RolandVT wrote: ↑Wed Mar 19, 2025 1:55 pm
Due to this delay, he simply did not have enough time to destroy the red Army, capture Moscow and cause the collapse of the Soviet state before the weather conditions slowed his blitzkrieg to a crawl… and finally stopped it cold (literally).
Опять нацистскую пропаганду повторяете? На самом деле, никаких исключительно сильных морозов в ноябре г. в Москве и её окрестностях не наблюдалось. Среднесуточно было -5 градусов. http://www.pogodaiklimat.ru/monitor.php ... &year=1941
Декабрь не берем потому что уже 5 декабря началось контрнаступление. И в декабре тоже не было ничего аномального.
Surprisingly significant, I should say… although mostly for propaganda purposes. According to the official “evacuation” policy (presented ay Wannsee Conference), elderly and “prominent” Jews from Germany, Austria, Sudetenland, Bohemia and Moravia were shipped to Theresienstadt to “expire at a natural rate”. In reality, it was anything but natural… and Theresienstadt was not what it seemed at all.
Theresienstadt Ghetto was established on November 24, 1941, by the SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Unlike other ghettos, the exploitation of forced labor was not economically significant.
The first inhabitants of ghetto came (not surprisingly) from the Protectorate; the first German and Austrian Jews arrived in June 1942; Dutch and Danish Jews came at the beginning in 1943, and prisoners of a wide variety of nationalities were sent to Theresienstadt in the last months of the war.
About 33,000 people died at Theresienstadt, mostly from malnutrition and disease. More than 88,000 people were held there for months or years before being deported to extermination camps and other killing sites – hence, in reality, it was mostly a transit camp. Transit to killing centers that is.
Theresienstadt was known for its relatively rich cultural life, including concerts, lectures, and clandestine education for children. The fact that it was governed by a Jewish self-administration as well as the large number of “prominent” Jews imprisoned there facilitated the flourishing of cultural life. This spiritual legacy has attracted the attention of scholars and sparked interest in the ghetto.
At the Wannsee Conference, Heydrich announced that Theresienstadt would be used to house Jews over the age of 65 from the Reich, as well as those who had been severely wounded fighting for the Central Powers in World War I or won the Iron Cross 1st Class or a higher decoration during that war.
These Jews could not plausibly perform forced labor, and therefore Theresienstadt helped conceal the true nature of deportation to the East. Later, Theresienstadt also came to house “prominent” Jews whose disappearance in an extermination camp could have drawn attention from abroad.
To lull victims into a false sense of security, the SS advertised Theresienstadt as a “spa town” where Jews could retire, and encouraged them to sign fraudulent home purchase contracts, pay “deposits” for rent and board, and surrender life insurance policies and other assets to finance their life in the ghetto.
Initially, Wannsee Conference (its primary objective being creation of a comprehensive infrastructure for “Holocaust by Gas” – the second stage) was scheduled for December 9, 1941 and held at the then offices of Interpol at Am Kleinen Wannsee, 16.
Hence, it made complete sense that “Holocaust by Gas” was to commence the day before – on December 8th – in a “trial mode” (of sorts). Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor changed everything and forced RSHA Chief Reinhard Heydrich to move the date of the conference to January 20th – and its location to Wannsee House.
However, it was decided to go ahead with the first stage of the “Holocaust by Gas” to obtain (in)valuable data and experience. So, on December 8 the first gassing took place in Chelmno (Kulmhof) – the first killing center of the “Holocaust by Gas”, specifically constructed for that diabolical purpose.
The first people transported to the camp were the Jewish and Romani populations of cities and villages of Koło district (Landkreis Warthbrücken). A total of 3,830 Jews and around 4,000 Romani were murdered by gas before February 1942.
Chełmno nad Nerem is a village in Poland, annexed to Nazi Germany in 1939 and renamed Kulmhof during German occupation. The death factory itself was situated 50 km north of Lodz and served the dual purpose.
On the one hand, it was established to murder all 200,000 or so Jews in Lodz Ghetto (the second most populous after the one in Warsaw) and in the surrounding cities and villages.
