Movie reviews, production notes, and more! - "Amen"

Movie : Amen

Notes provided by Kino International ULRICH TUKUR MATHIEU KASSOVITZ IN COSTA-GAVRAS' AMEN. AMEN. Who was Kurt Gerstein? One of the most horrifying testimonies from the horrors of the Holocaust was left by a conscience-stricken SS officer, Kurt Gerstein, who visited the deathcamps Belzec and Treblinka in August 1942 and witnessed the mass gassing of Jewish men, women and children. Gerstein was shocked by what he had seen. Yet, he realized that as a witness, his position was unique, and he was determined to expose what he knew to the world to stop the atrocities: "I was one of the handful of people who had seen every corner of the establishment, and certainly the only one to have visited it as an enemy of this gang of murderers ..." (www.auschwitz.dk/Gerstein.htm) Costa-Gavras' Amen is based on the real life story of SS officer Kurt Gerstein; Riccardo Fontana is a fictional character created to represent all priests who fought against Nazi persecution of Jews. Synopsis Newly commissioned SS Lieutenant and respected civilian chemist, Kurt Gerstein, discovers that the Zyklon B pellets he has developed to disinfect soldiers' drinking water are being used to gas interred Jews by the thousands. Recruited to help streamline the death camp process by a team of SS officers-led by a man known as "The Doctor"-, Gerstein secretly approaches the Swedish Consulate, the German Protestant community and finally Vatican representatives in the hopes of exposing this unspeakable crime. The only one who listens is Father Ricardo, a young Jesuit priest with deep family connections at the Vatican. Ricardo promises Gerstein he will alert the Pope to the Jewish genocide in hopes that the pontiff will reveal and denounce the Final Solution to the Christian world. Gerstein does what he can to slow death camp mass killings in Poland while at the Vatican Ricardo receives assurances that the Pope will speak out about the plight of the Jews in his upcoming Christmas radio message. With Gerstein's SS colleagues just a room away, Ricardo and Gerstein huddle by a radio awaiting the pontiff's address. The Pope makes no overt mention of the holocaust; his equal disdain for both Hitler and Stalin and fear of Nazi occupation of the Vatican have kept the pontiff from denouncing the Nazis. At Ricardo's urging, Gerstein arrives in Rome seeking an audience with the Pope. Unfortunately, he solicits the Vatican just as the SS begins a round-up of Roman Jews. The Pope will not see him. Having himself appealed to the Pope unsuccessfully, Ricardo attaches a Star Of David to his habit and joins a death camp-bound box car of Italian Jews. At the camp, Ricardo is questioned by The Doctor about arranging a safe haven in the Vatican for war criminals at the war's imminent end. Ricardo rebuffs The Doctor, rejects Gerstein's efforts to rescue him and dies in the crematoria. With the war over, despite authoring a lengthy deposition detailing and denouncing the camps, Gerstein is charged as a war criminal and hangs himself in his cell. At the Vatican, The Doctor is assisted in a safe passage to Argentina. Born Konstantinos Gavras in Loutra-Iraias, Greece in 1933, Costa-Gavras has spent his career melding overt political content with compelling narrative filmmaking. After high school in Athens, the teenaged Costa-Gavras initially sought to pursue a film career in the United States. Refused admission to the US because of his father's leftist politics, young Costa-Gavras went instead to Paris where he studied literature at the Sorbonne and film at IDHEC. After working as an assistant director for Rene Clair (TOUT L'OR DU MONDE '61) and Jacques Demi (BAY OF ANGELS '63) amongst others, Costa-Gavras directed his first feature, THE SLEEPING CAR MURDERS in 1966. MURDERS was an exuberant and entertaining valentine to the Hollywood crime pictures of Costa-Gavras' youth. His third film Z ('69), a breathlessly paced condemnation of the Greek military junta's ruthless seizure of power in 1966, became an international sensation. CostaGavras' unheralded blend of documentary fact and thriller-like narrative urgency earned Z the jury prize at Cannes, an Academy Award for best foreign film, a British Academy Award for best film and the New York Film Critics Circle nod for best film and best direction. THE CONFESSION ('70) and STATE OF SIEGE ('73), both starring Z's Yves Montand, were in a similar vein and detailed political oppression in Czechoslovakia and Uruguay respectively with genre film intensity. Though SIEGE's anti-American elements caused some controversy in the US at the time of its release, by the early eighties Costa-Gavras was working in Hollywood. His American debut, MISSING ('82), the story of an American family seeking word of a "disappeared" family member in Latin America, won accolades for leads Sissy Spacek and Jack Lemmon and earned Costa-Gavras a shared best screenplay Oscar. His 1983 follow up, the pro-Palestinian melodrama HANNA K., surprised and infuriated many of those who'd championed MISSING. After the French comedy FAMILY BUSINESS ('86), Costa-Gavras made two films in a row from scripts by Hollywood bete-noir Joe Eszterhas. The second, THE MUSIC BOX ('89) earned the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 1990. In the last decade Costa-Gavras has helmed both French and American features and has made contributions to anthology films like 1995's LUMIERE AND COMPANY. CostaGavras has performed in several films including MADAME ROSA in 1978 and John Landis' 1986 SPIES LIKE US and was the co-subject of the 1976 documentary, COSTA-GAVRAS TALKS WITH MARCEL OPHULS: POLITICAL FILMS (1976). A citizen of France, he was appointed president of the Cinematheque Francaise in 1982. COSTA-GAVRAS FILMOGRAPHY Amen. (2002) Mad City (1997) Lumière and Company (1995) À propos de Nice, la suite (1995) (segment "Les Kankobals") Little Apocalypse, The (1993) Against Oblivion (1991) Music Box (1989) Betrayed (1988) Family Business (1986) Hanna K. (1983) Missing (1982) Womanlight (1979) (USA) Special Section (1975) State of Siege (1973) Confession, The (1970) (USA) Z (1969) Sleeping Car Murders, The (1965) Rates, Les (1958) A conversation with Costa-Gavras DAN FRANCK: Your film leaves deep marks within the viewer's mind, much in the same way Primo Levi's books do. In both cases, they are true works of art. As such they bring shaking and lasting emotions. However, you stay away from all the usual recipes for the genre: no sentimentalism, no over-dramatisation, a very high sense of restraint, a devastating take on the camps but without showing the victims, the horrors. Only empty trains, doors open on wide landscapes, a pestilence one can nearly smell... This calls for a question which could be asked today about all the tragedies in the world, thus proving that the ethics of the film concern us all: who knew and what was done? COSTA-GAVRAS: Everybody knew. JEAN-CLAUDE GRUMBERG: The camps were the climax of a string of acceptances. Millions of people around the world giving in and accepting. Indifference is just a softer version of complicity. C.-G.: The indifference is still there. It did not start with the camps, nor did it end with the war. It did not grow during the war either: what became more serious and unbearable was the events. I do not know what -among all the events we are living through today- will seem as a monstrous, inhuman attitude to our grand-children. Look at the indifference with which we are letting the African continent die. Our passivity is a crime in itself. J.-C.G.: Films are never about the past. They are about the present with just a stop by the past, by what we already know, what we have more or less taken in and accepted. The film reveals a question that it asked to every one of us at every moment of our lives: at what moment must one become an ethical being again? This question is one for every century in History, and for every single day in our lives. Things happen with our friendly indifference. C.-G.: We started from this point, this passivity. With this man, Stefan Lux at the beginning of the film who shoots a bullet in his head, in the League of Nations, to warn the world. This happens in 1936 and he doesn't have a clue as to how History will turn out. The members of the League of Nations had a half-hour recess, just to let the doctors take the body away. But the world didn't move. J.-C.G.: What is fascinating is this: from 1933 to the beginning of the war, everybody just accepts. Hitler had a program the leaders and intellectuals knew of. He put this A conversation with Costa-Gavras program into action as soon as he was in power without any significant reaction from the Western or the religious powers. In 1942 Jan Karski, a Polish resistant -a non Jewleaves Poland and travels through all of Europe and America to inform the British and the Americans of what he saw in the Warsaw ghetto and of what he knows about the extermination. Roosevelt actually met him. But in a country where minorities didn't enjoy the most elementary rights -and I'm not only talking about the African Americans- why should anyone have protested against nazi racism? Added to this, there also is the fact that elections were coming up and Roosevelt didn't want to take any chances, as well as the State-Department staff's anti-Semitism, as well as the views of the British allies... C.-G.: Why bother with such a problem? So the allies don't bomb the extermination infrastructure, they don't derail the trains... They just turn their eyes and look away. J.-C.G.: The complicity is frightening. It was the accomplishment of an ideology that was looming all over the world, including France. The idea to cleanse society, "make it clean" through eugenics and the betterment of the race is an ideology that matured at the beginning of the century and reached its climax with Hitler. D.F.: Another state, similar morals: the Vatican. His Holiness Pius XII is at the helm of a nearly political power. The Nuncios are the Ambassadors, the Holy-See is a sort of palace where pleasure is not always -and good Lord, what a pity!- a priority over the sufferings created by a world as turbulent as a teacherless classroom. And so ambassadors from all over the world must be met, with the hope that the supreme pontiff's slumber will not be troubled by these stories about gassed and burnt Jews. C.