing herself forward selfishly, and suffers more than anyone else the tragedy that today strikes not only small nations, but above all and in a fatal way the intellectual class.45
- 46 W. Carroll to E. Killion, 13 December 1949, fasc. 11, MSA 8, VAA.
29Msgr. Walter S. Carroll and Fr. Edward J. Killion worked together to include Augenberg and her elderly mother on the list of “hard core” cases to be accepted by the Little Sisters of the Poor in France so they could leave the refugee centre at Pinneberg, Germany, where they had been living in precarious conditions.46
30Women from more modest backgrounds were often viewed by the Catholic Church representatives as particularly vulnerable to moral dangers and in need of intervention in terms of upholding decency and saving “fallen women.” In the 1947 encyclical Papal Directives for the Woman of Today, Pius XII stated:
- 47 Pope Pius XII, Papal Directives…, op. cit.
We now address those who because of their age and social environment are more especially exposed to these dangers—no matter how well intentioned you may be, you share like others the weakness of a fallen nature. Satan does not accept defeat: as in Eden, he continues to cajole woman to her downfall, playing upon her nature to seduce her.47
- 48 Dagmar to Pius XII, PCA, Rome, 1947, Varia 2166, Commissione Soccorsi 453, VAA.
- 49 Letter, 9 November 1947, to Pope Pius XII, PCA, Varia 2166, Commissione Soccorsi 453, VAA.
31The church’s charitable efforts on the ground among female refugees focused on fostering dignity in motherhood and rebuilding family life, both seen as disrupted by war and displacement. In a letter of thanks, a woman called Dagmar, held in Farfa Sabina camp, recounted how material gifts from the pope brought joy to her and her children, especially little Klaus, who unpacked chocolate and shared it with his sister: “After long weeks of dry bread, finally being able to give the children something good to eat again makes us mothers very happy and fills us with gratitude towards the donors of these gifts, who thereby show that we, the homeless, have not been completely forgotten.”48 German women from the same camp thanked the pope for his kindness and compassion, underlying how spiritual and material aid contributed to their sense of dignity: “I wish for all the women in the world that they may never have to experience such suffering.”49
- 50 G. Martino, Rome, c. His emigration to the USA, fasc. 21, Ufficio Migrazione, MSA 1, VAA.
- 51 Nominal roll, Naples, 81765036, Arolsen Archives.
32In addressing the pope, some women chose to use language infused with gender deference and familial imagery. Those women positioned themselves within traditional gender roles—like devoted mothers or grieving widows—to strengthen their appeals for protection and assistance to male authority figures, framing their requests in terms of moral obligation and compassion. Such was the case of Albina, who, presenting herself as a widow, pleaded for help to secure her only son’s emigration to the United States: “A mother takes the liberty of addressing Your Holiness so that He may deign to grant her His paternal and merciful protection.”50 Vatican officials tried to fulfil her request to secure an affidavit to allow her son, originally from Czechoslovakia, to emigrate. Eventually he succeeded in going to Brazil in the autumn of 1949 on board the SS Charlton Sovereign.51
- 52 “Memorandum of Understanding between the Vatican Emigration Office and War Relief Services‑ NCWC,” (...)
33This focus on individual cases gives us some insights into how the Vatican saw humanitarianism as a tool for rebuilding gender and social class norms. Top church dignitaries, as well as local priests or Vatican emissaries, became involved in handling requests and aiding individual refugees, especially those who directly reached out for help and were considered worthy of assistance. Yet, as the refugee crisis persisted, ad hoc assistance to individual refugees was deemed insufficient, leading the Vatican, prompted to do so by the UK and US governments, to become involved in organising resettlement for groups of refugees.52 The next section shows that the Vatican’s transnational actions towards groups of refugees aimed at strengthening Catholic communities and containing communism through population management.
The role of the Vatican Migration Office in refugee resettlement
- 53 Coopération du Vatican, 09.1946‑06.1947, AJ/43/31, 1227, the French National Archives.
- 54 Fasc. Bollettino dell’Ufficio Migrazione, p. 8 [files no numbered as of December 2023], Ufficio Mig (...)