On the other hand, it was supposed to be a “trial” (and thus simplified) version of the “standard” killing center (death factory). Simplified because it was smaller operation than the “standard one” (up to one million victims) and because no complicated logistics was necessary (victims had to travel only 50 km).
Chełmno death factory was established on the orders by Reinhard Heydrich made “Shoah project manager” by Göring (actually, by Adolf Hitler). The order was given sometime in early October of 1941, after it was decided to make “Holocaust by Gas” a radically scaled-up reincarnation of another “democide by gas” – Aktion T4 (forced euthanasia program).
Not surprisingly, Heydrich chose SS-Hauptsturmführer Herbert Lange to find the optimal location for the death factory – and then create and operate it. Lange was no stranger to serial mass murder by gas – one year prior he and his team killed 1,558 mental patients in gas vans reinvented by the Nazis (they were originally invented by NKVD and used for mass murder in Great Purge of 1937-38).
Lange chose Chełmno on the Ner, because of the estate, with a large manor house similar to Sonnenstein, which could be used for serial mass murder in mobile gas chambers with only minor modifications.
The killing center (Chelmno death factory) consisted of two components: the killing site and the burial site (mass grave). The killing site where victims were loaded (packed actually) in a gas van was a vacated manorial estate in the village of Chełmno on the Ner river.
The burial site was set up in a large forest clearing about 4 km northwest of Chełmno, off the road to Koło town. The two sites were known respectively as the Schlosslager (manor-house camp) and the Waldlager (forest camp).
On the grounds of the estate was a large two-story brick country house called “the palace”. Its rooms were adapted to use as the reception offices, including space for the victims to undress and to give up their valuables.
The SS and police staff and guards were housed in other buildings in the town. The Germans had a high wooden fence built around the manor house and the grounds. The clearing in the forest camp, which contained large mass graves, was likewise fenced off.
The killing center was initially supplied with two gas vans, each carrying about 50 victims gassed en route to the burial. Later on, Lange was given three gas vans that had a larger capacity – up to 75 victims each.
Victims were brought to a manor house (first on trucks and then also by rail) and led to a large empty room and ordered to undress; their clothing stacked for disinfection. They were told that all hidden banknotes would be destroyed during steaming and needed to be taken out and handed over for safe-keeping. Occasionally they were met by a German officer dressed as a local squire with a Tyrolean hat, announcing that some of them would remain there.
Wearing just underwear, with the women allowed to keep slips on, the Jews were taken to the cellar and across the ramp into the back of a gas van. When the van was full, the doors were shut and the engine started.
After about 5–10 minutes, the vans full of corpses were driven to Waldlager camp. The vans were unloaded to excavated mass graves, and cleaned by the Waldkommando before returning to the manor house for the next batch of victims.
The decision to murder all Jews under German control was made (by Himmler and Heydrich) and approved (by Göring and Hitler) sometime in August of 1941 (at roughly the same time Himmler ordered to extend “Holocaust by Bullets” to all Jews, including woman, children and elderly).
At the end of August, after Aktion T4 was terminated and its personnel became available for a much larger extermination project, the decision was made (by the same characters) and approved (ditto) to achieve this diabolical objective with a radically scaled-up reincarnation of Aktion T4 (involuntary euthanasia program).
In practice, it meant construction of six functionally similar killing centers (death factories) albeit with much, much higher capacity and performance. In roughly the same time span – two years or so – these six centers were to kill 100 times more (over 7 million versus 70,000).
After the possible opposition to the “Holocaust by Gas” by the Pope Pius XII was neutralized sometime in mid-September of 1941, Heydrich could now start working on choosing the optimal locations for these six killing centers.
For the “pilot project” Chelmno/Kulmhof was chosen in October (see below) … however for the sake of simplicity, it was to be equipped only with mobile gas chambers (gas vans).
Hence, another pilot project was needed – the death factory with stationary gas chambers (similar to the ones of Aktion T4 gas chambers but with a much, much larger capacity).