-G.: The Vatican is a tool of power. It reacts to this situation in the same way than any other State, without any theological concerns and with even less concern for ethics. The pope is the emanation of this power. In the film, he is totally abstract: a figure, an image. His reality is his environment, his ceremonials, his words... Religion exists in human communities to give access to moral and ethical power, not to that of a state. During that period, as on other occasions, the Church did not play this role. It was mostly involved in its own self-preservation and not in the actual reason for which it exists. The Church put itself in the position of a State, with its own diplomacy and political strategy instead of being a higher moral institution. J.-C.G.: The pope is not more indifferent than the others. But as he considers himself to be the conscience and the moral authority of the Western world -and this still A conversation with Costa-Gavras remains the case today- he was not allowed to be indifferent. C.-G.: After the war, Chancellor Andenauer declared that if the Bishops of Germany had risen to help the Jews, the Jews probably would not have been exterminated. This was an opportunity for the Church to save its soul. It didn't. J.-C.G.: The Pope is the keeper of a tradition. A tradition of anti-Semitism. Just read the late 19th Century archives of the [Christian] newspaper La Croix. For the Catholic Church as an organization, the 40s are the continuation of the 19th Century. So Hitler is not a likable figure, but he is fighting Stalin, and the Church hates the Communists just as much as the Jews. D.F.: So Hitler is a herald... The two central protagonists of the film, Gerstein and Ricardo come from this background. One is from the criminal SS and the other from the Church, an accessory by its silence. They break away from their own systems when they try to warn the Vatican and the Allies. This struggle doesn't stop the machine but it's nearly as if they acted, denounced this for themselves. Does this mean that by saving "their soul", they also partly saved the other? C.-G.: Concerning Gerstein, everything he attempts turns against him. When he tries to prevent the use of Zyclon B gas by saying that moving it is a hazard, Red Cross ambulances are made available for its transport because they are spared by allied bombings. When he tries to sabotage the gas on its way to the camps, it nevertheless is used, resulting in slower deaths for the victims. In other words evil can come out of good. However, this "good" still has the power to tell us that even at its worst, humanity does not disappear. J.-C.G.: Gerstein and Ricardo are what we count on for ourselves. In a situation as unproductive of hope as this, there is however someone to put their conscience before their own safety. Because ultimately complicity is fear. Indifference is fear. C.-G.: We wanted a character who would put his conscience before his own interest and who would not be a Jew. If he were a German and an SS, even better. That would tell us that resistance is possible, even in Germany and even in the SS. It is because Gerstein existed that the others were wrong. J.-C.G.: To highlight the indifference of the others... In France if there only had been Bousquet among the young civil-servants, it would be horrible. But there was Bousquet A conversation with Costa-Gavras and Moulin. When Jean Moulin slits his throat, he chooses. And when Bousquet says for the first time "Yes we can set up a roundup" he chooses too. What I mean is if Jean Moulin hadn't existed, Bousquet and Papon would have been proof of the unavoidability of evil. D.F.: This is the Representative by Rolf Hochhuth but in the same time one has the feeling you only kept the essence of it. C.-G.: Hochhuth had the immense talent to break a sort of conspiracy of silence, in his very own country, Germany. We benefited of his work and of additional historical knowledge. And our medium is not the same as the theater. In the theater, everything is conveyed by words. In film, one must invent something else. J.-C.G.: Costa and I had been thinking about working on the extermination from an exterminator's viewpoint for several years. So we needed to make the play ours. That was the difficulty. We could have illustrated it, but that wasn't our intent and more importantly it wasn't possible. So we had to find a way to go beyond that, borrow from History and Hochhuth's play and make our story. C.-G.: How could this be possible in a civilized world? Could this still be possible today? We first thought about working on Death is my Profession by Robert Merle. But Merle's character -Hoess, head of the Auschwitz camp- was only terrifying. He was made of only one fabric and had no ambiguity to him. Nobody, including we, the screenwriters, could follow such a path, void of hope. Then Claude Berri mentioned the Vicar and, beyond the play, we discovered Gerstein and the ambiguity of good as it is described in S. Friedlander's book. The difficulty of struggle, of taking action against a system that destroys all humanity. The film is based on three founding elements that are present in Hochhuth's work: the real-life character Gerstein, who was a fervent protestant: we follow his itinerary without doing a biography; Ricardo a fictitious character built from several Catholic priests who really existed; and last, the third character, History itself and its tool, cynicism embodied by the doctor who will survive to everything and to everyone. As History does. J.-C.G.: The doctor is science gone astray, medicine serving death. The doctor is not an ideologist like Goebbels. He is more of an actor and an observer, cynical, diabolical. Evil's continuity, a sort of forecast of what modernity will be. This shadow remains present in our civilization. A conversation with Costa-Gavras C.-G .: We had decided from the start that we would not show the camps or the exter urination, because their reality is beyond the reach of film. J.-C.G.: In the theatre, one can decide to show the camps because it is in any case clear that it is only a representation. On film, things look real so showing the camps would have made us obscene. C.-G.: What we wanted was to watch the faces of the witnesses, decipher their grimaces, their every movement and action. One day, after we had written the scene where Gerstein meets the Swedish baron, we thought of the passing-train idea. At first I thought of a "full" train with its doors closed. And Jean-Claude suggested the idea of an empty train. This image of the train with its doors open, passing while Gerstein is trying to convince someone, seemed revealing of his powerlessness and of all the horror. On the set, I decided that these trains should pass by all the time. Doors open, doors closed, full trains, empty trains... J.-C.G.: This means that the machine is working. While some are hesitant and others are thinking, while the leaders are wondering if all this is really possible and while the soldiers are fighting and the planes are bombing, while Roosevelt is getting reelected and the Pope is being afraid of communism well, the trains keep on passing. C.-G.: I wanted to show the machine without the machine. D.F.: Where does this feeling of identification one has during the film come from? This feeling of identification really gives one a sense of fragility... C.-G.: The feeling of identification comes from the fact that we stay very close to both characters, Gerstein and Ricardo. As for the sense of fragility, it is part of the subject. This is because fear is within everything... And I might add that it's even a form of terror that comes from the fact that we know in advance. Jean-Claude and I actually lived in this feeling of fragility when we were immersed in the details of History. Also, powerlessness makes one fragile. Because once you know, what do you do? We relate to a character such as Gerstein and then, his struggle against a system that is too powerful for him unsettles the very essence of who we are. A conversation with Costa-Gavras D.F.: You've always worked with American actors for your films in English. Was it important to you to work with German actors on this one? C.-G.: It was essential. At first Claude Berri and I did think of an American cast. But we quickly gave up this idea. The very nature of the film, the complexity of the characters, the outcome of the story didn't work like an American movie and did not match Hollywood's dominant sensitivity. J.-C.G.: The subject of the film is not a character. The subject is History. The characters shed light on the subject. To an actor, Gerstein is of course a true character. But in the same time we are not serving him, we don't write emotional scenes, he only exists in his connection with the central story, the scope of which goes far beyond the actor and even beyond the actual film project. D.F.: In your treatment of History -with a capital H- one can feel a sense of irony... C.-G.: A bitter and painful irony, of course. Because this irony exists within History itself. Take the rescue of the nazis by the Roman networks... Some of these people were taken in by the United States, others by the USSR. They sold their know-how and had careers. Klaus Barbie held an official position for years, in Latin America. It's the recycling and use of their know-how... MATHIEW KASSOVITZ - Biography Born in Paris on August 3rd 1973 to a director father and editor mother, actor, writer and director Mathieu Kassovitz has said of his parents, "if they had been grocers I would have been a grocer. They were filmmakers so I became a filmmaker." After a childhood divided between school and summers working in film and theater, seventeen year old Mathieu became a second assistant director on Paul Boujnah's film MOITIEMOITIE. Kassovitz quickly moved on to first assistant directing industrial films before directing three award winning short films (he appeared in two of them) and finally helming his first feature METISSE in 1993. Following his Caesar winning performance in Jean Louis Trintignant's SEE HOW THEY FALL, Kassovitz gained international attention as director and writer of his sophomore feature HATE which took the Best Director prize at Cannes in 1995. In 1999, Kassovitz partnered with director Luc Besson (for whom he appeared in 1997's THE FIFTH ELEMENT) and Jan Kounen to form 1 B2K, a Los Angeles based production company. Despite directing four features of his own and appearing in a variety of films over the last decade from Bertrand Blier's MY MAN in 1996 to his father Peter