Alois Hudal
Encyclopedia
Alois Hudal is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

) was a Rome-based bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

 of Austrian descent. He was for thirty years head of the small Austrian-German congregation of Santa Maria dell'Anima in Rome and until 1937, an influential representative of the Austrian Church. In his 1937 book The Foundations of National Socialism Hudal praised Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...

 and some of his policies and indirectly attacked the policies of the Vatican. After World War II, Hudal became infamous for the "ratline"
Ratlines (history)
Ratlines were a system of escape routes for Nazis and other fascists fleeing Europe at the end of World War II. These escape routes mainly led toward havens in South America, particularly Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay, and Chile. Other destinations included the United States and perhaps...

 he helped to establish, allowing prominent Nazi German
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 and other European former Axis officers
Officer (armed forces)
An officer is a member of an armed force or uniformed service who holds a position of authority. Commissioned officers derive authority directly from a sovereign power and, as such, hold a commission charging them with the duties and responsibilities of a specific office or position...

 and political leaders
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...

, among them war criminals, to escape Allied
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...

 trials and denazification
Denazification
Denazification was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of any remnants of the National Socialist ideology. It was carried out specifically by removing those involved from positions of influence and by disbanding or rendering...

.

A career in Rome

Bishop Alois Hudal was born on 31 May 1885, the son of a shoemaker in the Austria
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...

n city of Graz
Graz
The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...

, where he studied theology (1904–1908) and was ordained
Holy Orders
The term Holy Orders is used by many Christian churches to refer to ordination or to those individuals ordained for a special role or ministry....

 to the priest
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...

hood in July 1908. Though the professorate promised to him at Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

's university was never given, Hudal became a noted specialist on the liturgy, doctrine and spirituality of the Slavic-speaking Eastern Orthodox Churches. He ministered as a parish chaplain in Kindberg
Kindberg
Kindberg is a municipality in the district of Mürzzuschlag in Styria, Austria....

, before leaving to study in Rome. In 1911 he became a Doctor of Sacred Theology
Doctor of Sacred Theology
The Doctor of Sacred Theology is the final theological degree in the pontifical university system of the Catholic Church....

 at the University of Graz
University of Graz
The University of Graz , a university located in Graz, Austria, is the second-largest and second-oldest university in Austria....

. After completing his doctoral studies, he entered the Teutonic College of Santa Maria dell'Anima in Rome where he was a chaplain (1911–1913), attending courses in Old Testament at the Pontifical Biblical Institute
Pontifical Biblical Institute
The Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, Italy is an institution of the Holy See run by the Jesuits that offers instruction at the university level...

. There he took his Doctor of Sacred Scripture degree, on Die religioesen und sittlichen Ideen des Spruchbuches ("The religious and moral ideas of the Book of Proverbs"). This dissertation was published in 1914. He took residency in the faculty for Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...

 Studies at the University of Graz
University of Graz
The University of Graz , a university located in Graz, Austria, is the second-largest and second-oldest university in Austria....

 in 1914. He was an assistant military chaplain during a period of service in the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. In 1917 he published his sermons to the soldiers, Soldatenpredigten (see below, in his selected works), in which he expressed the idea that "loyalty to the flag is loyalty to God", though also warning against "national chauvinism" at that time. In 1923 he was nominated rector of the Collegio Teutonico di Santa Maria dell'Anima (or simply "Anima") in Rome, a theological seminary for German and Austrian priests where he had lodged as a doctoral student. In 1930 he was appointed a consultant to the Holy Office by Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val, whom Hudal in his memoirs considered a "grand seigneur of the Church". In June 1933 Hudal was ordained Titular Bishop of Aela by Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli
Pope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....

, who had succeeded Merry del Val as the cardinal protector of the German national church at Rome. In April 1938, Hudal helped organise a vote of German and Austrian clerics, studying at the German college of Santa Maria dell'Anima, over the question of the German annexation of Austria ("Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....

"). The place of the vote was the German heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer, which anchored in the Italian harbour city of Gaeta
Gaeta
Gaeta is a city and comune in the province of Latina, in Lazio, central Italy. Set on a promontory stretching towards the Gulf of Gaeta, it is 120 km from Rome and 80 km from Naples....

. In contrary to the overall German result, these votes rejected the Anschluss with over 90%, an incident which was nicknamed the "Shame of Gaeta" (Vergogna di Gaeta, Schande von Gaeta) at the time.

Austria or Germany?

The Austrian ambassador Ludwig von Pastor
Ludwig von Pastor
Ludwig Pastor, later Ludwig von Pastor, Freiherr von Campersfelden , was a German historian and a diplomat for Austria. He became one of the most important Roman Catholic historians of his time and is most notable for his History of the Popes...

, highly regarded as a papal historian and enjoying unparalleled access to the Vatican, introduced Hudal to Pius XI and the Vatican
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...

. On April 9, 1922, he first mentioned Hudal by recommending a scholarly Hudal publication on the Serbo-Croatian National Church to the interested Pontiff. On February 5, 1923, he recommended Hudal for the position in the Anima, mainly because he was Austrian
Austrians
Austrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....

. Ambassador
Ambassador
An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....

 von Pastor was concerned that Austria, which had just lost World War I and with it much influence, would lose the Anima for ages to come to a German, Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 or Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 candidate. The Pope agreed to nominate Hudal (in a private audience for Pastor on February 24, 1923). Hudal at once became the Austrian front line for Austria, the Austrian bishops' conference, and Austrian prestige in the Vatican, as German groups continued to attempt to regain the Anima. Pope Pius XI continued to support Hudal, simultaneously rejecting total Austrian hegemony over the Germans. He rejected an Austrian request to subordinate German pastoral care to the Austrian Hudal. In 1924, Hudal, in a rare Vatican ceremony in the presence of Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI , born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, was Pope from 6 February 1922, and sovereign of Vatican City from its creation as an independent state on 11 February 1929 until his death on 10 February 1939...

, Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Gasparri
Pietro Gasparri
Pietro Gasparri was a Roman Catholic archbishop, diplomat and politician in the Roman Curia and signatory of the Lateran Pacts.- Biography :...

 and numerous cardinals
Cardinal (Catholicism)
A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...

, delivered a laudation of Pastor
Ludwig von Pastor
Ludwig Pastor, later Ludwig von Pastor, Freiherr von Campersfelden , was a German historian and a diplomat for Austria. He became one of the most important Roman Catholic historians of his time and is most notable for his History of the Popes...

. The Vatican commemorated the 40th anniversary of the first volume of Pastor's History of the Popes From the Close of the Middle Ages. Thus Hudal was established within the Vatican as the informal but leading Austrian Church representative, a position which he fully enjoyed and employed until the publication of his controversial book on Nazism.

Winds of nationalism and conspiracies

From 1933 on, Hudal embraced publicly the pan-Germanic nationalism he had previously condemned, proclaiming on July of that year that he always wished to be a "servant and herald" of "the total German cause". His invectives against the Jews also became more frequent, linking the so-called "Semitic race" - which allegedly "sought to set itself apart and dominate" - with the nefarious movements of democracy and internationalism
Internationalism (politics)
Internationalism is a political movement which advocates a greater economic and political cooperation among nations for the theoretical benefit of all...

 and even denouncing an alleged Jewish bankers' conspiracy to become "the financial masters of the Eternal City
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

". His opportunism and duplicity are patent in several moves he made at the time. For example, he was capable of writing a preface to an Italian biography of Engelbert Dollfuss
Engelbert Dollfuss
Engelbert Dollfuss was an Austrian Christian Social and Patriotic Front statesman. Serving previously as Minister for Forest and Agriculture, he ascended to Federal Chancellor in 1932 in the midst of a crisis for the conservative government...

 in 1935 without mentioning that the Austrian politician with whom he sympathized had been murdered by Austrian Nazis during a coup attempt in the previous year.

Bolshevism and Liberalism as enemies

Hudal was a committed anti-Communist, but he also vehemently opposed Liberalism
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...

. Before Nazism, he was already highly critical of Parliamentary Democracy. His ideas were most similar to the political and economic ideas of his fellow Austrians Engelbert Dollfuss
Engelbert Dollfuss
Engelbert Dollfuss was an Austrian Christian Social and Patriotic Front statesman. Serving previously as Minister for Forest and Agriculture, he ascended to Federal Chancellor in 1932 in the midst of a crisis for the conservative government...

 and Kurt Schuschnigg
Kurt Schuschnigg
Kurt Alois Josef Johann Schuschnigg was Chancellor of the First Austrian Republic, following the assassination of his predecessor, Dr. Engelbert Dollfuss, in July 1934, until Germany’s invasion of Austria, , in March 1938...

, as well as Franz von Papen
Franz von Papen
Lieutenant-Colonel Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen zu Köningen was a German nobleman, Roman Catholic monarchist politician, General Staff officer, and diplomat, who served as Chancellor of Germany in 1932 and as Vice-Chancellor under Adolf Hitler in 1933–1934...

 in Germany, Salazar
António de Oliveira Salazar
António de Oliveira Salazar, GColIH, GCTE, GCSE served as the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1932 to 1968. He also served as acting President of the Republic briefly in 1951. He founded and led the Estado Novo , the authoritarian, right-wing government that presided over and controlled Portugal...

 in Portugal and, in a less clear way, of Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....

 in Italy. According to an author, "Hudal squarely fitted into a formula current at the time, the category of Clero-Fascism." Don Luigi Sturzo, the exiled Italian Catholic priest
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...

 and Christian Democrat
Christian Democracy
Christian democracy is a political ideology that seeks to apply Christian principles to public policy. It emerged in nineteenth-century Europe under the influence of conservatism and Catholic social teaching...

 leader coined the term 'Clerical-Fascism' in the mid-20s to refer specifically to the faction of the Catholic party Italian People's Party
Italian People's Party (1919–1926)
The Italian People's Party was a Christian-democratic political party in Italy.It was founded in 1919 by Luigi Sturzo, a Catholic priest. The PPI was backed by Pope Benedict XV to oppose the Italian Socialist Party...

 (Partito Popolare Italiano-PPI) who chose to support Mussolini. It was used afterwards to describe various authoritarian situations and regimes supported by members of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, including Dollfuss's politics (see also Clerical Fascism
Clerical fascism
Clerical fascism is an ideological construct that combines the political and economic doctrines of fascism with theology or religious tradition...

 and Austrofascism
Austrofascism
Austrofascism is a term which is frequently used by historians to describe the authoritarian rule installed in Austria with the May Constitution of 1934, which ceased with the forcible incorporation of the newly-founded Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938...

).

Hudal was most concerned about the class conflict tearing apart European society, in particular the rise of the international Communist movement and worker parties in Austria. Fear of "Bolshevism", as Soviet Marxism was called at the time, was his starting point, but this feeling turned into an aggressive political doctrine towards Russia: "Essential to understanding Hudal's politics is his fear that Bolshevist military forces would invade Italy through Eastern Europe or the Balkans and would be unstoppable until they destroyed the Church. Like many within the Church, he embraced the bulwark theory, which placed hope in a strong German-Austrian military shield to protect Rome. This protection involved a pre-emptive attack on godless Communism, Hudal believed, and so he felt an urgent need for a Christian army from Central Europe to invade Russia and eliminate the Bolshevist threat to Rome".

However, Communism was not his sole (and surely not his oldest) concern about Russia, since he was worrying about Eastern Christianity
Eastern Christianity
Eastern Christianity comprises the Christian traditions and churches that developed in the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Asia Minor, the Middle East, Northeastern Africa, India and parts of the Far East over several centuries of religious antiquity. The term is generally used in Western Christianity to...

 as well. In fact, Hudal's long-term goals were also "the reunification of Rome with the Eastern Orthodox Church and the conversion of the Balkans from the Serbian Orthodox Church to Catholicism". He expected that the invasion of the Soviet Union by European forces would also serve these fundamental aims. Especially since Pope Benedict XV
Pope Benedict XV
Pope Benedict XV , born Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa, reigned as Pope from 3 September 1914 to 22 January 1922...

 and the Russian Revolution of 1917
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...