Although experimental gassing (using Zyklon B) already happened at Auschwitz, it appeared that this option was rejected. Rejected for a number of reasons: Zyklon B was considered way too toxic and thus too difficult to handle (for now); a dedicated death factory (killing center) was needed… and it had to be located in General Government (Auschwitz stood on the land annexed into the Reich).
Ultimately, the strategically located village of Belzec was chosen as the site for this next pilot project. It was situated between the two major cities in the southeastern part of Poland: Lublin 76 km to the northwest – and Lwów (now Lviv in Ukraine).
The city of Lublin became the hub of the early Nazi transfer of about 95,000 German, Austrian, and Polish Jews expelled from the West and the General Government area.
The Jews were put to work in the construction of anti-tank ditches (Burggraben) along the German-Soviet border. Which came very handy after the killing center commenced its operations.
Belzec was chosen for several reasons: it sat on the border between the Lublin District and the German District of Galicia formed after Operation Barbarossa. Thus, it could “process” the Jews of both regions.
The ease of transportation was secured by the railroad junction at nearby Rawa-Ruska and the highway between Lublin-Stadt and Lemberg (Lwow). The northern boundary of the planned killing center consisted of an anti-tank trench constructed a year earlier.
The ditch, excavated originally for military (anti-tank) purposes was subsequently used as the first mass grave. Globocnik brought in Obersturmführer Richard Thomalla who was a civil engineer by profession and the camp construction expert in the SS. Work had commenced in early November 1941, using local builders overseen by a squad of Trawniki guards.
There was, however, a purely supernatural reason for choosing Belzec as a killing center – close proximity to Lublin (Majdanek and Sobibor were chosen for the same reason).
Some SS mystics (yes, it was a highly mystical organization) considered Lublin to be Jewish spiritual center… in the whole world. Hence, establishment of three death factories (intended specifically for killing Jews) in close proximity would inevitably destroy this center… and thus the whole “Jewish race”.
According to one conspiracy theory, Lublin was the site of headquarters of Church of Moloch that essentially took over the Jewish people almost two millennia ago and used it in its attempts to take over the entire world (Protocols-style).
And that the whole objective of “Operation Reinhard” was to destroy this Church… by murdering all Polis Jews. No evidence that would support this conspiracy theory has ever surfaced.
The three commandants of the camp including Kripo officers SS-Sturmbannführer Christian Wirth and SS-Hauptsturmführer Gottlieb Hering, had been involved in Aktion T4 program since 1940 – as well as most of camp staff.
Wirth had the leading position as the supervisor of all six extermination hospitals in the Reich; Hering was the non-medical chief of the Sonnenstein gassing facility in Saxony as well as at the Hadamar Euthanasia Centre.
Wirth had been a killing expert from the beginning as participant of the first T-4 gassing of handicapped people at the Brandenburg Euthanasia Centre. He was, therefore, an obvious choice to be the first commandant of the first death factory that used stationary gas chambers.
It was his proposal to use the exhaust gas emitted by the internal-combustion engine (of captured Soviet T-34-76 tank – of all vehicles) as the killing agent instead of the bottled carbon monoxide as it was much cheaper and much more readily available.
Wirth chose the stationary gas chamber (functionally similar to those in Aktion T4 killing centers) because he calculated that the capacity of mobile gas vans used at Chełmno killing center was insufficient for the projected number of victims on trains arriving at the Belzec death factory.
All arriving Jews disembarked from the trains at a platform in the reception zone. To ready themselves for the disinfecting shower (standard ruse in a killing center), women and children were separated from men.
The naked new arrivals were then forced to run along a fenced-off path to the gas chambers, leaving them no time to absorb where they were. The process was conducted as quickly as possible amid constant screaming by the Germans.
The wooden gas chambers—which were built with double walls that were insulated by earth packed between them—were disguised as the shower barracks, so that the victims would not realize the true purpose of the facility.
The gassing itself, which took about 30 minutes, was conducted by a German operator with the Ukrainian guards and a Jewish aide. Removing the bodies from the gas chambers, burying them, sorting and repairing the victims’ clothing for shipping was performed by Jewish Sonderkommando work-details.