34In response to the challenges of resettling Catholic refugees, Pius XII established the Vatican Migration Office (VMO, also referred to as the Vatican Migration Bureau or the Vatican Emigration Office; or, in Italian, Ufficio Migrazione Vaticano). Led by Msgr. Carroll and Fr. Killion, the VMO operated from its central office in the Vatican Secretariat of State and maintained a key branch in Geneva. It played a pivotal role in coordinating efforts with the IRO, fostering a network of cooperation to assist refugees in securing resettlement and integrating into new communities.53 Posted in Geneva and placed in charge of the office there, Killion was assigned as a liaison to the IRO and given the mission of coordinating the activities of various Catholic institutions of Germany and Austria dealing with DPs as well as maintaining contact with authorities and inhabitants of refugee camps there.54
- 55 Mary Elizabeth Brown, “The National Catholic Welfare Conference’s Efforts to Assist Non‑Aryan Chris (...)
35The VMO collaborated closely with the NCWC, a US organisation established in 1919 as the National Catholic War Council (it changed its name in 1922) by the Catholic bishops to coordinate Catholic activities, address social issues and serve as the public policy arm of the Catholic Church in the United States. In the 1940s, it established a relief programme, War Relief Services, which played a significant role in addressing social and humanitarian issues, including refugee resettlement during and after the Second World War, advocating for the rights of Catholics and supporting international aid efforts.55
- 56 Gerald J. Steinacher, Humanitarians at War: The Red Cross in the Shadow of the Holocaust, 1st ed., (...)
36The common goal of the VMO and NCWC was to aid the resettlement of DPs in a Catholic environment in the United States, Canada and South America. They operated in the DP camps in Germany, Austria and Italy and coordinated efforts to form local reception committees in prospective resettlement countries. A network of representatives was established in the United States to liaise with relevant US and international bodies. The cooperation between the Vatican and the International Red Cross, which had developed during the war, in particular in relation to assistance for POWs, was fundamental in issuing travel documents for refugees as well as Nazi criminals and collaborators.56
- 57 “Memorandum of Understanding…”, op. cit.
- 58 Ibid. supra.
37In 1947, the VMO and the War Relief Services‑NCWC signed a memorandum of understanding57 that recognised the VMO as the sole administrative and coordinating body for the church’s role in assisting with the resettlement of Europe’s DPs, mostly Catholics. The VMO was designated to act as a coordinating body for all the Catholic agencies sponsoring resettlement, both on a group and an individual basis. It was assisted by the War Relief Services‑NCWC in Germany and Austria and by the PCA in Italy. The VMO would send representatives to prospective resettlement countries “to further stimulate the formation of committees of reception for the protection and assistance to new settlers and to coordinate the labors of the local Committees”.58 These actions aimed to ensure that Catholic emigrants would remain faithful to the church and to function as a means of proselytisation.
- 59 Mons. Andrea Landi, Rome, War Relief Services–NCWC, Venti profughi di varie nazionalità partiti per (...)
- 60 Ex Militari Polacchi in Argentina, fasc. 7, MSA 1, VAA.
- 61 Ufficio Cattolico Assistenza Immigranti, Urugway‑Montevideo, National Catholic Committee, Nuncio Ap (...)
38Where a need or opportunity emerged, the VMO tried to intervene. For example, in May 1947, they assisted 20 refugees of various nationalities in their journey to Venezuela. The list of names was passed to the local Catholic committee so they could organise their reception.59 To support Polish ex‑military connected with Anders’ Army travelling to Argentina, the VMO offered extensive help, including cash, operating in cooperation with the apostolic nunciature in Buenos Aires.60 In the case of Uruguay, the apostolic nuncio in Montevideo advised Montini that the Vatican should instruct refugees to obtain at least a tourist passport, accompanied by a visa from one of the Uruguayan consuls in Genoa, Milan or Rome. Once they arrived in Uruguay, they could then apply for and secure a permanent residence permit.61
39Resettlement became an occasion to attempt a reconstruction of the patriarchal family as a building block of Catholic societies. While resettlement schemes organised by governments and international aid organisations were oriented towards helping the most economically useful refugees, often single males of productive age, the Vatican insisted on resettling families or reuniting families through resettlement. As Carroll, of the VMO, wrote to Edward E. Swanstrom, an American prelate and the executive director of War Relief Services–NCWC from 1947, on the resettlement of DPs as families:
- 62 Edward Swanstrom, Trasmissione di documenti e richieste di informazioni, W. Carroll, VMB, to Edward (...)
It would be well if the United States kept this clearly in mind for the reception of DPs is not only the matter of relieving individual suffering but of maintaining and in some cases of re‑establishing the essential and basic life of families as such. Even in cases where the families have not been separated the strain on the family life has been great due to the unnatural life in camps.62
- 63 F. Killion, Genève, VMB, to Secretariat of State of His Holiness, Subject: Unchristian Practices in (...)
- 64 Katarzyna Nowak, Kingdom of Barracks…, op. cit., p. 235‑237.