, which crushed the Russian Orthodox Church and was regarded by Catholics as a historical opportunity in order to help Russian Christians with aid "and conversion", Rome was anxious about ending the thousand-year East-West Schism
East-West Schism
The East–West Schism of 1054, sometimes known as the Great Schism, formally divided the State church of the Roman Empire into Eastern and Western branches, which later became known as the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church, respectively...

 that separated Christianity.

"Good" and "bad" National Socialism

Hudal is said to have received a Golden Nazi Party membership badge, but the fact is disputed. In 1937, in Vienna, Hudal published a book entitled The Foundations of National Socialism, with an imprimatur from Archbishop Innitzer, which was an enthusiastic endorsement of Hitler. Hudal sent Hitler a copy with a handwritten dedication praising him as "the new Siegfried
Sigurd
Sigurd is a legendary hero of Norse mythology, as well as the central character in the Völsunga saga. The earliest extant representations for his legend come in pictorial form from seven runestones in Sweden and most notably the Ramsund carving Sigurd (Old Norse: Sigurðr) is a legendary hero of...

 of Germany's greatness". Nevertheless, the book was not allowed to circulate freely in Germany by the Nazis — who generally heavily disliked the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

 and did not wish church officials to "clericalize" their ranks — though the book was not officially banned. During the Nuremberg trials, Franz von Papen
Franz von Papen
Lieutenant-Colonel Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen zu Köningen was a German nobleman, Roman Catholic monarchist politician, General Staff officer, and diplomat, who served as Chancellor of Germany in 1932 and as Vice-Chancellor under Adolf Hitler in 1933–1934...

 declared that, at first, Hudal's book had "very much impressed" Hitler, whose "anti-Christian advisers" were allegedly to blame for not allowing a free German edition. "All I could obtain was permission to print 2,000 copies, which Hitler wanted to distribute among leading Party members for a study of the problem", Von Papen said.

Hudal was highly critical of the works of several Nazi ideologues, like Alfred Rosenberg
Alfred Rosenberg
' was an early and intellectually influential member of the Nazi Party. Rosenberg was first introduced to Adolf Hitler by Dietrich Eckart; he later held several important posts in the Nazi government...

 or Ernst Bergmann, who publicly despised Christianity and considered it "alien to Germanic genius". The condemnation in 1934 by the Holy Office of Reich secretary Alfred Rosenberg's The Myth of the Twentieth Century
The Myth of the Twentieth Century
The Myth of the Twentieth Century is a book by Alfred Rosenberg, one of the principal ideologues of the Nazi party and editor of the Nazi paper Völkischer Beobachter. It was the most influential Nazi text after Hitler's Mein Kampf. The titular "myth" is "the myth of blood, which under the sign of...

and, shortly thereafter, of Ernst Bergmann's The German National Church had in fact been based on Hudal's secret assessment of both works In his own 1937 book, Alois Hudal proposed a reconciliation and a pragmatic compromise between Nazism and Christianity, leaving the education of the youth to the Churches, while the latter would leave politics entirely to National Socialism. This had been the line followed by prominent German Catholic politician and former Reich Chancellor Franz von Papen too. In the autumn of 1934, Hudal had already explained this strategy to Pius XI, who received him in audience: the "good" ought to be separated from the "bad" in Nazism. The bad - that is Rosenberg, Bergmann, Himmler and others - according to Hudal represented the "left wing" of the Nazi party. The "conservatives" - headed, he believed, by Hitler - should be redirected toward Rome, Christianized and used against the Communists and the Eastern danger. Hitler's book, Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf is a book written by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. It combines elements of autobiography with an exposition of Hitler's political ideology. Volume 1 of Mein Kampf was published in 1925 and Volume 2 in 1926...

was never put on the Index
Index Librorum Prohibitorum
The Index Librorum Prohibitorum was a list of publications prohibited by the Catholic Church. A first version was promulgated by Pope Paul IV in 1559, and a revised and somewhat relaxed form was authorized at the Council of Trent...

 by Rome, as censors continually postponed and eventually terminated its examination, balking at taking on the chancellor of Germany.

By 1935, Alois Hudal, however, had become influential in creating a proposed list of "errors and heresies" of the "era", containing several racist
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...

 errors of Nazi politicians, the Nuremberg laws
Nuremberg Laws
The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 were antisemitic laws in Nazi Germany introduced at the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party. After the takeover of power in 1933 by Hitler, Nazism became an official ideology incorporating scientific racism and antisemitism...

, but also condemning several quotes directly taken from Mein Kampf; this list was accepted by Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI , born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, was Pope from 6 February 1922, and sovereign of Vatican City from its creation as an independent state on 11 February 1929 until his death on 10 February 1939...

 as an adequate condemnation, but he wanted an encyclical rather than a mere syllabus. Three years later, in June 1938, the Pope ordered American Jesuit John La Farge to prepare an encyclical condemning antisemitism, racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...

 and the persecution of Jews
Persecution of Jews
Persecution of Jews has occurred on numerous occasions and at widely different geographical locations. As well as being a major component in Jewish history, it has significantly affected the general history and social development of the countries and societies in which the persecuted Jews...

, which he did together with German Jesuit Gustav Gundlach and French Jesuit Gustave Desbuquois, resulting in the famous Humani Generis Unitas
Humani generis unitas
Humani generis unitas was a planned encyclical of Pope Pius XI before his death on February 10, 1939, which condemned antisemitism, racism and the persecution of Jews...

 which was on Pius XI's desk when he died, but was never promulgated by Pius XII.

