All language subtitles for Pope VS. Hitler (2017)

NARRATOR: In the darkest days
of World War II,

St. Peter's was shrouded
in the shadow of the swastika.

RONALD RYCHLAK:
Hitler actually gave the orders

to invade the Vatican.

[speaking German]

ROBERT EDSEL: Hitler didn't
want to kidnap the Pope.

He wanted to kill him.

PIUS XII: But it's
not too late to stop him.

[speaking German]

NARRATOR: Meanwhile, Pius XII,

who some have branded
as Hitler's Pope,

was actually plotting
against him.

HITLER: Sieg Heil!

CROWED: Heil!

MARK RIEBLING:
Pius said, 'It must be done.

Change the regime,
and good things will happen.'

[shouting in German]

NARRATOR: It is a chapter
of the war long forgotten,

a secret showdown between
the vicar of Christ

and the Antichrist.

GEORGE RUTLER:
It's right out of James Bond.

Well, it's better than
James Bond because it's real.

[explosion]

¶ ¶

[choir singing in Latin]

HANS: Amen.

[singing in Latin]

NARRATOR: Adolf Hitler
and Eugenio Pacelli,

the future Pope Pius XII, were
both born and raised Catholic,

but only Pacelli embraces
the identity wholeheartedly.

RYCHLAK:
According to family tradition,

on the day of his birth,
an uncle held him up and said,

'63 years from today, this baby
will be given great honor.'

And it was indeed 63 years later

that he became Pope
of the Roman Catholic Church.

NARRATOR: The other, Hitler,

will one day seek to destroy
the church of his youth.

[speaking Latin]

ADOLF HITLER: Amen.

RIEBLING: Deep in his boyhood,

Hitler had wanted
to be a priest,

and he would stand up
on a little stool in his kitchen

and put his mother's apron
around him

and practice his sermons.

NARRATOR: As Hitler and Pacelli
come of age,

their paths
will diverge dramatically

along the courses
of good and evil,

each man propelled
by uncommon intelligence,

ambition, and opportunity.

But their fates
will intersect decades later,

when they compete for millions
of hearts, minds, and souls

during
the most harrowing conflict

in the history of mankind.

[speaking German]

NARRATOR: In the 1930s, before
the outbreak of World War II,

Hitler begins waging
an undeclared war on the Church.

¶ ¶

RIEBLING: In Hitler's mind,

there was no room
for any other gods before him.

As he himself put it, 'We
want no other god but Germany.'

They did things
like send out brown shirts

to smear altars with excrements

and behead statues
in cathedrals.

[smash]

ERIC METAXES:
They were in some places

replacing crosses
with swastikas.

[speaking German]

RIEBLING: They threw one of the
cardinal of Vienna's assistants

out a window and broke his legs.

[speaking German]

[screaming]

[Nazis laughing]

RIEBLING:
One of Hitler's deputies said,

'In the end, world views
are decided by weapons.'

And so they turned
all the weapons they had

against the Church.

RYCHLAK: And the plan was
to raise Hitler up

into a Christ-like figure.

Mein Kampf, Hitler's book,
'My Struggle,'

would replace the Bible
at the altar.

All lessons, all preaching would
come from Hitler's teaching.

NARRATOR:
Repeated church protests

against these Nazi persecutions

only seem
to make the situation worse.

German Catholicism seems
targeted for extinction,

unless a new pope can save it.

In February 1939,
Pope Pius XI dies.

Three weeks later, after the
shortest conclave in centuries,

the Vatican's Secretary of State
becomes its commander in chief.

BISHOP: Cardinale Pacelli!

[cheering]

ROBERT VENTRESCA: Pacelli came
into that conclave in 1939

as the second most
powerful man in the Vatican.

Pius XI had let it be known

that this would be
an ideal successor.

[speaking Latin]

¶ ¶

VENTRESCA: Some people saw him
as the consummate politician.

[cheering]

NARRATOR: Cardinal Pacelli
is now Pope Pius,

and he assumes
spiritual leadership

of a continent that is
coming apart at the seams.

Hitler has already
annexed Austria.

In just three days,
he'll invade Czechoslovakia,

and he's also threatening
to steamroll

Eastern Europe's most stalwart
Catholic enclave--Poland.

[speaking German]

RIEBLING: In August 1939,

about two weeks before
the second World War began,

Adolf Hitler summoned
his supreme military commanders

to his private mountain
in the Bavarian Alps,

and there he described what
he was going to do in Poland,

how he was going
to eradicate the Polish clergy.