Kassovitz's 1999 JAKOB THE LIAR, Matthieu Kassovitz is best known in this country for his role as Nino Ouincampois in Jean Pierre Jeunet's AMELIE. In 2001, on the strength of AMELIE's worldwide popularity, Kassovitz was chosen by Lancóme to represent their cologne 'Miracle' in a series of print ads and television spots in Europe. That same year Kassovitz also appeared in Miramax's thriller BIRTHDAY GIRL, opposite Nicole Kidman. Filmography - Actor Amen. (2002) .... Riccardo Fontana Astérix & Obélix: Mission Cléopatra (2002) .... Physionomiste banquet Birthday Girl (2001) .... Yuri Amélie (2001) .... Nino Quincampoix Jakob the Liar (1999) .... Herschel Plaisir (et ses petits tracas), Le (1998) .... Roland aka Pleasure (And Its Little Inconveniences) (1998) (USA) Assassin(s): no comment (1997) .... Himself Fifth Element, The (1997) .... Mugger Assassins) (1997) .... Max Self-Made Hero, A (1996) .... Albert Dehousse News from the Good Lord (1999) (UK) My Man (1996) (Europe: English title) Fleurs de Maria Papadopylou, Les (1995) Hate (1996) (USA) Young Skinhead 3000 scénarios contre un virus (1994) aka 3,000 Scenarios to Combat a Virus (1994) Elle voulait faire quelque chose (1994) See How They Fall (1994) Johnny Café au lait (1993) Felix Assassins... (1992) French Summer (1992) Touch and Die (1991) .... Piaz Fierrot le pou (1990) "Vie de Berlioz, La" (1983) (mini) TV Series Make Room for Tomorrow (1979) ULRICH TUKUR - Biography Born on July 29, 1957 in Viernheim, Hesse in Germany, Ulrich Tukur attended high school first in Hesse and then as an exchange student in Boston, MA. An accomplished vocalist and keyboardist, Tukur supported his English, German and History university studies in Tubingen by singing and playing accordion. While still studying acting at the College of Music and Interpretive Art in Stuttgart, Tukur made his film debut as Willi Graff in Michael Verhoeven's THE WHITE ROSE in 1982. Upon graduation in 1983 he worked in theater in Heidleberg before joining Der Freien Volksbuhne ("The Free People's Theater") in Berlin. Tukur earned rave reviews and Germany's highest theater award as Best Stage Actor portraying SS officer Kittel in Peter Zedak's 1984 production, GHETTO. Since then Tukur has excelled in a myriad of classical and contemporary theater roles and in German and European film and television. American audiences will see him opposite George Clooney in Steven Soderbergh's upcoming re-make of Tarkovsky's SOLARIS. Tukur also performs and has recorded the CD, "Wunderbar, Dabei Zu Sein" with his musical combo, Ulrich Tukur Und Die Rythmus Boys. Selected Filmography Ulrich Tukur Solaris (2002) .... Dr. Snow Tatort - Filmriss (2002) (TV) .... Dr. Meister Amen. (2002) .... Kurt Gerstein Taking Sides (2001) .... Helmut Rode, 2nd violinist Verbrechen des Professor Capellari: Zerbrechliche Beweise, Die (2001) .... Alexander Apokalypse 99 - Anatomie eines Amokl6ufers (2000) Jedermann (2000) (TV) .... Jedermann Hunters in the Snow (2000) (International: English title) Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace (2000) .... Dietrich Bonhoeffer Waiting Means Death (1999) (TV) (International: English title) Annaluise & Anton (1999) (USA) "Komische Kintopp, Der" (1997) TV Series .... narrator Tears of Stone (1996) Charm's Incidents (1996) Beim n6chsten Kuf3 knall ich ihn nieder (1996) .... Conrad Veidt My Mother's Courage (1995) Gesch6fte (1994) (TV) .... Dr. Weif3 Rotwang Must Go! (1994) Maus and Katz (1993) (TV) .... Fred Tonndorf Wehner - Die unerz6hlte Geschichte (1993) (TV) .... Wehner (Jung) Mystery of the Amber Room, The (1992) Democratic Terrorist, The (1992) Siegfried Maak Fatal Assignment, A (1990) Last U-Boat, The (1990) (TV) In meinem Herzen, Schatz... (1989) .... Hans Albers "Milliardenspiel, Das" (1989) (mini) TV Series .... Gerd Asselt Let's Kiss and Say Goodbye (1988) (UK) Felix (1987) .... Felix "Lenz oder die Freiheit" (1986) (mini) TV Series .... Engels Stammheim (1986) .... Andreas Baader Story, Die (1984) .... Alexander Swing, The (1983) White Rose, The (1982) Religion Timeline (1920 - 1944) 1920 There are 23 million Catholics in Germany. They represent 35% of the population and have 400 newspapers. Soon after his arrival in 1920 as the new Nuncio of Berlin, former Munich nuncio Mgr Pacelli (the future Pope Pius XII) tales a strong public pro-German stance against the Versailles dictates and, with German Cardinal Bestram, declares that French occupation troops in the Rhineland are made up of blacks, the diseased, rapists and child aggressors. These statements trigger vigorous French denials ("There only are a few black Africans in the region") and worldwide controversy: La Honte Noire literally, "the Black Shame". U.S. Congressional representatives order an investigation to refute the allegations. 1921 March: Pacelli repeats his accusations about French troops and requests the Pope "intervene in the interest of the molested German women and children". Though the Vatican does not follow up on this request, the rumour of this "Black Shame" speeds up France's withdrawal from the Rhineland. Pacelli establishes ties with Catholic priest Ludwig Kaas, a Member of Parliament for the Zentrum party. In 1933, he will become the president of this party. After having voted for Hitler's accession to full powers in 1933, he will join Pacelli in Rome and settle there. German Society Timeline (1920 - 1944) 1920 The Versailles Treaty becomes effective and pushes Germany into humiliation and economic chaos. All this contributes to the steady rise of political extremism. March : In Germany, a civilian coup led by W. Kapp takes place. The coup is supported by the Military and Berlin is occupied. April : Hitler joins the « German Workers » party and submits a 25 proposal-program. He also suggests to change the party into « National Socialist Party of German Workers Proposal number 4 of his program consists in depriving Jews from German citizenship. The Weimar Republic pays no attention to this party, nor to Hitler. As a result of the war, Germany's internal debt amounts to 144 billion Marks. August: Hitler adopts the Swastika for it to be the party's flag. He designs it himself and chooses the colours: "... In red, we see a society in motion; in white the notion of nationalism; in the Swastika, the struggle for the victory of the Aryan man... (Mein Kampf, p. 496) The Klu Klux Klan and the "Radio Priest" Father Coughlin, a catholic, stir anti-Semitic feelings in the United States. 1921 The French occupy the Ruhr and Hitler creates the S.A. Religion Timeline 1922 Pope Benedict XV dies and Pope Pius XI is elected and the German Christian Workers Youth is founded. 1923 France accuses the Vatican and Pacelli of playing into Germany's hands while the proVatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano criticizes France's "outrageous" reparations epected from Germany. Pacelli tries to reconcile the two sides. 1924 Signature of the Vatican's Concordat with Bavaria. A concordat is an agreement between the Vatican and a temporal power (or a state) on a variety of issues, mainly political and economic. 1925 Pacelli leaves Munich and settles in Berlin. He celebrates his ordination's silver jubilee. 1926 Consecration of the six first non-white bishops by Pius XI. Mgr. Pacelli's popularity in Germany soars. Crowds of young German Catholics enthusiastically attend his speeches. Pacelli receives a gift from his lay-followers of an electric horse that he rides in his breeches and jacket. 1927 Pius XI condemns Action Française, an antiSemitic, ultra-nationalist group in France. An internal memorandum circulated within the rising Nazi party forbids all statements about religion. In the Reichstag Hitler German Society Timeline March-April: A general strike and an uprising organized by two communist parties inflame Germany-the uprising was plotted by Bela Kuy, a special envoy from Moscow. The Pravda, the Russian Communist Party's daily newspaper, pays tribute to the German proletariat for its struggle "(...) to help the Soviet Power, under the Soviet Union's directions for alliance and under the supervision of the communists..." April: The Allies establish the bill to be paid by Germany as war reparations: it adds up to 132 billion Marks (the equivalent of 33 billion US Dollars). The mark goes from 4 marks for 1 dollar, to 75 for a dollar and then 400 for a dollar. Herman Goering, an aviator and a national icon, is fascinated by Hitler. He joins the party and contributes generously to the party's funding. 1922 Mussolini takes power in Italy and establishes a fascist dictatorship. Russia becomes the USSR and Stalin is appointed Secretary of the Socialist Party of the USSR. In Germany, from 1919 to 1922, 376 political figures are assassinated. October: The German government requests the Allies to grant them a moratorium for all payments due, but the French government -led by Poincaré- refuses. Germany does not deliver the wood it owes to France and Poincaré retaliates by sending troops to occupy the Ruhr. The Germans are momentarily united and declare a gener Religion Timeline declares that the Church is indivisibly part of the nation's life ; privately he says he will rid Germany of Christianity because one is "either a Christian or a German ". 1925 Pius XI condemns anti-Semitism. The Opus Dei is founded by Escriva de Balaguer. It is described as "... the holy and immaculate remnants of the true Church... founded to... save the Church and the Papacy" 1929 Pacelli is ordained Cardinal after having spent 12 years in Germany. He asks to remain in Germany but Pius XI refuses. Pacelli is made Secretary of State for the Vatican -- the most powerful man in the Vatican after the Pope. On the day he leaves Germany, Pacelli is saluted by thousands of young Catholic Action Christians, who hold torches aloft along the Rauchstrasse. Flags are hung at half-mast in his honour. Hindenburg tells Pacelli : "You have been the hope of the German people". An agreement with Italy makes the Vatican an autonomous state with its own diplomatic pouch and postal services. 1930 German Protestant youth counts 700,000 members. German Catholic youth claims 1,500,000 members. The priest of Kirschausen parish gives the following guidelines to his parishioners: 1) no Catholic should take a Nazi party membership card German Society Timeline al strike, but the French army brutally retaliates by arrests, deportations and executions. 