Msgr. Rotta Rebuffed
As expected, the Foreign Ministry's reply to Rotta's may 15 note was sharply negative. It scoffed at the religious sincerity of the converts from Judaism, and besides, it said, the problem was one of race, which is not changed by baptism. The question of the deportations was avoided by a patent falsehood — the Jews were being sent for labor. "It is not at all a question of deportation," the Foreign Minister said, "and all the necessary measures will be taken in order that their transportation will be carried out if possible in the company of their families, under humane conditions."
Fortified with strong backing from the Cardinal Secretary of State, received on May 29, the nuncio wrote a letter, dated June 5, which was strong by any diplomatic standards:
In the meantime and to its deepest regret, the Apostolic Nunciature has been informed, and by a reliable source, about the conclusions of a recent conference, at which it was decided to deport all Hungarian Jews, without distinction of religion....According to other information, also absolutely reliable, deportation is already being carried out and with such methods that a number of persons succumb even before reaching the place of deportation.....
On the theme of deportation, Rotta continued:
It is said that it is not a question of deportation, but of compulsory labor. It is possible to discuss about the words; but the reality is the same. When old men of over 70 and even over 80, old women, children and sick persons are taken away, one wonders for what work these human beings can be used? The reply given is that Jews have been given the possibility of taking their families with them; but then the departure of the latter should be a matter of free choice. And what is to be said of cases in which these old people, sick people, etc., are the only ones deported, or when there is no relative whom they should follow? And when we think that Hungarian workers, who go to Germany for reasons of work, are forbidden to take their families, we are really surprised to see that this great favor is granted only to Jews.
Archbishop Rotta vigorously pressed his right and duty to protest particularly for those Jews who had become Catholics by baptism, and he rejected the allegation that their conversions were of dubious good faith. Reiterating his original position, he demanded that Christian Jews should be exempted from the anti-Semite provisions ... that all Jews should be treated in a humane way; and that even in the measures it will be necessary to take for the defense of the legitimate interests of the state, justice should always be safeguarded, as well as the fundamental rights of the human person.
Also transpiring during May and June were the negotiations between the Nazi chief of the deportations, Adolph Eichmann, and the head of the Jewish Rescue Committee in Hungary, Reszoe Kastner. On May 19, Joel Brand arrived in Istanbul bearing Eichmann's proposal to exchange the surviving Jews for 10,000 trucks.
Rotta's records give no indication that he or the Jewish community in Budapest knew the real significance of the wholesale expulsion of the Hungarian Jews. The brutality and secrecy accompanying the deportees were enough to stigmatize the deportations as atrocities in themselves….
Meanwhile, the world Jewish community was active in its appeals. On June 1, the U.S. charge', Harold H. Tittmann, Jr., on instructions from his government, asked what the Holy See had done for the Jews of Hungary. On June 9, Cicognani reported from Washington that four important rabbis of the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe had addressed an anxious appeal to the Holy Father. It is known for certain, they said, that the extermination of Jews in Hungary had begun and was continuing. They asked the Pope to make a public appeal in the strongest possible terms to save these victims. The Hungarian Catholics, they said, would be impressed by an appeal from such a lofty source. On the same day, Rabbi Herzog of Palestine sent a similar message by way of the Delegate in Cairo, Arthur Hughes.
In reply to the resulting queries from Rome, Rotta could only confirm that 300,000 Jews had already been deported. it is rumored, he said in a June 18 telegram, that one-third of those had really been put to work outside of Hungary, but the fate of the remainder was still a matter of diverse speculation. Some responsible persons, he said, even speak of "annihilation camps." In any case, he said, the treatment of the deportees at departure was "truly ghastly". Direct intervention by the Holy See would be "extremely useful not to mention necessary," he said, especially since transports for new deportations were already standing ready.
On June 24, Rotta again wired the Vatican saying deportations were continuing and protests were unavailing. The faithful, said the nuncio, were surprised at the "inactivity" of the bishops. He again urged an appeal to the primate, Cardinal Seredi.
Also on June 24, the American charge' brought the Cardinal Secretary a message from the War Refugee Board. After recognizing that His Holiness had been sorely grieved by the "wave of hate" engulfing Europe and had labored unceasingly to inculcate a decent regard for the dignity of man, activated by a great compassion for the sufferings of a large portion of mankind, the message turned to Hungary.