NIGEL JONES: This appalled
the generals, who were mainly

of a Christian background,
and they regarded this

as going against all Christian
and ethical standards.

But most of them sadly
went along with the orders.

[artillery fire]

ANNOUNCER:
It was in September 1939

when Warsaw
first made front-page news.

NARRATOR:
The Nazi invasion of Poland

is sudden and devastating.

Within weeks, tens of thousands
of Poles, especially Jews,

are mercilessly slaughtered.

To choke all voices of dissent,

the cultural and intellectual
leaders of Poland

are specifically targeted.

In a country with a nearly
90 percent Catholic population,

that means
open season on the clergy.

RIEBLING: Suddenly there were

Catholic bishops
and Catholic priests

being hauled off
into concentration camps,

and hundreds of priests
were shot

in the first weeks
of the occupation

as a deliberate policy
of terror.

Reports of atrocities

began filtering
back to Pius XII by October,

and he was really
tied in knots over this.

NARRATOR: The new Pope
must decide how he will respond

to the genocide in Poland.

Should he condemn Hitler
publicly and risk his wrath?

Or keep quiet to protect his
flock from even greater horror?

VENTRESCA: The dilemma
or the choice for him

is laid bare
by bishops and others

who are saying exactly
one of two things--

Speak out. Be more explicit.
Be more emphatic.

Don't speak out. Be careful.

Temper your language,

because there are reprisals
that are beyond our control.

SHMULEY BOTEACH: Poland lost
90 percent of its Jews.

3.5 million Jews before the war,
350,000 survive.

That's astonishing.
It's a deeply Catholic country.

Could you imagine
if the Pope had said,

'This is a dark evil
that we have to resist?

I am calling on all Catholics
to resist Hitler.

It is your moral
and spiritual responsibility.'

Could the Holocaust
have happened in Poland?

The consensus is
that it could not have happened.

DAVID ALVAREZ:
He feared that if he were to do

some of the things
that people called on him to do,

things would only get worse.

And there is a little bit of
evidence that that's the case.

ALVAREZ: When the Dutch bishops
issued a letter

condemning the deportation
of Dutch Jews,

the deportations increased,
they didn't decrease.

RYCHLAK: There were statements

back from
the concentration camps.

Every time we get a message
from the Vatican,

more of us get killed.

The Pope, at some point,

issued a letter
to the people of Poland.

The bishop got it
and burned the letter.

He sent a note back to the Pope

and said,
'Holy Father, thank you.

This is great and profound,
but I am not going to read it

because people will be killed
if I read this.'

NARRATOR: As the new pontiff
seeks divine guidance,

a treasonous plot
is taking shape in Germany

that could answer his prayers.

For years, the Vatican
has relied on a network

of Catholic informants
inside the Reich

to gather evidence of
Nazi crimes against the church.

The key man in that spy ring
is a stocky,

hard-drinking Catholic lawyer
known as Joey Ox.

RIEBLING: He was more or less
a fixer, if you would,

someone who could
solve problems.

He was, I'd say,

part Oskar Schindler
and part Vito Corleone.

ALVAREZ: The German bishops used
Müller to carry communications,

messages to the Vatican.

He became in effect a courier,
a secret courier.

NARRATOR: In September 1939,

Müller is called to Berlin
for a meeting

with Hans Oster, the
deputy commander of the Abwehr,

Germany's
military intelligence agency.

He assumes his covert efforts
for the church

have been uncovered

and that this meeting
will be his last.

[speaking German]

HELMUTH VON MOLTKE: The Abwehr,

which is really

the counterintelligence branch

of the government,

one would think would be
very strongly influenced

by policy of the government,

but in fact,
the Abwehr was a place

where people who were
anti-Hitler could find a home.

NARRATOR:
The head of the Abwehr,

Admiral Wilhelm Canaris,
was at the Eagle's Nest

when Hitler revealed
his diabolical plans for Poland.

¶ ¶

And he soon saw them
put into practice.

RIEBLING: As he wandered Warsaw
on September 20th,

he saw a blood red sun
and rats eating corpses

and a rabbi
in the middle of the road

over his dead wife crying out,

'There is no God!
The Nazis are the only gods!'

Canaris returned to his quarters
and vomited

and returned to Berlin
a broken man.

It was all he could do
at that point

to raise his glass in a toast

to some of his associates
and say...

