Two million euros for research on petition letters to Pope Pius XII.

At the time of the Nazi regime, many persecuted people sought their last resort in flight, but often already lacked money or other support. In their desperation, thousands of Jews - both converts to Christianity and non-converts - turned to the Catholic Church and its then leader, Pope Pius XII, in so-called letters of supplication. A team from the Seminar for Medieval and Modern Church History led by Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Hubert Wolf from the Westphalian Wilhelms University (WWU) Münster has now received joint funding from the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future (EVZ), the German Foreign Office and Bayer AG. The sum will be used in the project "Asking the Pope for Help" to systematically record the estimated 15,000 letters of petition in the Vatican archives and prepare them for the public in a digital edition.

The research project, initially scheduled to last five years, only became possible with the long-delayed opening of the Vatican archives from the pontificate of Pius XII (1939-1958) on March 2, 2020. The preliminary work for the project, which began two years ago, was made possible by the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation. "Without knowing what results the sifting through the 400,000 boxes of documents in the Vatican Archives on Pope Pius XII would bring to light, the project outline already foreshadowed that the project could change the historical perspective. So it was a good coincidence that the Krupp Foundation was able to use its creative freedom to make this ambitious project possible," emphasizes Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Ursula Gather, Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees of the Krupp Foundation. "We are pleased and proud that we were able to take the first steps together with the Seminar for Church History."

"The project has great socio-political and historical significance - in this respect, my thanks go to the two foundations for their financial support and for their confidence in the scientific work of the University of Münster," added WWU Rector Prof. Dr. Johannes Wessels. "I am sure that the team around Prof. Hubert Wolf, with its theological and historical expertise, will succeed in lifting this unique collection." The findings from the reconstruction of the individual fates are also of enormous importance for political education.