Pope Pius XII and the German resistance

Josef Müller was sent to Rome in 1939 by the German resistance, to seek assistance from the Pope in a plot to overthrow Hitler.[1]
Pope Pius XII secretly acted as an intermediary between the German resistance and the Allies during preparations for the coup.

During the Second World War, Pope Pius XII maintained links to the German resistance to Nazism against Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime. Although remaining publicly neutral, Pius advised the British in 1940 of the readiness of certain German generals to overthrow Hitler if they could be assured of an honourable peace, offered assistance to the German resistance in the event of a coup, and warned the Allies of the planned German invasion of the Low Countries in 1940.[2][3][4] The Nazis considered that the Pope had engaged in acts equivalent to espionage.

  1. ^ Anton Gill; An Honourable Defeat; A History of the German Resistance to Hitler; Heinemann; London; 1994; p.267
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference John Toland p.760 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ William L. Shirer; The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich; Secker & Warburg; London; 1960; pp. 648–49
  4. ^ Joachim Fest; Plotting Hitler's Death: The German Resistance to Hitler, 1933–1945; Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1996 p. 131