- 65 Unchristian Practices in IRO, op. cit.
- 66 Nicola Burilevevski, 1950, fasc. 34, MSA 8, VAA.
- 67 Walter S. Carroll to Major Arthur Withers, Chief Australian Selection Committee, Bagnoli, 20 Januar (...)
40Killion condemned the practice of separating families, perpetuated by some IRO officials to meet government expectations, referring to it as “unchristian”.63 Many refugees agreed with this critique and wished to resettle with their families.64 The Vatican dignitaries deemed the desire of Britain and Austria to take only workers without families as “immoral”.65 A Russian refugee named Nicholas, living in the IRO camp in Bagnoli, near Naples, wrote to the pope seeking assistance to prevent the break‑up of his marriage. He wished to prevent the departure of his wife to Australia with their two children and a new husband she had married without disclosing that she was already married.66 Carroll, from the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, intervened with Major Arthur Withers, chief of the Australian Selection Committee at the Bagnoli camp, on his behalf.67
- 68 Gerald J. Steinacher, “Forgive and Forget. The Vatican and the Escape of Nazi War Criminals from Ju (...)
- 69 Gerald J. Steinacher, Nazis on the Run…, op. cit.
41Among those assisted by the Vatican were also Nazi war criminals and collaborators, as has already been established in the historiography.68 The Vatican played a controversial role in aiding them in evading justice after the Second World War, primarily through the “Ratlines”, a network of escape routes. Scholars have highlighted how certain Catholic Church officials, motivated by anticommunist sentiment and a desire to protect fellow Catholics, facilitated the flight of these individuals to South America and the Middle East.69 The Vatican’s involvement ranged from providing false identities and travel documents to offering safe haven in church properties, often under the guise of humanitarian assistance. This clandestine support significantly hindered the efforts of Allied forces and international tribunals to bring these war criminals to justice.
- 70 Dr Miha Krek, Presidente Comitato Sloveno dei Profughi in Italia, Roma, Oggetto: Per facilitare il (...)
42The case of Slovenian refugees in Italy, Germany and Austria shows how, in some instances, the Vatican did not exclude those implicated in collaboration or war crimes, as long as they were anticommunist and their “stories” corresponded with the conservative moral values promoted by the Catholic Church. The VAA’s correspondence demonstrates how it facilitated the issuance of visas to enable such individuals to resettle in Argentina, and arranged International Red Cross Passports for those in DP camps as well as rendered aid in obtaining a favourable response from the Argentine authorities. Miha Krek, the head of the Slovene Refugee Committee in Italy, liaised with the VMO and Vatican dignitaries to allow Slovenes, including those who collaborated with the Nazis, to travel to Argentina and the United States. As a leader of the Slovene anticommunist emigration at the end of the war, he strongly opposed the forced repatriation of the Slovene Home Guard to Yugoslavia. This right‑wing organisation collaborated with the Nazis, fought against the partisans and was known for its antisemitism. Despite protests, the Allies proceeded with the plan to repatriate members of the force, who were then subjected to summary executions and death marches. This brutal reckoning paved the way for the creation of refugee routes and means of escape through Rome. For the Vatican, being a victim of communist persecution quickly overshadowed any role as a perpetrator during the war.70
- 71 Emília Hrabovec, «Die III. Päpstliche Mission für die Flüchtlinge und die Slowaken (1945‑1951)”, (...)
- 72 Ibid. supra.
43At the same time, accusations of war crimes and collaboration were often politically motivated.71 As Emília Hrabovec has demonstrated in the case of Slovak refugees, the Holy See was one of the first and few entities to offer moral and social support to Slovak refugees in the camps in Germany and Austria, who were otherwise marginalised by Western powers and labelled as enemies by Czechoslovakia. The label of collaborator was applied broadly and sometimes indiscriminately. The Czechoslovak government, in particular, used this label to marginalise and demand the forced return of political exiles, many of whom were fleeing communist rule and were not involved in war crimes. Once in Rome, refugees could access assistance from various Catholic institutions; their background and wartime records were not thoroughly checked or not checked at all.72 For the Vatican, containing communism through the support of anticommunist refugees was a desperate attempt to restore the old order where the Soviet Union and communism did not pose a threat to the church as an institution and to the Catholic populations of Eastern Europe. The Vatican’s take on resettlement, which was widely seen as a necessity in view of the destruction and widespread poverty in Europe, contributed to the rebuilding of the class and gender order by reinforcing the patriarchal family and Catholic communities.
