Inside the Vatican of Pius XII: The Memoir of an American Diplomat During World War II (review)

Harold H. Tittmann, Jr. (1893-1981) sustained serious injuries during World War I; after that war he joined the US Foreign Service, in which he served thirty-eight years, ultimately rising to the rank of Career Ambassador. Inside the Vatican of Pius XII is his memoir of the two-and-a-half years that he served as Chargé d'Affaires in Vatican City, where he lived with his family after Italy declared war on the U.S. in December 1941. His assignment there gave him impeccable credentials as a contributor to our understanding of Pius XII's behavior during those dark years. Tittmann served in Myron Taylor's Vatican Mission, which was established at the personal initiative of President Roosevelt for the purpose of maintaining formal connections with the Vatican after Italy declared war on the United States.

Tittmann's son edited the memoir with the intent of improving its readability; he has not, he assures us, changed his father's opinions or recollections. His father's narrative is reasonably complete through 1943. The manuscript from the first half of 1944 onward was unfinished and had to be extensively supplemented on the basis of published documents from the State Department and the Vatican as well as some of Harold H. Tittman, Jr.'s letters. The materials in italics in the narrative are the editor's contributions.

An enormous number of scholarly studies have tried to explicate the role of Pius XII as pope and as a private person during the Second World War. In The Pius War: Responses to the Critics of Pius XII (2004), co-editors Joseph Bottum and David G. Dalin have organized a bibliography of books, reviews, and reflections by contemporary authors on this incendiary topic. The editors' bias is toward defending Pius, and the essays in their book tend to dismiss scholarly works; however, they have put together a balanced bibliography on this inscrutable pope, whose disinclination to condemn the Holocaust has been so troublesome.

What, then, can Tittmann's memoirs contribute to the "Pius War"? His recollections provide us with an insider's perception of this complex pope and his Vatican officials. In addition, they give us insight into the behavior of the Allied and Axis diplomats who were active in Rome and who gathered periodically at events such as the Christmas Mass in the Pope's own chapel. This book can help us gain a more nuanced understanding of Pius's attempts to keep Italy out of the war and his fear of communism and the Soviet Union, as well as his horror at the Allied bombing of Rome and his consequent struggle to have Rome declared an "open city." Despite his antipathy to communism, he intervened, for example, to soften American Catholic opposition to U.S. governmental aid to the Soviet Union.

Pius and Roosevelt maintained cordial relations; however, Dominico Tardini, Secretary of the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, remarked in 1942 that in his opinion the Americans did not understand the European situation. Tardini observed that the Nazis had provoked the war, but that the United States was also mired in nationalism and so could hardly have taken on the role of benevolent peacemaker. Tardini's comment suggests that he did not realize that the Nazis' nationalistic goals were radically different from those of other states. By 1942, Hitler's ethno-political goals were known, although the extent of their murderous implications may not have been fully understood.

Tittmann's memoirs address the issue of Pius's silence only by adding the context within which the Pope's decisions were made. Depending on the occasion, the reasons that the Vatican gave for the "silence" varied. For example, the Holy See felt it could not condemn the Nazis without condemning the Soviets, the ally of the United States and Great...