The reaction of Rosenberg to Hudal's ideas was violent, and eventually the circulation of the Foundations of National Socialism was restricted in Germany. "We do not allow the fundaments of the Movement to be analyzed and criticized by a Roman Bishop" - said Rosenberg. In 1935, even before he wrote the Foundations of National Socialism Hudal had said about Rosenberg: "If National Socialism wants to replace Christianity by the notions of race and blood, we will have to face the greatest heresy of the twentieth century. It must be rejected by the Church as decisively as, if not more severely than [...] the Action Française
Action Française
The Action Française , founded in 1898, is a French Monarchist counter-revolutionary movement and periodical founded by Maurice Pujo and Henri Vaugeois and whose principal ideologist was Charles Maurras...

, with which it shares some errors. But Rosenberg's doctrine is more imbued with negation and creates, above all in the youth, a hatred against Christianity greater than that of Nietzsche".

Despite the restrictions imposed on his book, and despite National Socialist restrictions against German monasteries
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...

 and parishes, and attempts by the Nazi government to forbid Catholic education at schools, going as far as banning the crucifix
Crucifix
A crucifix is an independent image of Jesus on the cross with a representation of Jesus' body, referred to in English as the corpus , as distinct from a cross with no body....

 in schools and other public areas (see the Oldenburg crucifix struggle of November 1936), and despite the Nazi dissolution and confiscation of Austrian monasteries and the official banning of Catholic newspapers and associations in annexed Austria ("Ostmark
Ostmark (Austria)
Ostmark was the name used by Nazi propaganda to replace that of the formerly independent Austria after the Anschluss annexation of that country by Nazi Germany in 1938....

"), Bishop Hudal remained close to some of the Nazi regime's officials, as he was convinced that the Nazi new order would nevertheless prevail in Europe due to its "force". Hudal was particularly close to Franz von Papen
Franz von Papen
Lieutenant-Colonel Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen zu Köningen was a German nobleman, Roman Catholic monarchist politician, General Staff officer, and diplomat, who served as Chancellor of Germany in 1932 and as Vice-Chancellor under Adolf Hitler in 1933–1934...

, who as the Reich's ambassador in Vienna prepared the German-Austrian agreement of 11 July 1936, which some claim paved the way for the Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....

. This agreement was enthusiastically backed by Hudal in the Austrian press, against the position of several Austrian Bishops. The former Centre
Centre Party (Germany)
The German Centre Party was a Catholic political party in Germany during the Kaiserreich and the Weimar Republic. Formed in 1870, it battled the Kulturkampf which the Prussian government launched to reduce the power of the Catholic Church...

 politician Von Papen, who was considered dangerous and disliked by the Nazis for his Catholicism, was later on sent to the German Embassy in Ankara
Ankara
Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million....

.

Vatican reaction

Hudal had received his 1923 appointment, thanks to the very active intervention of the Papal historian and fellow Austrian Ludwig von Pastor
Ludwig von Pastor
Ludwig Pastor, later Ludwig von Pastor, Freiherr von Campersfelden , was a German historian and a diplomat for Austria. He became one of the most important Roman Catholic historians of his time and is most notable for his History of the Popes...

, who died in 1928 and with him an extraordinary Austrian influence in the Vatican. When, in 1937, Hudal published his book on the basic foundations of National Socialism Church authorities were upset, because of his deviations from Church policy and teachings. Hudal in 1937, without mentioning names, had openly questioned the Vatican policy of Pope Pius XI and Eugenio Pacelli towards National Socialism, which culminated in the same year in the encyclical
Encyclical
An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Catholic Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop...

 Mit brennender Sorge
Mit Brennender Sorge
Mit brennender Sorge is a Catholic Church encyclical of Pope Pius XI, published on 10 March 1937 . Written in German, not the usual Latin, it was read from the pulpits of all German Catholic churches on one of the Church's busiest Sundays,...

, in which the Vatican openly attacked National Socialism. The 1937 Hudal book freezes his steady rise in Rome and results in his abdication and removal from the eternal city after the war. His publication like his two previous, less obvious books Rom, Christentum und deutsches Volk (1935) and Deutsches Volk und christliches Abendland (1935) did not have any Imprimatur
Imprimatur
An imprimatur is, in the proper sense, a declaration authorizing publication of a book. The term is also applied loosely to any mark of approval or endorsement.-Catholic Church:...

 or ecclasiastical approval, which was another reason for the cooling off of relations with the Vatican of Pius XI. Hudal had proposed a Faustian bargain between Church and Nazis, a "truly Christian National Socialism": Education and Church affairs remain in the hands of the Church, which in turn recognizes the complete separation of politics to be exclusively National Socialist. The Nazis however had no intentions of giving up education to the Church. Together - according to Hudal - Church and state in Germany would fight against Communism. Hudal sees a direct link between Jews and Marxism and laments their alleged dominance in academic occupations Hudal supports discriminatory segregation
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...

 legislation against Jews in order to protect a people against foreign influences

Break with the Vatican

Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI , born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, was Pope from 6 February 1922, and sovereign of Vatican City from its creation as an independent state on 11 February 1929 until his death on 10 February 1939...

 and Eugenio Pacelli, both attempted first to change Hudal, but after several unsuccessful meetings, broke off all contacts. Hudal, in previous years a popular and influential guest in the Vatican, lived from 1938 on in de facto isolation in the Anima College (which position he was forced to abdicate in 1952). Hudal's 1933 promotion to Bishop has been cited as evidence that he had close ties to members of the Roman Curia
Roman Curia
The Roman Curia is the administrative apparatus of the Holy See and the central governing body of the entire Catholic Church, together with the Pope...

, particularly Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val (an ex-Secretary of State who died in 1930), and Cardinal Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli, the future Pius XII who had previously been Papal Nuncio in Germany. His very close relation to these prelates and to Pope Pius XI stopped immediately after the publication of his book in 1937, which was interpreted as contradicting Mit brennender Sorge
Mit Brennender Sorge
Mit brennender Sorge is a Catholic Church encyclical of Pope Pius XI, published on 10 March 1937 . Written in German, not the usual Latin, it was read from the pulpits of all German Catholic churches on one of the Church's busiest Sundays,...

 and the 1933 Reichskonkordat
Reichskonkordat
The Reichskonkordat is a treaty that was agreed between the Holy See and Nazi government, that guarantees the rights of the Catholic Church in Germany. It was signed on July 20, 1933 by Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli and Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen on behalf of Pope Pius XI and President...