⁂
44The Vatican’s postwar humanitarian efforts were deeply intertwined with its broader objective of restoring societal norms, particularly those related to the class and gender order. Throughout the war, the Vatican managed to defend its interests and maintain its influence, despite concerns about being directly targeted or losing its global standing. In the war’s aftermath, the Vatican’s role extended beyond merely helping refugees; it sought to preserve the international status quo, particularly by opposing the spread of communism. Ultimately, the Vatican’s aid and resettlement work were part of a broader mission to reassert its authority and ensure stability in a rapidly shifting postwar world order.
45The unveiling of the Vatican Apostolic Archive segment related to Pope Pius XII’s pontificate in March 2020 has presented a unique opportunity to examine the Catholic Church’s involvement in the aid and resettlement of DPs and other categories of refugees. While the VAA records are crucial in exploring the Vatican’s role in postwar relief efforts, only when combined with other archival fonds does this material offer a more nuanced view of the transnational focus of the Vatican’s humanitarian initiatives and the role of religious networks in the resettlement. The existing historiography has tended to concentrate on specific ethno‑national groups, with a notable absence of deeper exploration of confessional groups and their entanglement in broader political, social and cultural changes. Exploring the newly available sources alongside the existing historiography offers valuable insights into potential research directions concerning the Vatican’s humanitarian efforts in the post‑Second World War era and their impact on Cold War dynamics.
- 73 Pope Pius XII, Papal Directives for the Woman of Today, op. cit.
46The humanitarian and charitable endeavours undertaken by the church during this period were not isolated acts of benevolence but integral components of a broader strategy, in which defending the patriarchal society was linked with combating communism. Pius XII warned that “the intellectual and political forces more or less impregnated with atheism are set to destroy Christian civilization”. Speaking in defence of the Christian family, he condemned “blasting assaults against the Christian foundations of marriage, of the family, of all personal and social life”. What lay ahead, according to him, was “the battle for the rights of the family, the dignity of woman, the child, and the school”.73 These efforts were instrumental in fortifying the church’s political, social and moral standing in the postwar world, positioning it as a formidable force capable of resisting Soviet influence and staunchly opposing the spread of communism.
Notes
1 Monicka [sic], fasc. 15, Commissione Soccorsi 515, Vatican Apostolic Archive [hereafter VAA].
2 Nina Valbousquet, « L’ouverture des archives du Vatican pour le pontificat de Pie XII (1939‑1958) : controverses mémorielles, apports historiographiques et usages de l’archive », Revue d’histoire moderne & contemporaine, vol. 69, no. 1‑(Politiques des archives contemporaines), 2022, p. 56‑70, Doi: 10.3917/rhmc.691.0058. Simon Unger‑Alvi and Nina Valbousquet, The Global Pontificate of Pius XII: War and Genocide, Reconstruction and Change, 1939‑1958, New York/Oxford, Berghahn, 2024.
3 The Allies created the category “Displaced Persons” and defined them as civilians who found themselves outside their country by reason of the war and desirous but unable to return home without assistance. Malcolm J. Proudfoot, European Refugees: 1939‑52. A Study in Forced Population Movement, 1st ed., London, Faber and Faber, 1952, p. 195, p. 149.
4 The historiography on the topic includes: Todd Scribner, “‘Pilgrims of the Night’: The American Catholic Church Responds to the Post‑World War II Displaced Persons Crisis”, American Catholic Studies, vol. 124, no. 3, 2013, p. 1‑20, Doi: 10.1353/acs.2013.0031. Paul Weindling, “‘For the Love of Christ’: Strategies of International Catholic Relief and the Allied Occupation of Germany, 1945‑1948”, Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 43, no. 3, 2008, p. 477‑492, <https://www.jstor.org/stable/40542971>. On ecumenical, Protestant, and Jewish aid, see David P. Gaines, The World Council of Churches: A Study of its Background and History, 1st ed., Peterborough, Richard R. Smith, 1966. Andrew S. Thompson and Stephanie Bangarth, “Transnational Christian Charity: The Canadian Council of Churches, the World Council of Churches, and the Hungarian Refugee Crisis, 1956‑1957”, The American Review of Canadian Studies, vol. 38, no. 3, 2008, p. 295‑316, Doi: 10.1080/02722010809481716. Peter Gatrell, “The World‑Wide Web of Humanitarianism: NGOs and Population Displacement in the Third Quarter of the Twentieth Century”, European Review of History = Revue européenne d’histoire, vol. 23, no. 1‑2‑(Humanitarianisms in Context: Histories of Non‑State Actors, from the Local to the Global), 2016, p. 101‑115, p. 108‑109. Marie Levant and Nina Valbousquet, « Introduction. Histoire croisée entre religion et humanitaire », Mélanges de l’École française de Rome - Italie et Méditerranée modernes et contemporaines, vol. 134, no. 2‑(Religion et humanitaire : renouveau historiographique et chantier des archives Pie XII), 2022, p. 187‑207, Doi: 10.4000/mefrim.12568. Fabien Théofilakis, « Introduction », Matériaux pour l’histoire de notre temps, vol. 2, no. 149‑150‑(Humanitaire, captivités et internements en guerre et sortie de guerre [1939‑1956]), 2023, p. 3‑7, Doi: 10.3917/mate.149.0003.