1923 In Germany, the Mark crumbles and massive strikes quickly follow. The economy is choked and the Mark falls to 15000 for a dollar, 160 000 for a dollar and finally collapses down to a million marks for a dollar. Aborted putsch-attempt by Hitler that will however make him famous all over Germany. October: workers start an armed uprising: "German October". The intent behind this insurrection is to overthrow the Republic and settle a soviet-type regime -much in the same way than Red October- succeeds only partially. It is ultimately repressed, killing and wounding thousands in its wake. November: the rates collapse to 4 billion marks for a dollar. Hitler believes that the timing is right for him. He gathers all fascism-oriented organizations and atempts, with General Ludendorff, a putsch in Bavaria. The putsch fails and both-Ludendorff and Hitler-are arrested. 1924 Hitler is in prison, and uses his trial as a platform for his ideas. Frantz Güntner, a friend of the Minister of Justice, is instrumental in encouraging the Court to some leniency. In spite of his crime, that of high Religion Timeline 2) no member of the Hitlerian party should tale part in the parish's religious events 3) a catholic with a Nazi party card should not be given the sacraments. The Kirschausen priest's superior approves the Nazi party's racial policy and the Kirschausen affair creates a stir. The Bavarian episcopate tries to tone thins down with the Bishops of Cologne, UpperRhineland and Raderborn. 1931 Anticlerical riots in Spain. Pius XI issues his 2nd encyclical against fascism. It is considered as an outrage in Mussolini's Italy. Though after the war, some claimed that this encyclical was inspired by Pacelli, it was in fact written by hand by Pius XI on 75 leaflets. The German Catholic newspaper Die Arbeit attacks Nazi ideology, branding it as "a flagrant and clear contradiction with the Church". German Chancellor Brüning, a Catholic, is pressured by Pacelli to resume talks on a German Protestant Concordat. Brüning finds it hard to accept that a Catholic Chancellor be involved in the signature of a Protestant Concordat and refuses. Pacelli urges Brüning to "build a right wing team that would accept to discuss the Concordat", implying that Brüning should let the Nazis enter the government. Brüning refuses again. In his memoirs, Brüning notes that "the Vatican would have had a much better deal with Hitler than with me, a fervent Catholic" German Society Timeline treason, he is sentenced to only 5 years of imprisonment (he will, in fact, be freed 9 months later). Hitler has now become a national icon and a heroic patriot. From his prison at the fortress of Landsberg, he finishes writing Mein Kampf. He promises the Bavarian authorities he will continue his political struggle within the boundaries of the law and is granted the right to hold political meetings and to publish his diaries, the "Vôlkischer Beobachter". (February 1925). 1925 78 year-old Marshall Hindenburg, a highly respected figure among the military, is elected Reich President. Stalin removes Trotski from power. October: release of the first volume of Mein Kampf (7S2 pages). 23,000 copies are sold. (6913 copies sold in 1926; 5607 in 1927; 3015 in 1925; 54056 in 1930; 90351 in 1931; 4 million copies sold from 1931 to 1941 - Source: American Historical Review). Hitler explains in great detail his views on persecution, racism, rejection and hatred of the Jews. These ideas are nothing new: they were already referred to at the creation of the nazi party. "(...) No intellectual would read Mein Kampf. And when they did, it was only to mock it. The others did not have the patience to read till the end..." During a convention, Goebbels, who believed in the idea of Germany moving closer to the USSR, demands that " Adolf Religion Timeline 1932 The President of the German Catholic Zentrum Party, Mgr Kaas, goes to the Vatican to request approval for allying his party closer with Hitler's national socialists. The Jesuit order is dissolved in Spain. 1933 March: The German Protestant Churches officially recognize Hitler and his regime. Their leaders demand a similar agreement to the one negotiated with the Catholics. April : Beginning of the Nazi orchestrated boycott of Jewish businesses throughout Germany. Mgr Faulhuder writes to Pacelli to express his regrets about these events. Though he believes that the Jews can deal with this situation on their own, he points out to Pacelli that it is "particularly painful and unfair that even baptised Jews who have become faithful Catholics remain Jews in the eyes of the law and, for this reason, that doctors and lawyers are losing their positions". July : A Concordat with the Third Reich is negotiated by Vatican Secretary of State Pacelli. Hitler declares to his Cabinet that "the Concordat, the content of which I have no interest for, has created for us an environment of trust that is most useful to our uncompromising struggle against Judaism". Pacelli vigorously denies Hitler's allegations about the Concordant in two articles in the Osservatore Romano. The Catholic Zentrum party president Mgr. Kaas, who is close to Pacelli, accedes to Hitler's request and has his party vote their full powers to Hitler, effectively ending German Society Timeline Hitler, the little bourgeois" be expelled from the party. Hitler manages to win him over and will later make him his propaganda guru. In 1944, Goebbels will follow Hitler into death, by committing suicide with his wife, after having killed his 6 children by injection. 1926 Hitler creates the nazi party militias: the SS. October: Goebbels is made Gauleiter (governor) of Berlin, by Hitler, at the age of 29. They plan to conquer the German capital, which they consider as a "red" stronghold. Goebbels rapidly becomes one of the pivotal figures of the nazi party. 1927 The rightwing parties in Germany have a political amnesty voted with the help of the communists. This allows Goering to come back to Germany (he lived in Sweden since the 1923 putsch attempt) and to introduces Hitler to the aristocratic circles. Hitler selects Goering to be one of the 12 nazi members of parliament at the Reichstag. 1925 TrotsBi is deported to Siberia. The Nazi Party counts 150 000 members and achieves a score of 2,6% of the votes at the elections. 1929 France occupies the Ruhr. Religion Timeline Catholic participation in German parliament. The historian O. Chadwick labels this action as "one of the most controversial ones in German history". Goebels claims in his diaries that Mgr Kaas granted his party's voting powers to Hitler in exchange for Hitler signature on the Concordat between the Reich and the Vatican so that, per the Concordat's stipulation ("it is agreed the Church has the right to levy taxes for the German Society Timeline The stock exchange in New York collapses: it's the Wall Street crash. Repercussions in Germany -the Republic of Weimar- are catastrophic. Stalin seizes full powers in the USSR. Hitler finds what he considers to be the per fect leader for the SS: Heinrich Himmler, a chicken-raising farmer from the village of Church"), the Vatican's powers of taxationWaldtrudering, near Munich. The SS count in Germany would be preserved.only 200 men, but Himmler quickly reorga nizes and recruits. In his sermons, the bishop of Munich Mgr Faulhuder condemns the humiliations orga nized against the Jews. Berhnard Lichtenberg, a priest of the Berlin dioceses energetically protests against anti-Semitism and violations of human rights. He will be imprisoned and will die in Dachau in 1943. November: The Berlin Nuncio Bafallo di Torregroffo salutes Hitler and says to him "For a long time, I did not understand you Today I do..." 1934 Pius XI condemns German racist books. February: The Vatican bans the racist book The 20th Century Myth by Alfred Rosemberg. May: Pacelli writes a memorandum to Buttman : "Why doesn't the Reich use its dictatorial powers to have the Concordat enforced by regional governments". 1935 Ex-Chancellor Brüning, a Catholic, says about the Concordat: "Pius XI was not behind the agreement with Hitler. It was the 1930 Elections in Germany: the Nazis jump from 500,000 votes to 6,4 million. They are now 107 in Parliament. End of the Allied occupation of Germany. In France, the Maginot defense line starts to be built. 1931 Birth of Rolf Hochhuth. In Germany unemployment figures soar: 5,615,000 unemployed. At the previous count there were 4,450,000 unemployed. Hitler travels all across Germany and meets face to face with the leading figures in the business world. He decides to approach and mingle with industry tycoons. All these contacts are taken in total secrecy. (Otto Dietrich and William L. Schiller) A Republic is proclaimed in Spain. Religion Timeline Vatican bureaucracy and its chief Pacelli", Mein Kampf is (still) not banned by the Vatican. 1936 Pacelli is triumphantly welcomed in the United States. He meets with Roosevelt right after Roosevelt's election. Pacelli also meets Joseph Kennedy and his children John, Robert and Edward whom he blesses. Though the idea of a US Vatican Embassy was suppressed in 1567 by the Senate on the grounds that it would be too expensive, Mgr. Pacelli manages to have the United States send an unofficial Ambassador to the Vatican. Roosevelt makes Myron Taylor -a wealthy businessman and a personal friend of his- an unpaid representative of the President to the Vatican. 1937 Pius XI writes an encyclical against National Socialism and Nazi neo-paganism in German. It is titled in my harrowing anxiety. The pontiff affirms the Church's will to defend all fundamental human rights and compares the concepts of race to pagan idols. 5 days later another encyclical by Pius XI is published, this time against communism. July: the German ambassador Von Bergen relates his meeting with Pacelli as follows: "The declarations of the Cardinal and Secretary of State Pacelli during my visit are strikingly different from the Pope's attitude... Our meeting was of private nature... Pacelli told me insistently that relations with us should become normal and friendly as soon as possible and that he felt very strongly about the German people. He was ready at any moment to meet with leading figures German Society Timeline 1932 German industrial production collapses by 42%; there are more than S million workers unemployed. May: Chancellor Brüning resigns and the leftwing parties (marxists, communists and socialist) achieve a score of 38% at the elections. Hitler and the Nazi Party get 37,4% and 230 seats in Parliament. They are supported by a private army of 400,000 brown shirts (SA) and black shirts (SS). Hindenburg is re-elected President at the age of 82. First face-to-face meeting between Hitler and Hindenburg. President Doumer is assassinated in France. Lebrun becomes President and Salazar installs a dictatorship in Portugal. 