[speaking German]

NARRATOR:
The Abwehr conspirators

want to move quickly

to eliminate Hitler
and end the war,

but they also recognize
that killing the Führer

without a solid strategy
to replace him

could embolden their enemies
at home and abroad.

ALVAREZ: The problem was,

why should Britain
make peace with Germany?

Even if Hitler's removed,

how are we going to be
better off?

Are you guys just
going to continue the war?

Only under different leadership?

What about all those countries
you've occupied?

What are you offering us

in return for us sitting quietly
while you overthrow Hitler?

RIEBLING: They needed someone
to guarantee their good faith,

some kind of power
that could certify

that the German resistance
to Hitler was real

and that Nazi crimes were real.

NARRATOR: Canaris and Oster
quickly realize

there is one leader in Europe

whose jurisdiction straddles
both sides of the battlefield,

a moral authority who would
bring unique power and prestige

to their cause.

Before the conspirators set out
to kill the Führer...

[speaking German]

...they will
seek the blessing of the Pope.

RYCHLAK:
Pius is very nervous about this.

He realizes
he can get people killed

for what he's going to do.

[explosion]

[artillery fire]

NARRATOR: In September 1939,

with Nazi forces
on the warpath in Poland,

a group of German
intelligence operatives

set out to commit high treason
and kill Adolf Hitler,

but first,
they need a credible ally

to broker a deal
with the British

that protects German sovereignty
after the coup.

They quickly zero in
on the Pope.

RIEBLING: They trusted Pacelli.

They thought that he had
Germany's interest at heart,

but they also knew
he was very anti-Nazi,

even if publicly what he said
was, was rather limited.

Their problem then became how
to make contact with the Pope.

Since they were Protestants.
they really had no idea

how to establish a secure line
of communications

to Pius XII in Rome.

NARRATOR:
That's where Joey Ox comes in.

Longtime Vatican spy
Josef Müller

is the perfect conduit
to the pontiff.

At a time when the Nazis control

all lines into
and out of Germany,

he can, quite literally,
fly under the radar.

RIEBLING:
Josef Müller, as a member

of the Bavarian
Sports Pilot Club,

would on Sunday afternoons
take a flight from Munich

over the Alps to Merano, Italy,

and he would have a briefcase
full of secret documents,

which were really proving
Nazi atrocities

and violations
against the Church specifically.

He would hand them off
to a Vatican agent in Merano

who would take them then
down to the Vatican.

NARRATOR: In October 1939,

Müller touches down with
a top secret proposal for Pius.

ALVAREZ: He would use

what intelligence services
refer to as a cutout.

He would not directly
speak with Pius,

but he would contact
and speak with people

who in turn
would speak with Pius.

[speaking German]

RIEBLING: Monsignor Ludwig Kaas
was an exile from Germany,

and he was one of the Pope's
closest advisors

on German affairs.

¶ ¶

[speaking Italian]

RYCHLAK: This was an incredibly
bold move by the Pope

to decide to throw in
with one side.

Pius is very nervous about this.

He realizes
he can get people killed

for what he's going to do.

I personally think
if they could have ousted Hitler

without killing him,

Pius would have
been fine with that,

uh, but that wasn't
going to happen.

It was going to take
this assassination,

and when that happens,

Pius understood
that there are times

when it's necessary
to take an action like that.

NARRATOR:
Pius finds justification

in the teachings
of Saint Thomas Aquinas,

who said, quote,

'He that kills the tyrant for
the liberation of the country

is praised and rewarded.'

RUTLER: Clearly,
in the case of the Nazis,

you have whole races
who were being slaughtered.

And what do you do to stop that?

No question
that Pius XII understood

the legitimacy of tyrannicide
in the case of Hitler.

With the pontiff on board, the
conspiracy begins in earnest.

Code names are assigned.

Müller goes by Mr. X.

Pius' personal secretary,
Father Leiber,

who teaches
at Rome's Gregorian University,

is called Gregor.

Pius himself is the Chief.

MAN: Heil Hitler!

NARRATOR:
Secret messages about the plot

are passed from Rome to Berlin,

buried in regular
intelligence reports

under the heading 'Current
Possibilities for Peace.'

RIEBLING: Pius XII, he seemed
to take a buoyant delight

in these kind
of boyish enterprises.

He liked to keep threads
in his own hands,

and he rather relished engaging

in the nuts and bolts
tradecraft of papal espionage.

