Abstract
The article publishes—for the first time—a letter written in December 1942 in the Sedelhof, Emmenbrücke, near Lucerne, concerning the incarcerated priests in the Dachau concentration camp. Its author is the German refugee Walter Ferber (1907-1996) and its recipient the Apostolic Nuncio in Switzerland, Filippo Bernardini (1884-1954). Bernardini forwards the letter to the Vatican Secretary of State, Luigi Maglione (1877-1944). Maglione’s reply to Bernardini shows that the Vatican knew about the crimes committed in concentration camps since at least December 1942, and explains the lack of public intervention by Pope Pius XII concerning the incarcerated priests in Dachau and, in part, the Nazi extermination policy in general. Despite this lack of public intervention, Pope Pius XII uses the term “the holocaust” (l'olocausto) already in his Christmas message of December 25, 1942.
Ferber, Rafael