Knocking on the Vatican’s Gates: Displaced Persons and the Holy See in the Early Cold War

• In Event: Cultural Histories of Displaced Persons between World War II and the Cold War

Abstract

At the end of the Second World War, the Vatican sought to take part in the political, social, and moral reconstruction of Europe, using humanitarian aid as a tool to combat the growing influence of the Soviet Union. With the emergence of the Eastern Bloc, Pope Pius XII got involved in the assistance and resettlement of the displaced victims of war and refugees from east Europe with the aim of strengthening the anti-communist front. The recent opening of the part of the Vatican Apostolic Archive (named Vatican Secret Archive until 2019) pertaining to his pontificate (1939-1958) gives an unprecedented opportunity to explore these processes. Drawing on archival documents from the Vatican archives, this presentation demonstrates the importance of the Vatican’s faith-based humanitarianism and its use of refugees as a playing card in building an anti-communist defensive, integrating the missing puzzle piece of papal aid into the picture of international refugee assistance. In particular, it focuses on the letters and appeals sent by refugees to the Vatican in the early post-war period. These letters reveal how the gender, class, ethnicity, and religion of refugees influenced the strategies used to negotiate with the authorities and their chances of getting the aid they requested.

Author

• Katarzyna Nowak, U of Vienna (Austria)