NARRATOR: The conspirators
are off to a fast start,

but then,
an unexpected wrinkle arises

when another would-be assassin
strikes first.

¶ ¶

RIEBLING: Georg Elser,
a communist in Munich,

knew that Adolph Hitler
spoke every November 8th

at the Bürgerbrãukeller,
a Munich beer hall,

on the anniversary of his failed
Beer Hall Putsch in 1923.

Elser, who was quite a shrewd,
self-taught carpenter,

had slept in the beer hall at
night for months ahead of time

just so that he could
hollow out a column

c

where he knew Hitler
would be standing by

and implant in this column

some chemical explosives
with a clockwork mechanism

which would make it go off
during his speech.

[speaking German]

NARRATOR: Elser sets his bomb
to detonate at 9:20 P.M.,

at which point, he calculates,
based on previous years,

that Hitler will be
in the middle of his speech.

HITLER: Sieg Heil!

CROWD: Heil!

HITLER: Sieg Heil!
CROWD: Heil!

HITLER: Sieg Heil!
CROWD: Heil!

[applause]

NARRATOR:
But this year is different.

JONES: He cut short his speech
and rushed off very quickly.

He had been told that
the weather was worsening

and fog might delay
his journey back to Berlin

on his special train.

And he wanted to order

o

the invasion of Western Europe,
in fact,

and that was why he wanted to
get back to Berlin in a hurry.

[ticking]

[explosion]

RIEBLING: The chairs were
flying, bodies were flying,

eight people were killed,
dozens were maimed,

and Hitler escaped.

JONES: He became imbued
with the sense

that Providence was on his side

and that he would be spared
long enough

to fulfill his destiny
to lead Germany to victory.

Stringent security
was set in place

after Elser came very,
very close to killing Hitler.

No one was allowed to carry arms
and weapons

in Hitler's presence,
even officers of the army,

so that made the conspirators'
job all the more difficult.

NARRATOR: But they remain
determined to see it through.

PIUS XII:
Good evening, Ambassador.

D'ARCY OSBORNE:
Good evening, Holy Father.

NARRATOR:
In January 1940, Pius summons

Britain's Vatican minister,
Sir D'Arcy Osborne,

to a top secret
midnight meeting

and reveals his true allegiances
in no uncertain terms.

PIUS XII:
I suppose you must be wondering

why we're meeting so secretly,
so late at night.

OSBORNE: I have my suspicions.

PIUS XII:
I have been contacted again

by a very trustworthy source
inside the German military,

someone who means what he says.

Germany intends to attack the
West by the middle of February,

or possibly even earlier.

I am told it will be violent,
bitter,

and utterly unscrupulous.

Hitler is convinced

he will be parading
through Paris by summer.

But it's not too late
to stop him.

OSBORNE: Your Holiness?

PIUS XII: Some of the generals
want a regime change.

They intend
to get rid of Hitler.

RIEBLING: Osborne was
very impressed by this,

and he conveyed
in his telegraph to London,

'There's more to this
than we've given credit to.'

Pius XII was not merely

neutrally, tepidly
passing on information.

Pius XII came off to the British
as almost pushy.

He took the initiative,

and he argued that the Allies
should take this seriously

and begin a dialogue

on what the terms
of regime change would be.

NARRATOR: Through the pontiff,

the conspirators
set the negotiating terms

for a post-Hitler peace
with the British.

After they depose the Führer,
they must disarm his military,

restore the rule of law
in Germany,

prevent war in the West,
liberate Poland,

and let the other
conquered nations vote

on whether to remain
with the Reich.

In exchange, the conspirators

seek Britain's promise
not to invade Germany

or interfere
with its new government.

The Pope's secret exchanges
with the British

pave the way for the
assassination of Adolf Hitler.

Now it's up to the conspirators
to pull the trigger.

NARRATOR:
In the early weeks of 1940,

the conspiracy to kill
Adolf Hitler gains new momentum,

thanks to an effort
by Pope Pius XII

to secure British support
for the coup.

Now, the time for talk
is through

and the need of action urgent,

because the Führer has his
sights set on another invasion

that will make him
all but unstoppable.

¶ ¶

MAN: Heil Hitler!

MAN: Ja.

RIEBLING: After the British
and the German resistance

had actually agreed
upon a peace program,

certified by the Pope and
to be implemented by the Pope,

the German Resistance
now had to take this

to the head
of the German military.