.

Hudal during World War II

His exile within Rome continued during the years of World War II. Bishop Hudal continued as pastoral head of the Anima Church and College but had no position in the Vatican State Department and no access to Pope Pius XII, and his senior staff. The French Jesuit historian, Fr. Pierre Blet, a co-editor of the Acts and Documents, mentioned Hudal only once, stating that the pope's nephew Carlo Pacelli saw Hudal and after this meeting, Hudal wrote to the military governor of Rome, General Stahel, and urged him to suspend all actions against the Jews. The Germans suspended the actions "out of the consideration for the special character of Rome". According to another author, however, the idea of Hudal's intervention came from the German ambassador himself, who asked the rector of the Anima to sign a letter to the military commander of Rome, General Reiner Stahel
Reiner Stahel
Reiner Joseph Karl August Stahel , also known as Rainer Stahel, was a German and Finnish military officer. He is best known for his retreat from Vilna and the command of the garrison of Warsaw during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944...

, requesting that the arrests be halted, otherwise the pope would take a position in public as being against the razzias and the German occupiers. Ambassador Weizsäcker argued that he opted for this ruse because Hitler might have reacted against the Vatican and the pope if it had been the German embassy to convey the warning, instead of the Nazi friendly bishop.

According to several sources, Hudal may at the same time have been a Vatican-based informer of German intelligence under the Nazi regime, for either Abwehr
Abwehr
The Abwehr was a German military intelligence organisation from 1921 to 1944. The term Abwehr was used as a concession to Allied demands that Germany's post-World War I intelligence activities be for "defensive" purposes only...

 of Wilhelm Canaris
Wilhelm Canaris
Wilhelm Franz Canaris was a German admiral, head of the Abwehr, the German military intelligence service, from 1935 to 1944 and member of the German Resistance.- Early life and World War I :...

 or for the RSHA
RSHA
The RSHA, or Reichssicherheitshauptamt was an organization subordinate to Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacities as Chef der Deutschen Polizei and Reichsführer-SS...

. Vatican historian Fr. Robert Graham SJ held that view more categorically in his book Nothing Sacred. Several other authors mention his contacts in Rome with SS intelligence chief Walter Rauff
Walter Rauff
Walter Rauff , was an SS officer in Nazi Germany, attaining the grade of Colonel in June 1944...

. In September 1943, Rauff was sent to Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

, where he took charge of all Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...

 and SD
Sicherheitsdienst
Sicherheitsdienst , full title Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS, or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. The organization was the first Nazi Party intelligence organization to be established and was often considered a "sister organization" with the...

 operations throughout northwest Italy. Hudal is said to have met Rauff then and to have begun some cooperation with him that was useful afterwards in the setting up of an escape network for Nazis, including for Rauff himself. After the war Rauff escaped from a prisoner camp in Rimini
Rimini
Rimini is a medium-sized city of 142,579 inhabitants in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, and capital city of the Province of Rimini. It is located on the Adriatic Sea, on the coast between the rivers Marecchia and Ausa...

 and "hid in a number of Italian convents, apparently under the protection of Bishop Alois Hudal", eventually finding safe haven in Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

 and later in Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

.

Ratline organizer

After 1945, Hudal continued to be isolated in the Vatican. In his native Austria his pro-Nazi publication was now openly discussed and critiqued. In 1945, Allied-occupied Austria
Allied-administered Austria
The Allied occupation of Austria lasted from 1945 to 1955. Austria had been regarded by Nazi Germany as a constituent part of the German state, but in 1943 the Allied powers agreed in the Declaration of Moscow that it would be regarded as the first victim of Nazi aggression, and treated as a...

 forced Hudal to give up his Graz
Graz
The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...

 Professorship, however Hudal appealed on technicalities and regained the title two years later.

Yet, after 1945, Hudal regained additional notoriety by working in the Rat-line, helping former Nazis but also Croatian
Independent State of Croatia
The Independent State of Croatia was a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany, established on a part of Axis-occupied Yugoslavia. The NDH was founded on 10 April 1941, after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers. All of Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed to NDH, together with some parts...

 families to find safe haven in overseas countries. He viewed it as "a charity to people in dire need, for persons without any guilt who are to be made scapegoats for the failures of an evil system". He used the services from the Austrian Office in Rome, which has the necessary cards ("Carta di riconoscimento"), for migration mainly to Arab
Arab world
The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...

 and South American countries.

It is unclear whether he was an official appointee of the Papal refugee organization or whether he acted as de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...

 head of the Catholic Austrian community in Rome. He is credited with helping, networking and organising the escape of war criminals such as Franz Stangl
Franz Stangl
Franz Paul Stangl was an Austrian-born SS commandant of the Sobibor and Treblinka extermination camps during the Operation Reinhard phase of the Holocaust. He was arrested in Brazil in 1967, extradited and tried in West Germany for the mass murder of 900,000 people, and in 1970 was found guilty...

, commanding officer of Treblinka. Stangl himself told Gitta Sereny
Gitta Sereny
Gitta Sereny is an Austrian-born biographer, historian and investigative journalist whose writing focuses mainly on the Holocaust and child abuse. She is the stepdaughter of the economist Ludwig von Mises....

 that he went looking for Hudal in Rome, because he had heard that the bishop was helping all Germans. Hudal arranged quarters in Rome for him until his "Carta di riconoscimento" came through, then gave him money and a visa to Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

. Stangl then left for Damascus
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...

, where the bishop had found him a job in a textile factory.

Other highly prominent Nazi war criminals allegedly helped by the Hudal network were SS captain Eduard Roschmann, known as the "Butcher of Riga", doctor Josef Mengele
Josef Mengele
Josef Rudolf Mengele , also known as the Angel of Death was a German SS officer and a physician in the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. He earned doctorates in anthropology from Munich University and in medicine from Frankfurt University...