1933 Volkische Boebachter, the nazi party's official newspaper says: " Our führer's boob offers the final and definitive principles of national-socialist conceptions for the present and the future(...) It is the very essence of national-socialism (...) From now on, it must become the German people's BIBLE". January: Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany. The Reichstag burns down, the first camps are created and boobs by Jewish authors start to be burnt. The National Socialist party is proclaimed the unique party. Hitler has full powers. Religion Timeline such as the Minister for Foreign Affairs or President-Minister Güring". Because he had publicly condemned Nazi anti-Semitism, the Jesuit Ruper Mayer is imprisoned for 6 months. He will subsequently be sent to a concentration camp for political prisoners, and ultimately will be placed under house arrest in a Benedictine monastery. Pacelli goes to Lisieux and males a speech about the Christian calling in France. 1935 May: As the World Eucharistic Congress takes place in Budapest the Hungarian Prime-Minister Bela Imredy, a well-known anti-Semite, discusses anti-Semitic legislation with the Hungarian Parliament. Shortly after the Anschluss - the annexation of Austria -Admiral Miklos Horthy, the regent, expresses his will for Hungary to be a satellite of Germany. Himmler had forbidden the Germans from going to the World Eucharistic Congress. Regarding the Third Reich Pacelli declares "In the planning of its destiny within the boundaries designed by Creation and Redemption, every people finds its own particular way by following the unwritten laws of necessity... as it is often advised or even forced to do by its own strengths, inclinations and general situation..." He then adds "...Unlike the enemies of Jesus who cried "Crucify him!", we sing hymns to him ..." Pius XI orders the preparation of an encyclical titled The Unity of Mankind. Its goal is to condemn Nazi racism and anti-Semitism. Three Jesuits are in charge of writing it: German Society Timeline Germany and Japan resign from the League of Nations. April: Goering creates the Gestapo. The New York Evening Post : "Since the nazis arrival to power, the anti-Jew campaign has been a continuing encouragement to pogrom and murder. Hundreds have been beaten, tortured and in some cases billed. Thousands are fleeing abroad. 600,000 German Jews live in terror." June: President Roosevelt admits his powerlessness: " (...) The German authorities are treating the Jews in an outrageous manner, and the American Jews are revolted, but this is out of the United States' scope. We can only protect American citizens..." (Ambassador Dodd's diary). 1934 Hitler is proclaimed Reich Führer (Chief of State) and supreme chief of the armed forces. Night of the Long Knives (June 30). Ernst Rühm, the leader of the SA, and several of his lieutenants are assassinated upon Hitler's orders. The Army is satisfied and the SS become the backbone of the Party and its elite. The nazi government starts its sterilization policy in order to prevent transmission of hereditary diseases. Within the 4 following years, 200,000 patients will be sterilized. 1935 The Nuremberg racist laws are promulgated. Religion Timeline Gustav Hundlach (a German), Gustave Desbuquois (a Frenchman) and John Farge (an American) who previously wrote Interracial Justice, a book against racism. The document is handed to Pius XI on February 9, 1939, days before his death. November: Pius XI protests the continuing violations of human rights in fascist countries. Pacelli writes to Hitler to request that `the rights of God and man be preserved" Crystal Nacht. No official reaction from the German Church. Only one voice rises in favor of the persecuted: the dean of SaintHedwige Cathedral in Berlin, Bernard Lichtenberg. He asks his parishioners to pray for the Jews and warns: "We know what happened yesterday... What will happen tomorrow, we do not know..." The Westminster Archbishop requests formal approval from the Vatican to hold a meeting in order to request help and assistance for the persecuted. Vatican Secretary of State, Mgr Pacelli replies : " The Holy Father has so many concerns at this time, not only because of his health but also with all the problems he must take charge of, that he cannot personally see to the requested message. He does however invite his Eminence to feel certain he is correctly interpreting His Honoured thoughts by affirming that the Pontiff of Rome considers with a loving and Christian eye all works of charity and assistance towards those who are unjustly put to suffering and affliction" Two months later the rector of the Catholic University of Milan and director of the journal Vita a pensiero, Father Agostino Gemelli is invited to speak at the University of German Society Timeline In Rauschning, Hitler speaks about the techniques involved in the "duty to depopulate"... This should, according to him, prevent the intolerable proliferation of inferior races, notably Slavs, Jews and Gypsies. Hitler also foresees the worst enslavement of all for the Russians as soon as they will be defeated. He also promises a paradise-like existence to the German colonizers who will populate Europe. Italy invades Ethiopia and Chang Kai-shek becomes President of China. 1936 Hitler militarizes Rhineland, thus violating the Versailles Treaty. Roosevelt is re-elected President of the United States. The Berlin Olympics are a huge success. Hitler watches part of the Olympics on television, a piece of technology that was developed for the first time for the Games and for him. The Berlin-Rome Axis is created and the French leftwing leader Leon Blum leads the first Popular Front (Front Populaire) Government. The extreme rightwing shouts: "Better Hitler than Blum" At the League of Nations, in Geneva, Stefan Lux, a German Jewish journalist, commits suicide in the middle of a plenary session. He was trying to draw the world's attention on the persecution of Jews in Germany. He had previously written letters to many leading figures of the world, among which the King of England. But the Swiss newspapers Religion Timeline Bologna. He expresses his thoughts about the Jews: "With no doubt tragic and painful is the situation of those who cannot belong by blood or religion to this magnificent nation : once again, as on many other occasions through the centuries, we see the terrible sentence the God-billing people has brought upon itself ; a sentence that males them wander through the world, unable to find the peace of a homeland as they are followed by the consequences of their crime, for always and everywhere". 1939 Pius XI dies just before he is to deliver a violent speech against fascism to the Italian prelates. The French Cardinal Tisserand is convinced it is an assassination. The Pope's doctor, Petracci who also is the father of Mussolini's mistress Clara Petracci, declares the cause of the pontiff's death a massive asthmatic heart attach. Pacelli is elected Pope on March 2. He is declared Pope Pius XII. According to Mgr Tisserand, this is a bad choice. The Ambassador of the third Reich, Diego Von Bergen, is the first diplomat to have an audience with the newly appointed pope. On April 20, upon Pius XII's request, the Berlin Nuncio Mgr Orsemigo throws a lavish reception for Hitler's fiftieth birthday. Pius XII resurrects The Vatican Intelligence Service in order to know of "the miseries of the world". The service was created in 1917 under Pacelli's guidance and run by Mgr Tedeschini. Pius XII sends a congratulation message to German Society Timeline barely mention this news: they label Stefan Lux as "psychologically weak". 1937 Hitler's air force crushes the city of Guernica in Spain: 2000 dead. Near the first concentration camps for political prisoners a specific section is created for the Jews. Most of them are accused of "rape on young Aryan women". Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister of Great-Britain. 1935 Hitler males the announcement that he will personally take command of all armed forces. The ranking officers are furious, but they submit. On March 12, Hitler decrees the Anschluss (the unification of Austria to Germany). He is greeted as a saviour. A referendum ensues: 99,37% of Austrians support the unification. The Munich International Conference gathers Chamberlain, Daladier, Mussolini and Hitler. So as to avoid a widespread conflict, the democratic countries sign a treaty with Hitler and grant him the right to annex the Sudetes. This treaty is reason enough to spur great hope in Great Britain and in France. On Hitler's end however, it is an encouragement to continue his expansionist policy. Anti-Semitic laws promulgated in Italy. Religion Timeline Franco for the "Catholic victory" in Spain immediately following the Spanish fascist's election. 1940 Myron Taylor is appointed as Roosevelt's official representative at the Vatican. Pius XII protests against the invasion of Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg. He does not however protest against the invasion of Norway and Denmark where there are only 2000 Catholics, according to the Osservatore Romano. Nazi governor Hans Frank imprisons or deports 5 of the 6 bishops of Poland. Aproximately 2000 priests are arrested. Pius XII will never condemn these acts. May : Mgr Tisserand writes to the Archbishop of Paris Mgr Suchard : "I fear the Holy See will one day be accused by History of having achieved not much else than a policy of convenience in its own interest. This is very sad, especially when one has known the papacy of Pius XI. " During the war, Pius XII will exchange 124 letters with the German bishops. All will be written by hand, 103 in German, the others in Latin. 