Most Jews from the latter were murdered periodically and replaced by new arrivals, so that they would neither organize a revolt nor survive to tell about the camp’s purpose.
The “Wirth solution” was far less humane than the one used in Aktion T4: due to low levels of CO in exhaust fumes and problems with the fuel and with the engine, the killing process, using the lethal carbon monoxide, often failed to be completed quickly, inflicting horrific suffering on the victims as they suffocated to death.
Few outside the affected nations are aware that Stalin practiced his own “soft genocide” (via deportations) … which was actually much harder on its victims than genocide by bullets or genocide by gas (both dispense far more merciful death than dying from hunger, cold, diseases or being worked to death in the Gulag).
After the Soviet invasion of Poland following the German invasion in 1939, the Soviet Union annexed the eastern parts of Poland. From 1939–1941, 1.45 million people who inhabited the region were deported (to highly inhospitable places) by Stalin’s regime. About 350,000 died – 100,000 more than died in Sobibor.
In June 1940 the three independent Baltic countries were occupied by the Soviet Red army and new pro-Soviet puppet governments were installed. Mass deportation campaigns began almost immediately – although most of them took place from 22 May to 20 June 1941, just before the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany. They are now called “June deportations” in Baltic states. Over 70,000 were deported – about one-third died in captivity.
The Soviets never trusted Latvians, Lithuanians or Estonians – and for a good reason. But they trusted Jews – also for a good reason. Hence, after the Red Army occupied Baltic countries in June of 1940, local Jews got preferential treatment from the new masters of the land and were placed by the latter in positions of some power (real or imaginary).
The concept of “Judeo-Bolshevist Soviet Union” and anti-Semitism in general were quite popular in Baltic countries at the time – so it is no surprise at all that local political (especially paramilitary) activists decided to avenge genuinely horrific “June deportations” … by wholesale mass murder of Jews as soon as Wehrmacht drove the Soviets out of those lands – and Germans very much encouraged (and supported) those decisions.
In reality, these Jews had nothing to do with June deportations whatsoever… but no one cared about the truth as revenge is usually blind. However, the first mass murder of the “Holocaust by Bullets” (and of Shoah in general) was committed by Germans: on the night of 23 to 24 June 1941, in the Grobina cemetery (eleven kilometers east of Liepaja in Latvia) an SD detachment shot six local Jews for no reason other than them being Jews.
On June 29 the Nazis started forming the first Latvian Auxiliary Police in Jelgava… which promptly murdered about 2,000 Latvian Jews. From 1941 to 1944, around 70,000 Jews were murdered, approximately three-quarters of the pre-war total of 93,000. In addition, thousands of German and Austrian Jews were deported to the Riga Ghetto where they were subsequently unceremoniously shot.
The first mass murder of Jews in Lithuania happened one day after Grobina massacre in neighboring Latvia: in the border town of Gargzdai (one of the oldest Jewish settlements in Lithuania). Approximately 201 Jews were shot by Einsatzgruppe A that day.
The horrific Kaunas pogrom began two days later and lasted through June 27th. Franz Walter Stahlecker, the commanding officer of Einsatzgruppe A, told his superiors that by 28 June 1941 3,800 people had been killed in Kaunas and a further 1,200 in the surrounding towns.
The most infamous incident occurred at the garage of NKVD Kaunas section – an event known as the Lietukis Garage Massacre. There several dozen Jewish men, allegedly associates of NKVD, were publicly tortured and executed on 27 June in front of a crowd of Lithuanian men, women and children. The incident was documented by a German soldier who photographed the event as a man, nicknamed the “Death Dealer”, beat each man to death with a metal bar.
The Holocaust in Lithuania resulted in the near total eradication of its Jewish population. Of approximately 208,000–210,000 Jews at the time of the Nazi invasion, an estimated 190,000 to 195,000 were killed before the end of the war, most of them between June and December 1941.
