ADSS 8.328 The British Minister appeals for help for Slovakia's Jews



Sir D'Arcy Osborne (1884-1964), British Minister to the Holy See (1936-1947), made an appeal on behalf of the British government to the Holy See asking the Vatican to intervene with President Tiso to stop the deportation of the Jews.  What this document clearly reveals is the extent to which the anti-Jewish policies and actions of Germany and its satellite countries were known outside of the Nazi orbits.  Osborne's memo was accurate in numbers, date and destination.

ADSS 8.328

Reference: Nr 39/2/42 (AES 2554/2 orig)

Location and date: Vatican, 25.03.1942

Summary statement: Request for intervention of Holy See with President Tiso in favour of the Jews of Slovakia.

Language: French

Text:

It has been learned in London of a Decree of the Government of Slovakia dated 7 March has ordered the entire Jewish population of Slovakia, numbering around 90,000, to leave the country from 23 March to ghettos in the vicinity of the Polish border. (1) It has been suggested that an appeal to Monsignor Tiso from the Vatican could have the effect of tempering the measure of persecution and I have been instructed by my Government to prevail upon Your Eminence if the Holy See believed it had some way of mitigating this German-inspired inhumanity.

Cross references:


(1) ADSS 8.298, 300, 326


(2) Cf ADSS 8.332



Sir D'Arcy Osborne 1943