18 letters will be written to Mgr Von Preysing, bishop of Berlin alone. May: Pius XII designates fascist Croatia a " stronghold of Christianity". He meets with Ante Pavelic, leader of the Croatian fascist state. Pavelic has started a terror and extermination campaign with Croatian Catholics and oustachis against Orthodox Serbians, Jews and Gypsies : from 1941 to 1945 457,000 Serbians, 27,000 Gypsies and German Society Timeline May: Mackenzie King, Prime Minister of Canada writes the following: " Hitler and Mussolini have truly sought to give the masses possibilities for entertainment, a taste for the arts, in order to seduce them..." In Italy, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion are released with an additional chapter titled "The Jews in Italy" as well as an alphabetical list of 9500 Jewish families. Churchill writes several letters to Mussolini in an attempt to convince him not to associate with Hitler. 9-10 November: Crystal Night (Kristallnaeht). 267 synagogues are devastated and burnt down. 7400 shops are vandalised, a hundred are billed, and many more are wounded. Around 30,000 Jews are arrested. 11,000 are sent to Dachau and 10,000 to Buchenwald. In Austria, 42 synagogues are destroyed, 27 Jews are billed and 6,500 people are deported to Dachau. The Jewish German community is sentenced to pay the Reich a 1 billion Mary fine. (Rosetta Loy). 1939 Birth of Jean-Claude Grumberg. Joseph Kennedy, father to John Fitzgerald and ambassador of the United States to the Court of Saint James (1937-1940) declares that the Jews persecuted by the nazi laws have deserved it. He believes in Hitler's victory. (The Kennedys, Documentary by Ph. Whitehead and M. H. Mellowos). The German army invades Prague and Religion Timeline 30,000 to 45,000 Jews were killed in the camps. The Yugoslavian delegate in the Vatican warns the Pope about atrocities committed against the Serbs. No action whatsoever is taken by Pius XII or the Croatian bishops to stop the massacres. The President of the Jewish Community, Alatri, writes to Mgr Maglione at the Vatican to ask him to intervene with the Croatians but receives no response. 1941 Reacting to Mgr Von Galen's condemnation of the practice of euthanasia on mental patients, Pius XII tells the bishop of Berlin Mgr Von Preysing that he made "the highest authority of the Curia speak as shortly and temperately as possible" . January : Mgr Von Preysing writes to Pius XII : " His Holiness is certainly informed about the situation of the Jews in Germany and the neighbouring countries. On the protestant side as well as on the Catholic one, I am asked if the Holy See could address an appeal in favour of these poor people " February: Mgr Orsenigo the Nuncio in Berlin informs the Vatican that the German Jews -men, women, children, elderly peopleare being sent to remote regions of Poland. The Archbishop of Vienna Mgr Inmitzer writes to Pius XII to inform him that 60,000 Jews from Vienna, 11,000 of whom are converts, have begun being deported. He specifies in his letter that "Their age and their religion are not taken into account". He urgently asks the Holy See to intervene so that they can be given visas for Brazil and the USA. Pius XII sends 2000 dollars. German Society Timeline Czechoslovakia is dismantled. The Waffen SS, an elite military unit, is created. This organization attracts many foreign volunteers. The military alliance between Germany and Italy is signed and the Germany-Soviet Union Pact is signed. Invasion of Poland. The country is divided and shared between the Germans and the Russians. Stalin invades Finland. World War 2 is triggered. A bootleg version of Mein Kampf is published in the United States, the German publisher having forbidden its re-release. At its first release, 500,000 copies were sold. 1940 Hitler invades Denmark, Norway and then, Holland, Belgium and the Luxembourg. Paris is occupied and full powers are voted to Pétain. The Vichy regime is born. June: Italy declares war to France and Great Britain. Mgr Maglione, Secretary of State of Pius XII asks London not to bomb Rome. London promises to avoid bombing the Vatican. DeGaulle makes his appeal to resist against the invader. July: in a triumphant speech, Hitler calls upon the British to make peace. Churchill's response is : "Go back to your borders of January 1935" August 15 : the Battle of England starts. Religion Timeline March: Cardinal Maglione, Pius XII's Secretary of State is in contact with a number of Nuncios with whom he discusses the persecution by the Nazis of Catholics all over Europe. This includes closing of religious schools, deportations, vandalism, attacks against the clergy, imprisonments and executions of priests and religious leaders. This detailed report proves that the Vatican was well informed about the repression of the Church. April : The exiled primate of Poland Mgr Hlood informs Pius XII that "...the Poles are enslaved, abandoned to Hitlerian savagery... This must be brought to the conscience of Humanity". The President of Poland writes to Pius XII and describes a "persecution second to none in human history... Millions of human beings are at stake." He implores the Pope for assistance. Pius XII replies three months later. He explains he has "tried everything in both the material and the spiritual worlds " and ends his letter with his "good hopes that divine pity and the arm of the Almighty will end the days of pain ". Adolf Wagner, the Bavarian Minister of Education, decides to ban the cross, praying and religious songs from schools. Many women threaten to withdraw their children from school. Their protest becomes known as the "mothers' revolt ". Wagner gives up: the crosses will stay. June: At the Saint-Louis Church in Vichy, Jesuit father Dillard invites his parishioners to pray for the war prisoners and also for the "50,000 French people that are mistreated because a yellow star has been pinned on them" Though Father Dillard will continue his acts of courage he will pay for it with his life at Dachau. German Society Timeline Pétain meets with Hitler in Montoire. The principle of collaborating with the Germans agreed upon. An exceptional event: Roosevelt is reelected for the third time. September: the pact between Germany, Italy and Japan is made public. It specifies that Asia will be Japanese and Europe will be Italian and German. December: Himmler and Heydrich have been given the spoken order by Hitler to prepare the "Final Solution". These plans were for all the Jews in Europe, including those from countries yet to be invaded. Himmler explains to the SS why there will never be a written order. 1941 The Einsatzgruppen-special unit-follows the Wermacht and systematically executes the Jews. February: The British Secret Service crack the code of the German railway system thanks to Enigma. (W. Hagneur, p.lOS) June: Hitler invades the USSR. From June to December, 500,000 Jews are executed in the East of Poland and the West of Russia. In the meanwhile, Hitler sends out the order to carry out the extermination of the Jews and the Gypsies in all countries under nazi authority. Reinhart Heydrich receives the order to organize the total solution to the Jewish problem within Germany's European zone of influence. Religion Timeline July: Hitler declares that "Christianity is the worst disease to have plagued mankind. Bolshevism is the bastard child of Christianity. Both are the monstrous spawn of Judaism." From August 1940 to January 1941 70,000 mental patients are killed mainly in gas chambers like the one at Hadamar Hospital. The German public is aware of this euthanasia -aka "compassion"- program. Mgr Von Galen complains to the authorities. Because he is ignored, he gives sermons against euthanasia. Most Nazi leaders request that he be eliminated. Hitler refuses and has the euthanasia program put to an end. October : Mgr Burzio informs the Vatican that war prisoners in Ukraine are being shot without a trial and that " Jewish civilians are systematically executed without any distinction of age or gender". In March 1942 the Vatican asks Mgr Burzio by telegram (signed by Mgr Tardini) if these crimes are being committed by Catholic Slovaks or Germans. November: The newspaper Témoignage Chrétien is created in Lyon by Pierre Chaillet to lead "the spiritual resistance against Nazism. He led a duel to the death between the swastika cross and the cross of Christ and suffered from the attitude of his Church which remained silent about the nazi threat and made it a duty for the faithful to obey the power in place" (Le Monde) 1942 Pius XII commits the world to "Mary's immaculate heart" to bring peace. February : Father Pirro Stavizzi, a military chaplain on a hospital train, brings the German Society Timeline July: The Planning Committee of the Ministry of Information comes to the conclusion that terror is an irreplaceable element of the country's domestic propaganda: " (...) It should concern the treatment of unquestionably innocent people. Not the violent political contesters and not the Jews". (W. Hagneur p.114) Pétain meets with Goering in St Florentin. The Vichy régime defines a new status for the Jews, which worsens their situation in France. They are required to wear the yellow star. October : in the New York Times, the first article about the killing of Jews is published. It estimates to 10 to 15,000 the number of executions carried out by the Einsatzgruppen. December 7: Pearl Harbor. The USA is officially at war against Japan and Germany. 