Thus, more than 95% of Lithuania’s Jewish population was murdered over the three-year German occupation, a more complete destruction than befell any other country in the Holocaust (except Estonia). Historians attribute this to the massive collaboration in the genocide by the local paramilitaries, though the reasons for this collaboration are still hotly debated.
By the end of 1941, virtually all of the 950 to 1,000 Estonian Jews unable to escape Estonia before its occupation by Nazi Germany (25% of the total prewar Jewish population) were killed in the Holocaust by German units such as Einsatzgruppe A and/or local collaborators. It was specifically mentioned at the Wannsee Conference that by January of 1942, Estonia became completely Judenrein.
Treblinka was, indeed. a diabolical hybrid of Auschwitz and Chelmno. On the one hand – like Auschwitz – it consisted of two separate units. Treblinka I (officially Reformatory Labor Camp Treblinka) was a forced-labor camp whose prisoners worked in the gravel pit or irrigation area and subsequently in the forest, where they cut wood to fuel the cremation pits.
Like in Auschwitz, Treblinka I was very much an “extermination through labor” camp: between 1941 and 1944, more than half of its 20,000 inmates died from hunger, disease and mistreatment – or were killed by the SS.
The second camp, Treblinka II, was an extermination camp, referred to euphemistically as the SS-Sonderkommando Treblinka by the Nazis. A small number of Jewish men who were not murdered immediately upon arrival became members of its Sonderkommando whose jobs included being forced to bury the victims’ bodies in mass graves. These bodies were exhumed in 1943 and cremated on large open-air pyres along with the bodies of new victims.
Like Chelmno, Treblinka II was built to facilitate extermination of Jewish population of just one Jewish ghetto: the Warsaw Ghetto (it was the largest ghetto created by the Nazis with over half a million prisoners).
The key difference was that Treblinka II used stationary gas chambers while in Chelmno Jews were killed in gas vans… however, in both killing centers victims were murdered with exhaust fumes of internal combustion engines.
Creation of Treblinka II was made possible by the existence of Treblinka I (the latter was created a year prior to the former); consequently, creation of the former became a significant step on the Road to Holocaust.
The two parallel camps of Treblinka were built 80 km northeast of Warsaw. Before World War II, it was the location of a gravel mining enterprise for the production of concrete, connected to most of the major cities in central Poland by the railway junction and the Treblinka village station.
When the German SS took over Treblinka I, the quarry was already equipped with heavy machinery that was ready to use.[46] Treblinka was well-connected but isolated enough, halfway between some of the largest Jewish ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe, including the Warsaw Ghetto (the largest in Europe).
In short, the ideal location for the death factory (killing center).
Termination of Aktion T4 triggered “Holocaust by Gas” (and was a major step on the Road to Holocaust) because it provided Reinhard Heydrich (the designated manager of the “Holocaust Project”) with the most important tool: personnel.
Medics, chemists, engineers, etc., who had a two-year experience in serial mass murder of innocent human beings in mobile and stationary gas chambers. After they were made available to RSHA (and Concentration Camps Inspectorate), the “final solution to Jewish question” became a no-brainer: kill them all in a radically scaled-up system of killing centers (death factories). Using poison gas, of course.
Aktion T4 was terminated (officially just suspended) by Adolf Hitler on August 24, 1941 (hence the decision to commence “Holocaust by Gas” was made and approved in very late August or early September of 1941). Made by Himmler and Heydrich and approved by Göring and Hitler, of course.
Why was it terminated? Some historian think that Hitler was forced to officially suspend Aktion T4 by protests of the German public and (especially) Christian Church (Catholic and Lutheran).
Others claim that it was terminated because it achieved its objective – killing 70,000 “undesirables”. I believe the former to be true: such programs tend to go on indefinitely, ever expanding, extending and claiming more and more victims.
After the official end of the euthanasia program in 1941, most of the personnel and high-ranking officials, as well as gassing technology and the techniques used to deceive victims, were ultimately transferred to “Holocaust by Gas” project.
The SS officers responsible for the earlier Aktion T4, including Wirth, Stangl and Irmfried Eberl, had important roles in the implementation of the “Holocaust by Gas” for the next two years.