, known as the "Angel of Death" at Auschwitz
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...

, Gustav Wagner, commanding officer of Sobibor
Sobibór extermination camp
Sobibor was a Nazi German extermination camp located on the outskirts of the town of Sobibór, Lublin Voivodeship of occupied Poland as part of Operation Reinhard; the official German name was SS-Sonderkommando Sobibor...

, Alois Brunner
Alois Brunner
Alois Brunner is an Austrian Nazi war criminal. Brunner was Adolf Eichmann's assistant, and Eichmann referred to Brunner as his "best man." As commander of the Drancy internment camp outside Paris from June 1943 to August 1944, Brunner is held responsible for sending some 140,000 European Jews to...

, organizer of deportations from France and Slovakia to German concentration camps, and above all Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Otto Eichmann was a German Nazi and SS-Obersturmbannführer and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust...

, the man who had been put in charge of implementing the murder of European Jewry. In 1994 Erich Priebke
Erich Priebke
Erich Priebke is a former Hauptsturmführer in the Waffen SS. In 1996 he was convicted of war crimes in Italy, for participating in the massacre at the Ardeatine caves in Rome, on March 24, 1944...

, a former SS captain, told Italian journalist Emanuela Audisio, La Repubblica, that Bishop Hudal helped him reach Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

, which has been verified by church historian Robert Graham SJ.

In 1945 Hudal gave refuge in Rome to Otto Wächter
Otto Wächter
The Baron Otto Gustav von Wächter , was an Austrian lawyer and later German SS officer and National Socialist official...

, who had played a leading role in the July Putsch of 1934 in Austria, which led to the assassination of anti-Nazi Austrian autocrat Engelbert Dollfuss
Engelbert Dollfuss
Engelbert Dollfuss was an Austrian Christian Social and Patriotic Front statesman. Serving previously as Minister for Forest and Agriculture, he ascended to Federal Chancellor in 1932 in the midst of a crisis for the conservative government...

. In 1938-1939, he headed the "Wächter-Kommission", the government body named after him that was responsible for the dismissal and/or compulsory retirement of all Jewish officials in Austria. From 1939 on, as governor of the Cracow district, Wächter organized the persecution of the Jews and ordered the establishment of the Cracow Ghetto in 1941. Wächter is mentioned as one of the leading advocates in the General Government
General Government
The General Government was an area of Second Republic of Poland under Nazi German rule during World War II; designated as a separate region of the Third Reich between 1939–1945...

 who were in favor of the Jewish extermination by gassing and as a member of the SS team who under Himmler's supervision and Odilo Globocnik
Odilo Globocnik
Odilo Lotario Globocnik was a prominent Austrian Nazi and later an SS leader. He was an acquaintance of Adolf Eichmann, who played a major role in the extermination of Jews and others during the Holocaust...

's direction planned Operation Reinhard
Operation Reinhard
Operation Reinhard was the code name given to the Nazi plan to murder Polish Jews in the General Government, and marked the most deadly phase of the Holocaust, the use of extermination camps...

, the first phase of the Final Solution
Final Solution
The Final Solution was Nazi Germany's plan and execution of the systematic genocide of European Jews during World War II, resulting in the most deadly phase of the Holocaust...

, leading to the death of more than 2,000,000 Polish Jews. After the war Wächter lived in a Roman monastery "as a monk", under the protection of Bishop Hudal. He died on July 14, 1949, in the Roman hospital of Santo Spirito "in the arms" of Bishop Hudal.

Whether Hudal worked as Austrian Church Representative or was one of twenty appointees in the POA is not documented. Such an appointment should be viewed not as elevation but as a humiliation, since Bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

 Hudal would have been subjected to taking orders from the regular priest
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...

s and lower level Monsignor
Monsignor
Monsignor, pl. monsignori, is the form of address for those members of the clergy of the Catholic Church holding certain ecclesiastical honorific titles. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian monsignore, from the French mon seigneur, meaning "my lord"...

s who headed the POA after 1945. The Vatican, which was involved in helping over twelve million refugees and expellees in post-war Europe, was at that point less concerned with the political views of each individual who was participating in the gigantic effort to save millions of people from possible starvation and death. The ratline was possible in the context of the enormity of this task and the resulting general confusion at several levels. Some historians take the view that Hudal was only a small player whose ratline
Ratlines (history)
Ratlines were a system of escape routes for Nazis and other fascists fleeing Europe at the end of World War II. These escape routes mainly led toward havens in South America, particularly Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay, and Chile. Other destinations included the United States and perhaps...

 activities did not reflect any official policy at all. In particular, Catholic historians like Robert A. Graham (1913–1997) - an American Jesuit and a longtime Vatican operative who was co-editor of the 11-volume Acts and Documents of the Holy See relative to the Second World War - estimated Hudal as "small fish" and as someone who was acting on his own behalf and due to his personal convictions.

While his official status was a minor one, Hudal clearly played a role in the rat line. In 1999, Italian researcher Matteo Sanfilippo revealed a letter drafted on 31 August 1948 by Bishop Hudal to Argentinian
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 President Juan Perón
Juan Perón
Juan Domingo Perón was an Argentine military officer, and politician. Perón was three times elected as President of Argentina though he only managed to serve one full term, after serving in several government positions, including the Secretary of Labor and the Vice Presidency...

, requesting 5,000 visas, 3,000 for German and 2,000 for Austrian "soldiers". In the letter, Hudal explained that these were not (Nazi) refugees, but anti-Communist fighters "whose wartime sacrifice" had saved Europe from Soviet domination. According to Argentine researcher Uki Goñi, the documents he uncovered in 2003 show the Roman Catholic Church was also deeply involved in the secret network. "The Perón government authorized the arrival of the first Nazi collaborators [in Argentina], as a result of a meeting in March 1946 between Antonio Caggiano, a [newly elevated] Argentine cardinal, and Eugène Tisserant, a French cardinal attached to the Vatican".