1942 January : Thomas Mann speaks to the Germans over the BBC: he mentions the use of gas on young Dutch Jews. He denounces "those who deem this as invented horror stories". His conclusion: "They are not stories. They are History". The Wannsee Conference. Eichmann gathers leading representatives of several Ministries who have a role to play in the acceleration of the « Final Solution ». (Walter Lagueur) Belzec, Majdanek, Treblinka, Sobibor and Auschwitz are operating at full capacity by spring and summer. (D.S. Wyman) Religion Timeline Vatican a copy of a letter for Pius XII. The letter, written by the Archbishop of Krakow Adam Sapieha, describes the monstrous crimes committed against Polish clergy and citizens. Father Stavizzi reads this letter to the Pius XII who, according to Father Stavizzi, listens feverishly, then raises his hand and says: "Say to all, all the people you can, that the Pope is in pain for them and with them..." March: The Nuncio of Bratislava Mgr Buzio informs the Vatican that "the deporting of 50,000 people in Poland where they will be at the Germans' mercy is equivalent to sentencing them to death". G.M. Riegner and R. Lichteim from the Jewish Agency in Switzerland meet with Mgr. Bernardini. They inform him about the situation of the Jews. Mgr. Bernardini requests a memorandum so that he can send it to the Vatican. They give him a very detailed written report. May: The World Jewish Congress addresses an appeal to the Pope for him to save the Jews persecuted in Croatia but receives no response. July: British Ambassador to the Vatican Osborne writes in a letter that Pius XII "hopes to play a leading role as a peacemaker, and that it is for this reason -at least partly for this reason- that he is trying to keep a neutral position with the parties at war . Pius XII celebrates his Episcopal jubilee lavishly and has it filmed. German Society Timeline Since early 1942, newspapers had been mentioning the massacres. The New York Times estimate is 100,000 executions in the Baltic states and more than 200,000 in Western Russia. Informed by Szmul Zygielbojm, the Polish Jewish Labor Bund in London, the BBC mentions 700,000 executions. The New York Times quotes this figure and refers to it as "the biggest massacre in history". Roosevelt announces that "just and certain punishment" will be inflicted upon the criminals and the American representative at the Holy See asks if Pius XII could sign a similar declaration. The Pontifical Secretary of State replies that the Vatican has condemned all atrocities in general and cannot specifically condemn a particular one. Roosevelt will not take any concrete measure during the 12 following months. He will end up acting only because of political pressure against his government. (D.D Wyman). The Department of State only allowed 21,000 refugees to enter the USA during all of its three and half year-long war against Germany. This is because of anti-Semitic feelings and hostility against immigration within American society and its representatives in Congress. In 1942, David Riesman writes about antiSemitism that it was "right under boiling level". 4 different polls run in 1943 indicate that 71 to 85% of Americans are hostile to any increase of the refugee quotas. Jewish cemeteries are desecrated, synagogues are damaged, some marked by a swastika, and several Jewish schoolchildren are attacked by teenager gangs. Roosevelt' New Deal is nicknamed Jew Deal. Religion Timeline Jews are rounded up in France. The Archbishops of Toulouse, Lyon, Montauban and many priests protest. The Bishops of Nice, Monaco and Fréjus write to Pétain not to be associated with these protestors. The Vatican remains silent. August: G.M. Riegner of the Jewish Agency in Switzerland sends his second telegram about the Final Solution to the Vatican and to US under-secretary of State S. Welles. Welles forbids its publication. September: Roosevelt's personal representative, Myron Taylor arrives at the Vatican to convince Pius XII that the United States will not lose the war if the Vatican were to be part of the moral crusade against the Nazis. After his meeting with the Pope, Taylor tries to convince the Secretary of State Mgr Tardini. Tardini wrote " ...I acquiesced with a sigh, as someone who is already convinced. I answered that the Pope had already spoken several times to condemn the crimes, whichever their perpetrators..." Ambassador Taylor brings a document to Pius XII in which President Roosevelt informs the Pope of what he knows about the extermination of the Jews. This document confirms what Malvezzi -the President of the Institute for Reconstruction- had told Mgr Montini (who will later become Pope Paul VI). Pius XII remains silent. He considers the situation not documented enough. Taylor's fellow US representative H. Tittman requests an audience with Pius XII in order to discuss the information on the extermination of the Jews. He receives an unsigned note from the Vatican saying that "other sources of information about the harsh measures taken against nonAryans have been brought to the Vatican. But it has not been possible to verify their accuracy". German Society Timeline German Jewish jurist Riegner is a refugee in Geneva: from there, he warns the State Department through Vice-Consul H. Elting about the nazi project to exterminate 3.5 to 4 million Jews. The Vice-Consul defines this news as "a wartime rumor dictated by fear". Lower level State-Department civil servant will brush this information aside, deeming it "totally unbelievable". A more conservative Congress is elected. June: The Daily Telegraph announces that 700,000 Jews have been billed by gas. But in 1916, this newspaper had also said that the Bulgarians had killed 700,000 Serbians with asphyxiating gas. Consequently, this recent piece of news can seem questionable to those with some memory. (Walter Lagueur). July: In Paris 12,884 Jews are rounded up and packed in the Vélodrôme d'Hiver from where they are sent to Drancy, the transit area that leads to Auschwitz. Hitler/Laval meeting in Berchtesgaden and Rommel is defeated in Egypt. At the end of 1942, the Polish minister Henryl Strasburger declares in New York that one million Polish Jews have been exterminated. The German army is stud in Stalingrad. Stalin is defending both his name and his country in this city. Casimir Papée makes an appeal to the Vatican : "The prisoners are put to death by various meansm in places specially designed for this purpose". Religion Timeline October : Myron Taylor meets with Mgr Maglione to inform him about the elimination of the Warsaw Jewish Ghetto. The next day he meets with Vatican Secretary of State Mgr Tardini who tells him "I do not think we have any information to confirm this very serious news... don't you think?" Mgr Maglione tells H. Tittman,: "News coming from other sources about the harsh measures taken against non Aryans have been brought to the Holy See . ...however it has not been possible to verify their accuracy. The Holy See has none the less -as everyone knows- taken every opportunity to alleviate the suffering of the non-Aryans." Father Scavizzi writes to the Vatican about the extermination of the Jews : "... Mass murders without any regard for the children, even when they are still breastfeeding... It is told that more than two million Jews have been killed..." November : Ambassador Osborne states on the BBC : " From what I hear, it is absolute ly true that the Jews are being packed into trains... Freight cars are hermetically sealed. Consequently, after a long journey, most of them are dead. The survivors are extermi nated upon arrival. Everything seems to con firm the unbelievable reports according to which Hitler and Himmler have decided to exterminate all the Jews in Poland, and maybe even in all of Europe." Ambassador Osborne presents Mgr Tardini with an exten sive file about the deporting and executing of the Jews. Mgr Tardini says that "the Pope couldn't take sides". When Osborne insists, Tardini replies : "The Pope couldn't con demn any atrocities in particular...nor could German Society Timeline December: The British Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden states before the House of Commons a memo from the United States, the USSR and Great-Britain. It says that "the German authorities are apparently putting to work Hitler's often-repeated intent to exterminate the Jewish population of Europe". It then mentions a "nazi slaughterhouse", "massive executions" and "gas chambers". (FRUSS. 1942, 1, XII). 1943 As this year starts, more than half of the American population does not believe that the Nazis are systematically slaughtering the Jews (by the end of 1944, most Americans believed that less than 100,000 Jews had been exterminated). Stalingrad becomes the German Army's grave: 200,000 Billed, 90,000 wounded. After this defeat, Hitler will never speak in public again. He lies low. March : Anthony Eden, the British Foreign Secretary is in Washington. He declares this at a meeting: "(...) The whole problem of the Jews in Europe is very difficult... We should move very cautiously about offering to move all the Jews out... Hitler could actually take our word for it... A massive transfer would be very dangerous...' May: US Chief of Staff Adolf Berl comes to the conclusion that nothing besides winning over Hitler's armed forces can be done to save the Jews. (David S. Wyman p.251) Mussolini falls. Religion Timeline he verify the reports of the Allies on the number of Jews assassinated" Christmas: Though great expectations surround Pius XII's annual homily, the words "Nazi ", "Jew" or "concentration camp" are never mentioned. The homily is based on the general idea that the war came as a result of an order "... that showed an unstoppable lust for profit and power". This could apply to both warring parties. About the extermination of the Jewish and Gypsy peoples, he talks about "...hundreds of thousands of people who, by no fault of their own, and sometimes only because of their nationality or race are destined to die or to slowly disappear". The Allies express their very deep disappointment. This will remain as far as Pius XII will ever go into protesting until the end of the war. A few days later Pius XII explains to Tittman that he could not mention the Nazi atrocities without doing the same about the Bolsheviks, which probably would not have pleased the Allies. Mgr Szeptycky from Lvov in Poland, writes to the Pope : " ...The German regime is bad, nearly diabolic at a probably higher degree than the Bolshevik regime. The Jews are their first victims. The number of Jews killed in our little country most probably exceeds 200,000. Baptised Jews, converted and Aryan as they say, have also been the victims of unjustified murders. Crowds of young people are shot. It's just as if a band of madmen or enraged wolves had fallen upon this poor country..." Ambassador Osborne writes to Mac Ewan "A film is being made for world-wide release. It will be called Pastor Angelicus. I can't insist enough on how much I dislike this. It is Hollywood style advertising." PASTOR German Society Timeline The Polish officer Korski manages to enter the Belzec camp, witness what is going on and escape. In London, he tells what he saw, goes to Washington, meets with Roosevelt and explains: "the nazis are set out to exterminate all the Jews in Europe and they have a good start". In the USA, several organizations add their voices to that of the press to inform public opinion about the plight of the Jews. Under the public's pressure, the British and US governments have no other choice but to organize a conference in the Bermuda to examine the refugee problem. It is specified that it will not concentrate on any particular race or religion. Far from the passions of the public, the press and the Jewish organizations, the conference tales place at the Horizons Oceanside resort "set among hibiscus and oleander and lily fields in bloom for Easter". Paying any particular attention to the case of the Jews is strictly forbidden and no measure specific to their case should be taken. The very few journalists present are not allowed to sit in during the debates. The frustrated delegates decide to keep their report and the recommendations made to their governments unpublished. The conference is an utter failure. Szmul Zygielbojm who placed much hope in this conference, commits suicide to protest and to alert public opinion. "By watching passively the murder of defenseless millions, these countries have become accessories to these criminals. Maybe can I contribute to shattering this indifference by my own death..." he wrote. Zygielbojm was also later referred to as tired and psychologically instable. Religion Timeline ANGELICUS is a documentary on Pius XII and his lifework directed by Romolo Marcellini who was at that time the most prominent Italian fascist filmmaker. The film was re-edited after the war to include footage showing Pius XII greeting GIs at St Peter's and images of De Gaulle. The name R. Marcellini will be replaced with the credit "Luigi Gadda". 