The first killing center, equipped with mobile gas chambers (gas vans) was established in Chelmno (Kulmhof) in the Polish territory annexed into the Reich. This center was modelled on technology developed under Aktion T4… actually, the whole “Holocaust by Gas” project was a scaled-up reincarnation of the former.
Three months later, the center equipped with stationary gas chambers, became operational at Belzec in the General Government territory of occupied Poland. It was also modelled on technology developed under Aktion T4.
Serial mass murderers, to be more precise… but still serial killers.
From their motives for carrying out their crimes, there are four main types (archetypes even) of serial killers: Visionary, Mission-oriented, Hedonistic and Power/Control. Holocaust Perpetrators (obviously) fit into the second category.
A mission-orientated serial killer is someone who kills in order to “rid” society of a specific group of people (in extreme cases – to save society or even the whole mankind of an existential threat from the group in question). Prostitutes (often); homeless (sometimes); homosexuals (ditto); petty criminals (happens)… and yes, a certain race or ethnic group (Blacks, Asians – or Jews).
These serial killers believe that they are doing society a huge favor. Hence, it is their Mission to kill these people. As a result, they won’t stop until they have been killed or caught by law enforcement… or are incapacitated in some way.
Holocaust Perpetrators fit their definition to a “T” because they sincerely, passionately, deeply (and incorrectly) believed that to save Germany, Europe and the whole human civilization from genuine Hell on Earth, they absolutely had to kill all Jews – men, women, children and elderly. Via serial mass murder.
Mission-oriented serial killers are not psychotic (neither were Holocaust perpetrators). Unlike the Visionary killer, for example, the Mission-orientated killer is not out of touch with reality. Neither are they demonically possessed – they exhibit no signs of the latter.
He (they are almost always male) does not suffer from hallucinations or delusions. God or some other entity is not commanding him to commit these murders. His decision to kill was a decision that he made all by himself.
Usually, this type of serial killer tends to be organized. They plan their crimes and can live a perfectly normal life (that’s exactly what Holocaust perpetrators did). They tend to kill their victims quickly (ditto).
For example, they might use a gun because it is quick and efficient. There will be no attempts to “prolong” the kill or get further enjoyment out of it. As a result, the crime scene will contain no signs of sadism or torture. That’s precisely what modus operandi of Holocaust perpetrators was – all the time.
Mission-orientated serial killers can be meticulous and obsessive (Holocaust perpetrators were very much so). Feelings of revenge and hatred are often a driving factor behind their crimes (for the Nazis, it obviously was).
They are getting back at a part of society (in this case, the Jews). In most cases, they tend to stick to their own geographical area (Nazis killed the Jews under their geographical control).
A highly relevant (to the Holocaust) example of a Mission-orientated serial killer was Joseph Paul Franklin. He white supremacist (Nazis were racists par excellence), and domestic terrorist (ditto) who engaged in a serial killing spree spanning the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Between 1977 and 1980, Franklin targeted black and Jewish people. He believed that race mixing was a crime against God (for the Nazis, it was). This led him to focus most of his ire towards interracial couples.
For example, in June of 1980, Franklin used a high-powered rifle to kill Arthur Smothers and Kathleen Mikula. He carried out this attack because Smothers was a black man and Mikula was a white woman.
Typically, mission killers tend to stick to their own geographical area. However, Franklin was a drifter who roamed around the East Coast. In fact, many of his murders took place in different states… just as the Holocaust did.
Hence, Holocaust perpetrators (especially the leaders of the “Holocaust Project” – Himmler, Heydrich, Göring and, yes, Adolf Hitler) were textbook mission-oriented serial killers. Serial mass murderers, true – but still serial killers.
It is a well-established fact, that vocal and incessant protests by just one Roman catholic bishop – Bishop of Münster Clemens August Graf von Galen – became a final straw that finally forced Adolf Hitler to terminate (officially suspend) the “prequel to the Holocaust” – Aktion T4 forced euthanasia program.