After the war Hudal was in fact one of the main Catholic organizers of the ratline
Ratlines (history)
Ratlines were a system of escape routes for Nazis and other fascists fleeing Europe at the end of World War II. These escape routes mainly led toward havens in South America, particularly Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay, and Chile. Other destinations included the United States and perhaps...

 nets, along with Monsignor Karlo Petranovic, an Ustasha war criminal who fled to Austria and then to Italy after 1945, Father Edoardo Dömöter, the Franciscan of Hungarian origin who forged the identity of Eichmann's passport, issued by the Red Cross in the name of Riccardo Klement, and Father Krunoslav Draganović
Krunoslav Draganovic
Krunoslav Stjepan Draganović was a Croatian Roman Catholic priest and historian who is accused as being one of the main organisers of the ratlines which aided the escape of Nazi war criminals from Europe after World War II.-Biography:Draganović was from Travnik...

, a Croatian
Croats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...

 professor of Theology.

Draganović, a smuggler of fascist (ustasha) war criminals who had also been involved in pro-Fascist espionage, was recycled by the U.S. during the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

 - his name appears in the Pentagon payrolls in the late 1950s and early 1960s - and was eventually granted immunity in Tito's Yugoslavia
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...

, where he died in 1983 at 79. Monsignor Karl Bayer, the Rome Director of Caritas International after the war, also cooperated with this ring. Interviewed in the 70s by Gitta Sereny
Gitta Sereny
Gitta Sereny is an Austrian-born biographer, historian and investigative journalist whose writing focuses mainly on the Holocaust and child abuse. She is the stepdaughter of the economist Ludwig von Mises....

, Monsignor Bayer recalled how he and Hudal had helped Nazis to Southern America with the Vatican's support: "The Pope [Pius XII] did provide money for this; in driblets sometimes, but it did come". Hudal's ratline
Ratlines (history)
Ratlines were a system of escape routes for Nazis and other fascists fleeing Europe at the end of World War II. These escape routes mainly led toward havens in South America, particularly Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay, and Chile. Other destinations included the United States and perhaps...

 was also supposedly financed by his friend Walter Rauff, with some funds allegedly coming from Giuseppe Siri, the recently appointed Auxiliary Bishop (1944) and Archbishop (1946) of Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....

. Siri however was "a hero of the Resistance movement in Italy
Italian resistance movement
The Italian resistance is the umbrella term for the various partisan forces formed by pro-Allied Italians during World War II...

" during the German occupation of northern Italy. Siri's involvement remains unproven.

According to Uki Goñi
Uki Goñi
Uki Goñi is an Argentine author who is principally known for his work documenting the escape of Nazi war criminals from Europe.Goñi's research studies the role of the Vatican, Swiss authorities and the government of Argentina in organizing 'ratline', escape routes for fugitive criminals and...

, "some of the financing for Hudal's escape network came from the United States", precising that the Italian delegate of the American National Catholic Welfare Conference provided Hudal "with substantial funds for his 'humanitarian' aid".

Furthermore, since the works of Graham and Blet were published, historian Michael Phayer
Michael Phayer
Michael Phayer, born 1935, is a historian and professor emeritus at Marquette University in Milwaukee and has written on 19th and 20th century European history and the Holocaust....

, a professor at Marquette University
Marquette University
Marquette University is a private, coeducational, Jesuit, Roman Catholic university located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1881, the school is one of 28 member institutions of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities...

 (a Catholic, Jesuit University), has alleged the close collaboration between the Vatican (Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....

 and Giovanni Battista Montini, then "Substitute" of the Secretariat of State, and later Paul VI), on the one side and Draganović and Hudal on the other, and has claimed that Pius XII himself was directly engaged in ratline activity. Against these allegations of the direct involvement of Pope Pius XII and his staff, there are some opposing testimonies and the denial by Vatican officials of any involvement of Pius XII himself. But according to Michael Phayer, the American Bishop Aloisius Muench, Pius XII's own envoy to occupied western Germany after the war, "wrote to the Vatican warning the pope to desist from his efforts to have convicted war criminals excused". The letter, written in Italian, is extant in the archives of the Catholic University of America.

In his posthumously published memoirs, Hudal instead recalls with bitterness the lack of support he found from the Holy See to give to Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

's battle against "godless Bolshevism" at the Eastern Front
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...

. Hudal several times in this work claims to have received criticism of the Nazi system rather than support for it from the Vatican diplomats under Pius XII. He assumed that the Holy See's policy during and after the war was entirely controlled by the western Allies. Until his death Hudal was convinced he had done the right thing, and said that he considered saving German and other fascist officers and politicians from the hands of Allied prosecution, a "just thing" and "what should have been expected of a true Christian", adding: "We do not believe in the eye for an eye of the Jew".

Hudal said that the justice of the Allies and the Soviets had resulted in show trials and lynchings, including the major trials at Nuremberg
Nuremberg Trials
The Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the victorious Allied forces of World War II, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of the defeated Nazi Germany....

. In his memoirs he also developed a curious theory about the economic causes of World War II, which allowed him to plainly justify for himself his acts in favour of Nazi and Fascist war criminals:
"The Allies' War against Germany was not a crusade, but the rivalry of economic complexes for whose victory they had been fighting. This so-called business ... used catchwords like democracy, race, religious liberty and Christianity as a bait for the masses. All these experiences were the reason why I felt duty bound after 1945 to devote my whole charitable work mainly to former National Socialists and Fascists, especially to so-called 'war criminals'".


During the war Hudal had sheltered victims of the national-socialist system in the buildings of Santa Maria dell'Anima, which were used as safe-houses by the resistance. Hardly anything has been made public about this escape line; the late brigadier John Burns, a New-Zealander, has given a fairly detailed description of it when recalling his escape of an Italian POW-camp in 1944.

Resignation and death

Hudal's activities caused a press scandal in 1947, after he was accused of leading a Nazi smuggling ring by the Passauer Neue Presse, a Catholic newspaper, but, as in 1923, playing the Austrian versus the Vatican and German cards, he only resigned as rector of Santa Maria dell'Anima in 1952, under joint pressure from the German and Austrian bishops and the Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...