Franz Halder
was the chief of staff,

the number two
in the German military.

He had an intense dislike
for Hitler,

and so the conspirators,

knowing that Halder
was sympathetic to their aims,

approached him.

RIEBLING: They put these terms

in something called
the X Report,

which had on it
the papal insignia.

And on there was,
in Father Leiber's handwriting,

these key peace terms.

This one piece of paper,

if it fell into the hands
of the Nazis,

could bring them all
to the gallows

and even conceivably serve
as a pretext

for arresting
and kidnapping the Pope.

NARRATOR: General Halder
could be an ideal assassin.

He secretly despises Hitler,

and before
the Munich beer hall bombing,

he had even concealed
a pistol in his jacket,

hoping for the right moment
to strike.

But now, with beefed-up security

surrounding the Führer and his
popularity at an all-time high,

Halder has cold feet.

RIEBLING: Halder, who was
a very kind of by-the-book guy

and was really at the limits
of his imagination,

said to Hans Oster and Canaris,
through an intermediary,

'If I draw this sword,
it will break in my hand.

The German people
are not behind me if I do this.'

NARRATOR: Ultimately,
Halder's dedication to duty

overpowers his outrage,

and he's not alone.

JONES: Every German soldier

from the top ranking commander
in chief of field marshals

down to the lowest,
humblest private,

had to take a personal oath
of loyalty

to Adolf Hitler as Führer

that they would obey
every single command

that he issued
without question.

And so many Germans schooled
in the Prussian habits

of discipline and obedience

used that as an excuse for
failing to move against Hitler.

SOLDIER: Heil Hitler!
OFFICER: Heil Hitler!

NARRATOR:
With every passing week,

the conspirators and the Pope

lose credibility
with the British.

Meanwhile, Hitler is bolstering
his war machine

for an all-out assault
on the West.

A preemptive strike against him

would save millions of lives
at the expense of one,

but time is quickly running out.

And on May 10, 1940,

the window of opportunity
slams shut.

PETER GUMPEL:
Hitler attacks France

and therefore invades Holland,
invades Belgium,

invades Luxembourg, and,
of course, then the war starts,

and at that moment, of course,
there is no longer any chance

that the English
would make an agreement

with these German generals

who are in the midst
of an actual war now.

And so that stopped
the whole thing.

METAXES:
Suddenly all of the generals

who they have been lining up
to stand against Hitler

are thinking, whoa, it looks
like he's going to win.

We want to go with the winner.

RIEBLING: The failures
of these first round of plots

left Pius
extremely disillusioned.

He felt like he really
went out on a limb,

put his personal
prestige in the dock here,

and nothing had happened.

NARRATOR:
A long year and a half passes,

with Hitler and the Nazis
in command of the continent,

but in December of 1941,

two developments reveal
new cracks in the Nazi facade.

On the Eastern Front,
the German army is on the run

after a resounding defeat
in the battle of Moscow.

While far to the West...

ANNOUNCER: Planes were
swooping down on Pearl Harbor.

[explosions]

NARRATOR: ...Japanese bombs
arouse a sleeping giant.

FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT: We will
gain the inevitable triumph,

so help us God.

[applause]

NARRATOR: On December 11th,

the U.S. declares war
on Germany,

and Hitler's victory
is no longer assured.

GEOFFREY ROBERTSON:
The German people loved him.

After he started winning the war
in '39 and '40,

they had to keep quiet,
but as the years passed,

they knew he'd lost the war
by first of all invading Russia

and secondly, by declaring war
on the United States.

VON MOLTKE: The war became

more and more terrible,

and the numbers of lives
being lost became so huge

that more and more people said,
'We've got to do something.'

NARRATOR:
Soon, talk of a conspiracy

returns to the shadowy recesses
of the Vatican,

where Pope Pius
is apprised of a new plan

to resurrect the long-lost
sacred Germany

by blowing the Führer
out of the sky.

NARRATOR: In 1943,
the fourth year of World War II,

there are widening cracks in
the foundation of German power.

On the Eastern Front,

the Nazis are in the throes of a
disastrous defeat at Stalingrad.

In the West, the Allies are
regrouping behind a new leader,

the United States.

And the divine Führer is looking
more vulnerable than ever.

RIEBLING: At this point,
officers on the Eastern Front

began to take serious measures

to make sure that Hitler
would meet with an accident.