5 Jonathan Luxmoore and Jolanta Babiuch, The Vatican and the Red Flag: The Struggle for the Soul of Eastern Europe, New York, G. Chapman, 1999 [1998].
6 Giuliana Chamedes, A Twentieth‑Century Crusade: The Vatican’s Battle to Remake Christian Europe, Cambridge/London, Harvard University Press, 2019.
7 Linda Erker and Raanan Rein, Nazis and Nazi Sympathizers in Latin America after 1945, Leiden, Brill, “Jewish Latin America Series, 16”, 2024.
8 Silvia Salvatici, Senza casa e senza paese: Profughi europei nel secondo dopoguerra, Bologna, Il Mulino, “Biblioteca storica”, 2008. Anna Holian, Between National Socialism and Soviet Communism: Displaced Persons in Postwar Germany, 1st ed., Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, “Social history, popular culture, and politics in Germany”, 2011. Rebecca L. Boehling, Susanne Urban and René Bienert (Hrsg), Freilegungen: Displaced Persons. Leben im Transit: Überlebende zwischen Repatriierung, Rehabilitation und Neuanfang, Göttingen, Wallstein Verlag, «Jahrbuch des International Tracing Service, 3», 2014. Ruth Balint, Destination Elsewhere: Displaced Persons and Their Quest to Leave Postwar Europe, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 2021. Laure Humbert, Reinventing French Aid: The Politics of Humanitarian Relief in French‑Occupied Germany, 1945‑1952, 1st ed., Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2021. Samantha Knapton, Occupiers, Humanitarian Workers, and Polish Displaced Persons in British‑Occupied Germany, London, Bloomsbury, 2023. Pamela Ballinger, “Impossible Returns, Enduring Legacies: Recent Historiography of Displacement and the Reconstruction of Europe after World War II”, Contemporary European History, vol. 22, no. 1, 2013, p. 127‑138, Doi: 10.1017/S0960777312000513.
9 Gerald D. Cohen, In War’s Wake: Europe’s Displaced Persons in the Postwar Order, 1st ed., Oxford/New York, Oxford University Press, “Oxford studies in international history”, 2011. Ruth Balint, “Industry and Sunshine: Australia as Home in the Displaced Persons’ Camps of Postwar Europe”, History Australia, vol. 11, no. 1, 2014, p. 102‑127, Doi: 10.1080/14490854.2014.11668502.
10 George Woodbridge (ed.), UNRRA: The History of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, 3 vol., New York, Columbia University Press, 1950. Samantha K. Knapton and Katherine Rossy (eds), Relief and Rehabilitation for a Post‑War World, London, Bloomsbury, “Histories of Internationalism”, 2023.
11 Louise W. Holborn, The International Refugee Organization: A Specialized Agency of the United Nations: Its History and Work, 1946‑1952, London/New York, Oxford University Press, 1956. Ruth Balint, Destination Elsewhere…, op. cit.
12 Gerald D. Cohen, In War’s Wake…, p. 61. Pamela Ballinger, “Refugees as Resources: A Post‑War Experiment in European Refugee Relief”, Contemporary European History, vol. 34, no. 1, 2025, p. 161‑180: p. 164, Doi: 10.1017/S0960777324000201.
13 David Brydan, “Christian Humanitarianism, Refugee Stories, and the Making of the Cold War West,” The Historical Journal, vol. 66, no. 3, 2023, p. 689‑714, Doi: 10.1017/S0018246X23000079.
14 Hiromi Chiba, “The Role of the Protestant Church in the US Refugee Resettlement Program during the Early Cold War Era: The Methodist Case”, Exchange, vol. 43, no. 1, 2014, p. 9‑28, Doi: 10.1163/1572543X-12341300. Katarzyna Nowak, “‘To Reach the Lands of Freedom’: Petitions of Polish Displaced Persons to American Poles, Moral Screening and the Role of Diaspora in Refugee Resettlement”, Cultural and Social History, vol. 16, no. 5, 2019, p. 621‑642, Doi: 10.1080/14780038.2019.1704348.