Hence, there is little (if any) doubt that similar protests by Supreme Pontiff – Pope Pius XII (head of the Roman Catholic Church) would have stopped the diabolical “Holocaust Project” in its tracks. After all, half of the population of Greater Germany in 1941, were Roman Catholics.
But the Pope did not protest. He did not speak out publicly against the serial mass murder of the Jews that went on for over four years. This fact is rarely contested, nor can it be. Evidence of a public protest, if it existed, would be easy to produce. It does not exist.
Although he was well aware of “Holocaust by Gas” – it took place in totally Catholic Poland where Vatican intelligence service had strong presence. Many mass shootings of the “Holocaust by Bullets” took part in overwhelmingly Catholic Lithuania and in Catholic lands of Ukraine and Belarus.
Actually, he did not publicly condemn any of serial mass murders committed by the Nazis: not Operation Tannenberg, not Intelligenzaktion, not AB-Aktion (although this three-stage “pacification of Poland” – almost 100% Catholic country – went on for the whole year).
Not Aktion T4, for that matter. And when he did speak, his statements were exceedingly cautious and wrapped up in involuted language that is difficult for many to understand.
In fact, it was worse: Pacelli, as Cardinal Secretary of State, dissuaded Pope Pius XI – who was nearing death at the time – from condemning Kristallnacht in November 1938, when he was informed of it by the papal nuncio in Berlin.
And, of course, there is the issue of the “Hidden Encyclical” Humani generis unitas (On the Unity of the Human Race) which explicitly condemned the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany… but was never issued.
The encyclical was planned by Pope Pius XI (predecessor of Pius XII) but his on February 10, 1939 prevented its publication. The draft text condemned antisemitism, racism and the persecution of Jews. Because it was never issued, it is sometimes referred to as “The Hidden Encyclical” or “The Lost Encyclical”. The draft text remained secret until published in 1995 in France.
Pius XI’s successor, Pope Pius XII, did not promulgate the draft as an encyclical, although he utilized parts of it in his own inaugural encyclical Summi Pontificatus on the unity of human society, in October 1939, the month after the outbreak of World War II.
Why was Pius XII – a genuinely great Pope – silent about all horrible Nazi crimes against humanity? It was not about taking sides in the Second Great War (Vatican was officially neutral) – it was about saving millions of human lives.
Contrary to some speculations, there was never any danger of German Catholics breaking up with the Holy See over persecution (let alone murder) of millions of Jews – the “Second Reformation” was out of the question.
Public demand to put an end to mass murder (and the persecution in general) of Jews under German control would not have impaired the ability of Germany to fight Bolshevist Soviet Union (the existential enemy of Catholic Church).
And, obviously, such protests, condemnations and demands would not have made the fate of Jews any worse as nothing could have been worse than the Holocaust – whether by bullets or by gas.
I think that the roots of this silence trace back to his experience in Munich during the horrible time of Bavarian Soviet Republic run by Jews who were puppets of the Jews in Moscow (Trotsky, Zinoviev, Radek, etc.).
Somehow, the future Pope got convinced that Jews (and especially the “Judeo-Bolshevist” Soviet Russia) represent a genuinely existential threat to the Catholic Church and the whole human civilization. And that the only ones capable of protecting both were Adolf Hitler and the then-DAP.
He never met Hitler, but I am convinced that he was aware of the “Hitler Project” – and quite possibly of the existence of the Church of Moloch (which took over the Jewish people millennia ago and tried to use them to take over the whole world). Aware thanks to Thule Society – politics makes even stranger bedfellows.
Still, I am convinced that in September of 1941, Pius XII was ready to publicly condemn the Holocaust… but Heydrich convinced him to stay silent.
Official CEO of the “Holocaust Project” (and a Roman Catholic) flew to Rome (his Bf-109E7 had the range with external fuel tank) and persuaded Pius XII that the only way to save the Church and human civilization from destruction by Bolshevist hordes was to physically exterminate all the Jews under German control (there was no other way to get rid of the Church of Moloch that was calling the shots).
It was not true, of course, but Pius XII agreed… and stayed silent.
