More Jewish Appeals
The spontaneous turning to Rome was not limited to Jewish organizations in the United States. On March 31, a message arrived in the Vatican from the Chief Rabbi of Palestine, Rabbi Herzog, who addressed himself to the Holy See through Msgr. Roncalli, the apostolic delegate in Istanbul. On March 30, the nuncio transmitted an appeal from the Swiss Jewish Committee. and on that same day, the Delegate Godfrey transmitted an appeal from the Chief Rabbi of London, Dr. Hertz. On April 1, the British minister, Sir d'Arcy Osborne, submitted his government's request that the Holy See use its influence to prevent Jewish "refugees" in Hungary from being turned over to the Germans. Actually, it was not just the refugees who were in danger but the entire indigenous Jewish population.
From Budapest itself, the first information returned by Arch bishop Rotta was fairly reassuring. For the moment, he telegraphed on March 31, there seemed to be no immediate danger of a persecution of the Jews. But he foresaw a bitter struggle and reported that many Jews had already been arrested. In the first days after the takeover, the nuncio was particularly concerned about the effect of the new anti-Semitic regulations on the status of the many baptized Jews in Hungary. But in keeping with his instructions from the Holy See, his position was amply clear; for the baptized Jews he insisted (not very successfully) that they have all the rights of non-Jewish Catholics, and for the others of Jewish origin, he demanded that they be treated according to the norms of fundamental human rights. In the coming months, with the emergence of a truly disastrous situation and under the impact of numerous queries and instructions from Rome, the nuncio was to engage increasingly in activities on behalf of the second category of victims of Hungarian anti-Semitism.
The first deportations to Auschwitz began on May 14. On the following day, the nuncio wrote two letters of protest, one to Dome Sztojay, the prime minister who was also foreign minister, the other to the Foreign Ministry itself. "The very fact of persecuting men merely on account of their racial origin," Rotta wrote to Sztojay, "is a violation of the natural law. If God has given them life, no one in the world has the right to take it from them or refuse them the means of preserving it, unless they have committed crimes. But to take anti-Semite measures, not taking into account at all the fact that many Jews have become Christians through reception of baptism, is a serious offense against the Church and in contradiction with the character of the Christian state, such as Hungary is proud to profess itself, even today."
In the note to the Foreign Ministry, Rotta complained: "Up to now all steps (for the baptized Jews) have been to no avail; on the contrary — as far as the nunciature knows — it is planned to arrive at the deportation (even if the reality is disguised) of hundreds of thousands of persons. Everyone knows what a deportation means in practice."
At this stage, of course, neither the nuncio nor the Jewish community in Budapest knew the real destination or fate of the deportees. But word of the new measure quickly spread beyond the country, and on May 17 the Vatican heard from the apostolic delegate in Washington that, according to a War Refugee Board report, deportations had begun to "an unknown destination." Cicognani reported that the Board was counting on intervention by the Holy See. To the ensuing Vatican query, Msgr. Rotta reported on May 24 that he had protested strongly in defense of the Jews, especially for those baptized, and against the camouflaged deportation. In the meantime, he stated, the deportations were continuing as "forced labor" and carried out with systematic police brutality.