15 Jan‑Hinnerk Antons, “The Nation in a Nutshell? Ukrainian Displaced Persons Camps in Postwar Germany”, Harvard Ukrainian Studies, vol. 37, no. 1‑2, 2020, p. 177‑211. Karen Schamberger, “Weaving a Family and a Nation Through Two Latvian Looms”, Immigrants & Minorities, vol. 36, no. 2‑(Memory and Family in Australia Refugee Histories), 2018, p. 178‑198, Doi: 10.1080/02619288.2018.1471859. Sheila Fitzpatrick, “White Russians, Red Peril”: A Cold War History of Migration to Australia, London, Routledge, 2021. Katarzyna Nowak, Kingdom of Barracks: Polish Displaced Persons in Allied‑Occupied Germany and Austria, Montreal, McGill‑Queen’s University Press, “McGill‑Queen’s Refugee and Forced Migration Studies Series, 11”, 2023. Chiara Renzo, Jewish Displaced Persons in Italy 1943‑1951: Politics, Rehabilitation, Identity, Abingdon, Routledge, 2024.
16 Fabrice Langrognet, “The Refugee‑Migrant Distinction and the Need for Bridging Analytical Divides in the Historiography”, Journal of Migration History, vol. 9, no. 3, 2023, p. 245‑268: p. 254, Doi: 10.1163/23519924-09030001.
17 Mark Wyman, DPs: Europe’s Displaced Persons, 1945‑1951, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 2014 [1989], p. 17.
18 R. M. Douglas, Orderly and Humane: The Expulsion of the Germans after the Second World War, New Haven/London, Yale University Press, 2012.
19 Francesca Di Giovanni and Giuseppina Roselli (eds), L’Archivio della Commissione Soccorsi (1939‑1958). Inventario, 3 vol., Città del Vaticano, Archivio Segreto Vaticano, “Collectanea archivi Vaticani, 111”, 2019, p. xii‑xiii.
20 Scopi e caratteristiche della PCA, fasc. 3, POA 1, VAA.
21 Paul Weindling, “For the Love of Christ…”, art. cit., p. 481‑484.
22 Gerald J. Steinacher, Nazis on the Run: How Hitler’s Henchmen Fled Justice, Oxford/New York, Oxford University Press, 2011 [2008]. Suzanne Brown‑Fleming, The Holocaust and Catholic Conscience: Cardinal Aloisius Muench and the Guilt Question in Germany, Notre Dame, University of Notre Dame Press/the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2006 [1994].
23 Jonathan Luxmoore and Jolanta Babiuch, The Vatican and the Red Flag…, op. cit. Laura Pettinaroli, La politique russe du Saint‑Siège : 1905‑1939, Rome, École française de Rome, « Bibliothèque des Écoles françaises d’Athènes et de Rome, 367 », 2015, Doi: 10.4000/books.efr.2933. Patrick H. McNamara, A Catholic Cold War: Edmund A. Walsh, S.J., and the Politics of American Anticommunism, 1st ed., New York, Fordham University Press, 2005. Philippe Chenaux, L’Église catholique et le communisme en Europe : de Lénine à Jean‑Paul II, 1st ed., Paris, Éd. du Cerf, « Histoire », 2009. On DPs as Cold War warriors see for example: Jayne Persian, Beautiful Balts: From Displaced Persons to New Australians, Sydney, New South, 2017, p. 159‑162. Ebony Nilsson, Displaced Comrades: Politics and Surveillance in the Lives of Soviet Refugees in the West, 1st ed., London, Bloomsbury, 2023, p. 9.
24 Giuliana Chamedes, “The Vatican, Nazi‑Fascism, and the Making of Transnational Anti‑communism in the 1930s”, Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 51, no. 2, 2016, p. 261‑290, Doi: 10.1177/0022009414566291. Giuliana Chamedes, A Twentieth‑Century Crusade…, op. cit.
25 Agostino Giovagnoli, «La Pontificia Commissione Assistenza e gli aiuti americani (1945‑1948)», Storia contemporanea, vol. ix, no. 5‑6, 1978, p. 1081‑1097. Donato Verrastro, «Tra spirito e materia. Assistenza, associazionismo e politiche del lavoro sotto il pontificato di Pio XII (1944‑1958)», Mélanges de l’École française de Rome - Italie et Méditerranée modernes et contemporaines, vol. 134, no. 2‑(Religion et humanitaire : renouveau historiographique et chantier des archives Pie XII), 2022, p. 295‑309, Doi: 10.4000/mefrim.12519.
