Actes et documents du Saint Siège relatifs à la Seconde Guerre Mondiale

"Actes et Documents du Saint Siège relatifs à la Seconde Guerre Mondiale" (French for Acts and Documents of the Holy See related to the Second World War), often abbreviated "Actes" or ADSS, is an eleven-volume collection of documents from the Vatican historical archives compiled by Jesuit historians Pierre Blet (France), Angelo Martini (Italy), Burkhart Schneider (Germany), and Robert Graham (United States), authorized by Pope Paul VI in 1964, and published between 1965 and 1981.

The collection is a rare exception to the Vatican's "de facto" seventy-five year rule for opening its archives, published in the aftermath of the controversial play, "The Deputy", by Rolf Hochhuth. The collection was intended to answer critics of Pius XII, such as Hochmuth, who alleged that the Pope had turned a blind eye to Nazi atrocities against Jews. [Marchione, Margherita. "Pope Pius XII: Architect for Peace". 2000, page 201]

Five of the eleven volumes deal with World War II, in chronological order. Four volumes deal with the humanitarian activities of the Holy See during the war, also in chronological order. One covers Pope Pius XII's letters to German bishops before and during the war. The last encompasses documents pertaining to Poland and Baltic countries.

The editors describe the selected documents as a representative sample of Vatican activity during the Nazi era. Notable missing documents include most of the letters from Bishop Konrad Preysing of Berlin to Pope Pius XII in 1943 and 1944, the papers of Austrian bishop Alois Hudal, and virtually everything appertaining to Eastern Europe save Poland and the Baltic. [Michael Phayer. 2000. "The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930-1965". Indiana University Press. p. xvii.]

The four Jesuit editors also wrote several articles derived from these primary sources, most of which were published in "La Civiltà Cattolica", an Italian Jesuit monthly. Blet's "Pius XII and the Second World War : According to the Archives of the Vatican" (1999) represents his interpretation of what essential conclusions can be drawn from the eleven volume collection.

None of the documents—mostly in Italian—were translated from their original language. The introductions to the volumes and the brief descriptions preceding the documents are in French. Only one volume has been translated into English.

Notes

References

*Blet, Pierre. (1999). "Pius XII and the Second World War : According to the Archives of the Vatican". New York : Paulist Press.ISBN 0809105039

External links

* [http://www.libreriaeditricevaticana.com/it/catalogue/catalogo.jsp?cat=C69 Libreria Editrice Vaticana]