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Pius XII’s secret network to help save Jews discovered Today, an exclusive interview with Fr. Giancarlo Centioni, the last living witness of the secret network created by Pius XII during the Second World War to help Jews escape from the Nazis persecution, will be published by H2onews (www.h2onews.org)The personal story of Italian Fr. Centioni is full of details about the people and places connected to the network since he worked as a military chaplain in in the National Security Volunteer Militia in Rome from 1940 until 1945 , a position that permitted him to help many Jews. “This network gave passports and money to Jewish families so that they could escape,” explained Fr. Centioni, “the money and the passports were handed over to Father Anton Weber”, one of the chief coordinators of the network, and then directly “to the people”. The legal documents and the money came “directly from the His Holiness’ Secretary of State, in the name of and paid for by Pius XII.”In support of Fr. Centioni’s testimony, hundreds of people who were assisted knew exactly where the help was coming from: "Pius XII helped them through us and other priests, by means of the Society of St. Raphael, as well as the German 'Verbiti Society' in Rome."Fr. Giancarlo Centioni’s case was discovered and then later investigated, comparing it with other testimonies, by the Pave the Way Foundation (http://www.ptwf.org), created by Gary Krupp, a Jew from New York. The account was confirmed with a medal awarded by the Polish government to Fr. Centioni while he was in exile – a cross of gold with two swords, ‘for our freedom and yours’.

H2onews is a Catholic news service available in 9 different languages, which covers the Holy See and the Church on a worldwide scale. Every day, its news videos are offered free of charge to Catholic television, web sites and radio stations throughout the world.


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Pius XII's secret network to help save Jews discovered


Pope Pius XII created a clandestine network to save the lives of Jews who were being persecuted by the Nazis. One of the members of this group is still alive: an Italian priest, Giancarlo Centioni, who was born in 1912. Between 1940 and 1945, he served as a military chaplain for the National Security Volunteer Militia in Rome and lived in a house of German priests who become involved in the network in order to save lives. Read more