Harry´s Blog

Various Shifts at the Vatican

According to NeverAgain.Org, the Vatican gave sanctuary to 477 Jews in 1943 after the allied invasion of Italy and the German takeover of Northern Italy. Kudos are due for this humane action. The action was known as the “J-Shift.”

In 1945, after the surrender of Nazi Germany, sanctuary ceased to be a necessity for Jews, and they were able to leave Vatican City. At that time, a new shift came in, known as the “N-Shift.” This consisted of Nazis and Ustascha fugitives. The Vatican Ratline provided hospitality to these fugitives, just as it had for the fugitives sought by the Nazis and the Ustascha, and acted stopover for covert voyages to Spain and South America.

Among the new guests were luminaries, such as Ustascha-leader Ante Pavlic, who came to Rome from Croatia in a priest’s cassock. And a genuine priest, Father Krunoslav Draganovic, who had pitched in to help Pavlic in the Ustacha’s gory shenanigans. This man of the cloth became the Ratline’s senior coordinator. Other Ratline dignitaries were Austrian Bishop Alois Hudal in Rome and Monsignor Otto Mauer in Vienna. And many, many others.

The Holy See of the Holy City had an even-handed approach towards the persecuted and persecutors. The latter were after all, mostly practicing Catholics and were active in the fight against Bolshevism. A dash of mass murder and a bit of torture and rape, were to be sure, blemishes. But the fight against atheistic Communism more than made up of for these venal sins.

After J-shift departed, the N-shift entered the premises. There were some stragglers from the J-Shift, and as they were leaving, they encountered the new arrivals.

“Hello there!” an old guest said to a new guest. “You look mighty familiar. Haven’t I seen you somewhere before?”

© by Herbert Kuhner