. In January 1952, the Bishop of Salzburg
Salzburg
-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...

 told Hudal that the Holy See wanted to dismiss him. In June Hudal announced to the cardinal protector of Santa Maria dell'Anima that he had decided to leave the College, though disapproving of the Church allegedly being governed by the Allies. He resided afterwards in Grottaferrata
Grottaferrata
Grottaferrata, Italy is a small town and comune in the province of Rome, situated on the lower slopes of the Alban Hills, 20 km south east of Rome. It is bounded by other communes, Frascati, Rocca di Papa, Marino, and Rome.-History:...

, near the city of Rome, where in 1962 he wrote his embittered memoirs called Römische Tagebücher. Lebensbeichte eines alten Bischofs (Diaries of Rome. The Confession of Life of an Old Bishop), published posthumously in 1976.

Until his death in 1963, he never gave up in trying to obtain an amnesty for Nazis. Despite his protests against anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...

 in the 1930s, in his memoirs, with full knowledge of the Holocaust as of 1962, the "Brown Bishop" said of his actions in favour of war criminals and genocide perpetrators and participants: "I thank God that He opened my eyes and allowed me to visit and comfort many victims in their prisons and concentration camps and [to help] them escape with false identity papers" — where these so-called "victims" were in fact Axis prisoners of war and their "concentration camps" Allied detention camps.

Alois Hudal was not a poor person. After he was banned from Rome by the Vatican of Pope Pius, he withdrew to his sumptuous residence in Grottaferrata near Rome, embittered towards Pope Pius XII. However, not only the Vatican, but also the Austrian public were upset with Hudal especially at his last trip to Austria in 1961. He died in 1963. His diaries were published in Austria thirteen years after his death and describe perceived Vatican injustices he experienced under Pope Pius XI and Pius XII after the publication of his book. He maintains the opinion that a Faustian bargain between socialism, nationalism and Christianity is the way of the future.

Selected works of Alois Hudal

  • Soldatenpredigten (Graz
    Graz
    The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...

    , 1917) - Sermons to the Soldiers.
  • Die serbisch-orthodoxe Nationalkirche (Graz
    Graz
    The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...

    , 1922) - The Serbian Orthodox National Church.
  • Vom deutschen Schaffen in Rom. Predigten, Ansprachen und Vorträge, (Innsbruck
    Innsbruck
    - Main sights :- Buildings :*Golden Roof*Kaiserliche Hofburg *Hofkirche with the cenotaph of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor*Altes Landhaus...

    , Vienna
    Vienna
    Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

     and München, 1933) - On the German Work in Rome. Sermons, Speeches and Lectures.
  • Die deutsche Kulturarbeit in Italien (Münster
    Münster
    Münster is an independent city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also capital of the local government region Münsterland...

    , 1934) - The German Cultural Activity in Italy.
  • Ecclesiae et nationi. Katholische Gedanken in einer Zeitenwende (Rome, 1934) - The Church and the Nations. Catholic Thoughts in the Turn of an Era.
  • Rom, Christentum und deutsches Volk (Rome, 1935) - Rome, the Christendom and the German People.
  • Deutsches Volk und christliches Abendland (Innsbruck
    Innsbruck
    - Main sights :- Buildings :*Golden Roof*Kaiserliche Hofburg *Hofkirche with the cenotaph of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor*Altes Landhaus...

    , 1935) - The German People and the Christian Occident.
  • Der Vatikan und die modernen Staaten (Innsbruck
    Innsbruck
    - Main sights :- Buildings :*Golden Roof*Kaiserliche Hofburg *Hofkirche with the cenotaph of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor*Altes Landhaus...

    , 1935) - The Vatican and the Modern States.
  • Das Rassenproblem (Lobnig, 1935) - The Race Problem.
  • Die Grundlagen des Nationalsozialismus: Eine ideengeschichtliche Untersuchung (Leipzig
    Leipzig
    Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

     and Vienna
    Vienna
    Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

    , 1936–37 and facsimile edition Bremen
    Bremen
    The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...

    , 1982) - The Foundations of National Socialism.
  • Nietzsche und die moderne Welt (Rome, 1937) - Nietzsche and the Modern World.
  • Europas religiöse Zukunft (Rome, 1943) - The Religious Future of Europe.
  • Römische Tagebücher. Lebensbeichte eines alten Bischofs (Graz
    Graz
    The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...

    , 1976) - Diaries of Rome. The Confession of Life of an Old Bishop.

External links

  • "Krunoslav Draganovic", in The Pavelic Papers http://www.jasenovac-info.com/cd/biblioteka/pavelicpapers/draganovic/index.html
  • Erika Weinzierl, Kirche und Nationalsozialismus http://www.doew.at/service/ausstellung/1938/22/22.html, with photos of Hudal, Archbishop Innitzer and fac-simile of several documents concerning the Anschluss
    Anschluss
    The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....

    , namely a welcome letter by the Austrian Bishops collectively (The "Solemn Declaration" of March 18, 1938) and a letter to the Gauleiter by Archbishop Innitzer individually, with the famous final handwritten phrase: "und Heil Hitler!".
  • "Luigi Hudal, bishop of Aela" http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bhudal.html (Hudal's position in the Catholic hierarchy).
  • Dominik Burkard, "Alois Hudal – ein Anti-Pacelli? Zur Diskussion um die Haltung des Vatikans gegenüber dem Nationalsozialismus", Zeitschrift für Religions und Geistesgeschichte, Volume 59 (1), January 2007 http://www.springerlink.com/content/t117607355140340/.
  • Vatican Radio
    Vatican Radio
    Vatican Radio is the official broadcasting service of the Vatican.Set up in 1931 by Guglielmo Marconi, today its programs are offered in 47 languages, and are sent out on short wave , medium wave, FM, satellite and the Internet. The Jesuit Order has been charged with the management of Vatican...

    , Symposium on Bishop Hudal and, 2006. (Link)
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