26 Pontificia Commissione di Assistenza, 21 November 1945, fasc. 1, POA 1, VAA.
27 Scopi e caratteristiche della PCA [senza data, 1947?], fasc. 3, POA 1, VAA.
28 Tara Zahra, ‘“The Psychological Marshall Plan”: Displacement, Gender and Human Rights after World War II’, Central European History, vol. 44, no. 1, 2011, p. 37‑62, Doi: 10.1017/S0008938910001172. Laure Humbert, Reinventing French Aid: The Politics of Humanitarian Relief in French‑Occupied Germany, 1945‑1952, 1st ed., Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2021. Silvia Salvatici, “‘Help the People to Help Themselves’: UNRRA Relief Workers and European Displaced Persons”, Journal of Refugee Studies, vol. 25, no. 3, 2012, p. 428‑451, Doi: 10.1093/jrs/fes019.
29 Natalia Núñez Bargueño, “Recovering the Legacy of the Thought of Catholic Lay Women (1945‑62)”, Journal of Modern and Contemporary Christianity, vol. 2, no. 1, 2023, p. 21‑44, Doi: 10.30687/JoMaCC/2785-6046/2023/01/001.
30 Pope Pius XII, Papal Directives for the Woman of Today, 1947, <https://www.papalencyclicals.net/pius12/p12woman.htm>.
31 Ibid. supra.
32 Fasc. 15, Commissione Soccorsi 515, VAA.
33 Matteo Sanfilippo, «I Campi in Italia Nel Secondo Dopoguerra», Meridiana, no. 86‑(Profughi), 2016, p. 41‑56, <https://www.jstor.org/stable/43941750>.
34 On conversions of Jews to Roman Catholicism before and during the Holocaust, see Ion Popa, “Sanctuary from the Holocaust? Roman Catholic Conversion of Jews in Bucharest, Romania, 1942”, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, vol. 29, no. 1, 2015, p. 39‑56, Doi: 10.1093/hgs/dcv002.
35 Michael Phayer, The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930‑1965, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1st ed., 2000, p. 82. Nina Valbousquet, Les âmes tièdes : le Vatican face à la Shoah, Paris, la Découverte, 2024.
36 Curia Vescovile di Lipari a Montini, 7 May 1949, fasc. 15, Commissione Soccorsi 515, VAA.
37 Dossier or Jadwiga P., 80461629, Arolsen Archives.
38 Ibid. supra.
39 Ibid.
40 Maria Cristina Tyszkiewicz, fasc. 6, Commissione Soccorsi 515, VAA.
41 24 September 1944, Rome, fasc. 354, Commissione Soccorsi 212, VAA.
42 Maria Winowska, Paris, 14 March 1948, fasc. 614, Commissione Soccorsi 219, VAA.
43 Fasc. 615, Commissione Soccorsi 219, VAA.
44 Montini, telegramma per Berlino, 4 January 1945, fasc. 367, Commissione Soccorsi 212, VAA.
45 Fasc. 11, MSA 8, VAA.
46 W. Carroll to E. Killion, 13 December 1949, fasc. 11, MSA 8, VAA.
47 Pope Pius XII, Papal Directives…, op. cit.
48 Dagmar to Pius XII, PCA, Rome, 1947, Varia 2166, Commissione Soccorsi 453, VAA.
49 Letter, 9 November 1947, to Pope Pius XII, PCA, Varia 2166, Commissione Soccorsi 453, VAA.
50 G. Martino, Rome, c. His emigration to the USA, fasc. 21, Ufficio Migrazione, MSA 1, VAA.
51 Nominal roll, Naples, 81765036, Arolsen Archives.
52 “Memorandum of Understanding between the Vatican Emigration Office and War Relief Services‑ NCWC,” 1947, NCWC International Affairs, VMO, Box 37, Folder 14, American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives.
53 Coopération du Vatican, 09.1946‑06.1947, AJ/43/31, 1227, the French National Archives.
54 Fasc. Bollettino dell’Ufficio Migrazione, p. 8 [files no numbered as of December 2023], Ufficio Migrazione 60, VAA.
55 Mary Elizabeth Brown, “The National Catholic Welfare Conference’s Efforts to Assist Non‑Aryan Christians Threatened by the Nuremberg Laws, 1935‑1940”, U.S. Catholic Historian, vol. 37, no. 1, 2019, p. 47‑72, Doi: 10.1353/cht.2019.0002. Susan Fitzpatrick‑Behrens, “The Catholic Roots of U.S. Foreign Assistance: From Good Neighbors to Allies for Progress”, U.S. Catholic Historian, vol. 37, no. 1, 2019, p. 123‑145, p. 130‑132, Doi: 10.1353/cht.2019.0005.