1943 Croatian fascist leader Ante Pavelic pays yet another official visit to the Pope. Pius XII publishes an Encyclical about the depth of the bible and the nature of the Church : Mystici corporus Christi. An unidentified plane drops a small bomb in the Vatican gardens which begins a rumour that Hitler intends to invade the Vatican. The Reich's new Ambassador to the Vatican Von Weizsiicker warns the Nazi authorities that it would be ridiculous to invade the Vatican. February: Pius XII makes an enlightening presentation about uranium neutrons and atoms before the Pontifical Academy. March: A representative in Slovakia, Mgr Burzio, sends the letter of a priest to the Vatican : " Jews are being massacred here with asphyxiating gas, machine guns and otherwise." The World Jewish Congress Council sends a report to the Vatican outlining "...very dependable information according to which the deliberate extermination campaign against the Jews organised by the Nazis is now at its peak in nearly all European countries under their control..." German Society Timeline October: Jews are rounded up in Rome. 1200 are arrested. 1059 are deported. November: A motion in Congress strongly recommends the creation of an expert panel in charge of designing a plan to avoid the total annihilation of the remaining Jews of Europe by the nazis. After a succession of sadly ridiculous episodes the rescue motion is unanimously voted for in Congress. (D.S. Wyman p.24 to p.270) New adventures, at the Senate this time. The Secretary of Finance intervenes to have the President sign Executive Order 9417 enabling the creation of the War Refugee Board. This was at the end of January 1944, three months after the motion's first mention in Congress. At last, the American government engages in an effective rescue program. Fourteen months have passed since the representative of the Jewish community of New York S. Wise had given the news of the extermination. As the year of 1944 starts, Allied victory is certain. It is only a matter of time. December: A.M.C. Randall who is in charge of the Foreign Office refugee department writes in an internal note (for London and Washington) that "once we will have opened the gates and evacuated Jewish adult males from enemy territories, a totally uncontrollable flood may ensue" (D.S. Wyman p. 253) 1944 January: Three ranking civil-servants from the Treasury Department, Randolph Paul, John Perle and Josiah E. du Bois Jr. participate in the writing of a memorandum titled "Report to the Secretary on the Religion Timeline May : San Lorenzo, in Rome, is bombed. The basilica is half destroyed and there are many casualties. Pius XII arrives immediately. He mixes with the crowd and the wounded. A picture of him in his blood-stained robes is seen all over Italy. Mgr Orsemigo -the Berlin Nuncio- writes to Pius XII asking him to take action in favour of the deported converts. Pius XII's reply "In the present situation we cannot dispatch any efficient assistance other than our prayers". On March 6, he had replied similarly to Mgr Preysing who came to him with the same request. July: Allied landing in Sicily. In a memorandum by the Vatican Secretary of State bearing the date of May 5, 1943 the following appears: "Jews. Terrible situation... Special death camps... transported in hermetically sealed cattle-cars, locked by hundreds in chambers where they end by the effect of gas". September: SS Major Keppler demands 50 kilos of gold to stop the deportation of Jews. The Vatican agrees to contribute, specifying that "it is obvious that this is a loan". Eventually the Jewish community will deliver the gold without any assistance from the Vatican. October: Roundup of the Jews in Rome (operation Judenrein). 400 SS lead this operation, under the command of Theodor Dannaker who is assisted by the Italian fascists. 1059 are deported. Only 17 will survive. 723 other people will be arrested during the ensuing S months. Princess Pignatelli-Aragon warns Pius XII German Society Timeline Acquiescence of this Government in the Murder of the Jews". In this document, it is said -among other things- that "they (the ranking civil-servants of the State Department) did not only do nothing to obtain more information about Hitler's plans to exterminate the Jews of Europe. They went as far as using their official positions to discretely prevent information concerning the extermination of the Jewish population of Europe to arrive". (W. Laqueur p.271) Allied landing in Normandy. Hitler survives an assassination attempt and Rome is liberated by the Allies. The British and American Ministers of War ignore several appeals to bomb the Auschwitz gas chambers and the railroads leading to them. Their objection to this is that this would divert air power from decisive operations that could win the war. At this time however, industrial targets that are part of the Auschwitz complex are bombed at less than S kms from the gas chambers. (D.S. Wyman and other authors) August: Paris is liberated December: A. Leon Kubowitzki from the World Jewish Congress comments his meeting with John Me Cloy, the US Secretary of Defense. Me Cloy: "We are on our own, so tell me the truth. Do you really think that all those horrible things happened?" A.L. Kubowitzki: "(...) His sources of information were better than mine. But he just couldn't imagine this terrible extermination..." Religion Timeline that the Jews are being arrested. She later said that the Pope cried. 10 days later the Osservatore Romano says that "It is well known that the Supreme Pontiff...has never stopped using all available means to alleviate all forms of suffering created by this cruel conflagration." According to the German Ambassador Weiziiclier "pressure was building up on all ends pushing the Pope to openly condemn the deporting of the Jews". Even the German consul Albrecht von Kessel begs of Pius XII to express an "official protest" Mgr Maglione summons Weiziiclier and asks him to do something for these poor people in the name of "humanity and Christian charity". Pius XII has convents opened to harbor Jews that have managed to flee from the roundups. 4000 will take refuge. Mgr Hudal is personally in charge of this. After the war the same Mgr Hudal will help Franz Stangl -commanding officer of TreblinBa- flee. 1944 May: Massive deportation of Hungarian Jews. Eichmann himself is in charge of operations. Angelo Rotta, the Papal Nuncio in Hungary sends a note to the government condemning the treatment of the Jews. This is the first official protest by a papal representative against the deporting of Jews. Pius XII sends a cable to Hungarian President Horthy asking him to take action to "stop the suffering and torment endured by countless people only because of their nationality or race". Roosevelt intervenes vehemently in the same time. The very same day President Horthy informs his cabinet that the "cruelty of deporting" must stop immediately. He also confirms to Pius XII that he will do everything within his power to "have the Christian humanitarian principles prevail". By this time German Society Timeline 1945 January: Yalta agreements. The defeat of the Germans is now unavoidable. Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin decide on what the world will be after victory. February: Goebbels has all the secret documents in relation with the Jews systematically destroyed. (Raoul Hilberg) April: Roosevelt dies. Truman is elected president of the USA. The Reich that had spread from the Atlantic to the Caucasus is now but a 154 Bilometerwide quadrilateral. April 30: Hitler commits suicide. Goebbels also commits suicide with his wife after having killed his 6 children by injection. Berlin falls to the Russians. End of the war in Europe. The German civilian and military losses amount to at least 10 million. German cities are in ruins and the economy is annihilated. August 6: the Americans launch an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. November: the Nuremberg trial starts. The New York Times describes the State Department policy during the war as follows: "The USA, once a land of refuge for the oppressed from Europe have now become nearly as unreachable as the Tibet". During the war, the United States supplied 50 billion dollars-worth of weapons to their Allies, including the USSR. By the end of the war, 60% of the Jews of Europe had been exterminated. most Jews have already been exterminated. Religion Timeline June: Rome is liberated by the end of the month. Pius XII asks the British Ambassador to the Holy See to intervene so that "there be no coloured allied troops in the garrison that could be stationed in Rome". 1945 The election mode of Popes is changed. May: In a speech made to the Sacred College, Pius XII condemns National-Socialism: he criticises this doctrine that has such devastating and immoral effects... for the first time. 1963 Rolf Hochhuth's play "The Representative" is performed in Berlin triggering widespread controversy. The current Pope Paul VI decides to male the 1939-1945 Vatican archives public ahead of schedule. From 1965 to 1951, 11 volumes titled Acts and Documents of the Holy See in relation with World War Two (ADSS) are published. Three Italian historians, Jesuits, made the choices. Their work and methods have been questioned by some. 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