8 Jan. 46
other ecclesiastics and the suppression of the exercise
of religion in the occupied Polish provinces. This document is so
explicit and so authoritative that it deserves extensive quotation. I
accordingly offer it in evidence: Document Number 3264-PS, Exhibit
Number USA-572. It is headed, "A Note of His Eminence the Cardinal
Secretary of State to the Foreign Minister of the Reich about the
religious situation in the 'Warthegau' and in the other Polish provinces
subject to Germany." It bears a Vatican certificate of authenticity
like that of Document 3261-PS. It is signed, "L. Card. Maglione,"
meaning "Luigi Cardinal Maglione." I quote from this note,
starting with Page 1, the third paragraph of the English mimeographed
text and of the German translation:
"The place where, above all, the
religious situation, by its unusual gravity, calls for special
consideration is the territory called the 'Reichsgau Wartheland.'
"Six bishops resided in that region in August 1939; now there is
left only one. In fact, the Bishop of Lodz and his auxiliary were, in
the course of the year 1941, confined first in a small district of the
diocese and then expelled and exiled in the 'Generalgouvernement.'
"Another bishop, Monseigneur Michael Kozal, Auxiliary and Vicar
General of Wloclawek, was arrested in the autumn of 1939, detained for
some time in a prison in the city and later in a religious house in
Lad, and finally was transferred to the concentration camp at Dachau.
"Since His Eminence the Cardinal Archbishop of Gniezno and
Poznan and the Bishop of Wloclawek, who had gone away during the
period of military operations, were not allowed to return to their
Sees, the only bishop who now remains in the 'Warthegau' is His
Excellency Monseigneur Valentine Dymek, Auxiliary of Poznan; and he,
at least up to November 1942, was interned in his own house."
I pass now to Page 2, fourth paragraph of the English text, the fifth
paragraph of the German text:
"If the lot of their Excellencies the
Bishops has been a source of anxiety for the Holy See, the condition
of an immense number of priests and members of religious orders has
caused it, and still causes it, no less grief.
"In the territory now called 'Warthegau' more than 2,000 priests
exercised their ministry before the war; they are now reduced to a
very small number.
"According to accounts received from various quarters by the
Holy See, in the first months of the military occupation not a few
members of the secular clergy were shot or otherwise