56 Gerald J. Steinacher, Humanitarians at War: The Red Cross in the Shadow of the Holocaust, 1st ed., Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2017.
57 “Memorandum of Understanding…”, op. cit.
58 Ibid. supra.
59 Mons. Andrea Landi, Rome, War Relief Services–NCWC, Venti profughi di varie nazionalità partiti per il Venezuela sul M/S “Lugano”, 20 May 1947, fasc. 1, MSA 1, VAA.
60 Ex Militari Polacchi in Argentina, fasc. 7, MSA 1, VAA.
61 Ufficio Cattolico Assistenza Immigranti, Urugway‑Montevideo, National Catholic Committee, Nuncio Apostolico a Montevideo a Giovanni B. Montini, Lavoro dell’Ufficio Cattolico per gli immigrati in Urugway, 7 November 1947, fasc. 14, MSA 1, VAA.
62 Edward Swanstrom, Trasmissione di documenti e richieste di informazioni, W. Carroll, VMB, to Edward Swanstrom, NCWC, New York, 31 July 1947, fasc. 49, MSA 1, VAA.
63 F. Killion, Genève, VMB, to Secretariat of State of His Holiness, Subject: Unchristian Practices in IRO, 7 September 1948, fasc. 28, MSA 1, VAA.
64 Katarzyna Nowak, Kingdom of Barracks…, op. cit., p. 235‑237.
65 Unchristian Practices in IRO, op. cit.
66 Nicola Burilevevski, 1950, fasc. 34, MSA 8, VAA.
67 Walter S. Carroll to Major Arthur Withers, Chief Australian Selection Committee, Bagnoli, 20 January 1950, fasc. 34, MSA 8, VAA.
68 Gerald J. Steinacher, “Forgive and Forget. The Vatican and the Escape of Nazi War Criminals from Justice”, S:I.M.O.N, vol. 9, no. 1‑(Shoa: Intervention. Methods. Documentation), 2022, p. 4‑28, Doi: 10.23777/sn.0122/art_gste01. Michael Phayer, “Pope Pius XII, the Holocaust, and the Cold War”, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, vol. 12, no. 2, 1998, p. 233‑256, Doi: 10.1093/hgs/12.2.233. Norman J.W. Goda, “The Ustaša: Murder and Espionage”, in Richard Breitman, Norman J. W Goda, Timothy Naftali, and Robert Wolfe (eds), U.S. Intelligence and the Nazis, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005, p. 203‑226, Doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511618178.013. Uki Goñi, The Real Odessa: How Perón Brought the Nazi War Criminals to Argentina, 1st ed., London, Granta, 2002.
69 Gerald J. Steinacher, Nazis on the Run…, op. cit.
70 Dr Miha Krek, Presidente Comitato Sloveno dei Profughi in Italia, Roma, Oggetto: Per facilitare il sistema di concessione dei “Visa” sui passaporti dei profughi sloveni in partenza per l’Argentina, da parte del Consolato, Rt. Rev. Msgr. Andrew. P. Landi to Rt. Rev. Msgr. Walter S. Carroll, VMB, 18 June 1947, fasc. 12, MSA 1, VAA.
71 Emília Hrabovec, «Die III. Päpstliche Mission für die Flüchtlinge und die Slowaken (1945‑1951)”, Slovak Studies, vol. 7, no. 1‑2, 2021, p. 7‑79.
72 Ibid. supra.
73 Pope Pius XII, Papal Directives for the Woman of Today, op. cit.
Haut de pagePour citer cet article
Référence papier
Katarzyna Nowak, « Refugees and the Vatican: Rebuilding the Social and Gender Order Through Refugee Assistance in the Early Cold War », Diasporas, 44 | -0001, 139-160.
Référence électronique
Katarzyna Nowak, « Refugees and the Vatican: Rebuilding the Social and Gender Order Through Refugee Assistance in the Early Cold War », Diasporas [En ligne], 44 | 2025, mis en ligne le 03 décembre 2025, consulté le 13 février 2026. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/diasporas/18199 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/159te
Haut de pageDroits d’auteur
Le texte seul est utilisable sous licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés) sont susceptibles d’être soumis à des autorisations d’usage spécifiques.
Haut de page