Pius XII was very encouraging
and enthusiastic

about what the German
conspirators had planned,

and he said, 'Change the regime,

and I believe
good things will happen.'

NARRATOR: In March, with the
implicit support of the pontiff,

high-ranking rebels in Hitler's
army make their move.

METAXES: They disguised a bomb
as a gift of brandy.

At the last minute, someone runs
up to Hitler's plane and says,

'Oh, would you mind
taking this to so and so?

I lost a bet,
and I owe him this brandy.'

And so they put it on the plane.

[airplane engine starts]

¶ ¶

¶ ¶

METAXES: They're waiting
and waiting and waiting

because they know that
someplace, as Hitler's plane

is flying in this
western direction to Berlin,

this plane is going to blow up.

¶ ¶

[telephone rings]

METAXES: It never blew up,

and they couldn't
figure out why.

It's just unbelievable.
They were sure that this was it.

JONES: For some reason,
the primer hadn't tipped over

and it hadn't gone off,
so we don't know really why,

but it was probably cold air at
a high altitude that stopped it.

It's almost as if the devil
was on Hitler's side,

because if something could
go wrong for the conspiracy,

it did.

[telephone rings]

[speaking German]

NARRATOR: Less than a month
after the failed plane bombing,

Vatican spy Josef Müller

is implicated
as an anti-Hitler conspirator.

¶ ¶

ALVAREZ: By the spring of 1943,

��

people in the Nazi police
and security services

were very suspicious of Müller.

He had long been on their radar.

They thought
he was up to something.

They just couldn't
get the evidence.

NARRATOR: Müller knows
if the SS finds any records

of his correspondence
with the Vatican,

everyone involved
in the conspiracy,

all the way up to the Pope,
will be in grave danger.

¶ ¶

[speaking German]

RIEBLING: Müller had
a little bit of advanced warning

that the Gestapo
was going to come,

and he took the time, such as he
had, before the Gestapo arrived,

to bond with his young daughter.

¶ ¶

¶ ¶

NARRATOR: Müller's arrest is a
crippling blow to the conspiracy

and its connection
to the British through the Pope.

For the moment,

it looks as if the quest
to kill Hitler is finally dead.

But a new rebel
is about to emerge

to carry the torch
of the resistance.

Just two days
after Josef Müller's arrest,

Nazi colonel
Claus von Stauffenberg

is gravely wounded
in North Africa.

His war is over,

but his crusade
is about to begin.

NARRATOR: April 7, 1943,

German colonel
Claus von Stauffenberg

is riding in a Nazi convoy
across the Tunisian desert.

[artillery fire]

Seconds later,
he is barely alive,

gravely wounded
in an Allied air raid.

In that moment, the conspiracy
to kill Adolf Hitler is reborn.

[speaking German]

NARRATOR: By the summer of 1943,

the Resistance
has been hopelessly stalled

by several
failed assassination attempts,

and the movement
desperately needs new blood.

JONES: It was only with the
arrival really of Stauffenberg

that we have a man,
who I call the head,

the heart, and the hand
of the conspiracy,

who was prepared
to go the whole hog.

SUSANNE WAGNER:
He had the vision.

He had the drive.
He had the guts.

He was ready to act
and not just discuss.

NARRATOR: Stauffenberg is,

by all appearances,

the model German warrior.

He served with distinction
in Poland, France, and Russia,

even receiving
the Iron Cross for valor.

But with every atrocity
he witnessed in the war zone,

his conscience
weighed more heavily.

JONES: He quickly became
disillusioned

by the disgusting activities

such as killing the mentally
and physically handicapped,

the atrocities on
the Eastern Front against Jews,

against captured Russians,
and captured Poles.

He also, of course, saw Hitler
mismanaging and meddling

in military affairs
and making stupid decisions.

[cannon fire]

And he decided that Hitler
had to be killed come what may.

In Tunisia, he was
extremely badly wounded.

He lost an eye, he lost a hand,

and he lost all but 3 fingers
of his remaining hand,

so he had one eye, one arm,
and only half a hand left.

RIEBLING:
While he was in this body cast,

he did a lot of soul searching.

He had failed to heed
the call of his own conscience

for many years,

but when the doctors
broke Stauffenberg's body cast,

a new man emerged.

¶ ¶

NARRATOR:
As Colonel Stauffenberg

recovers in a Munich hospital,

the Pope's top German spy

is also adjusting
to new surroundings.

Josef Müller, Joey Ox,
has been arrested

on suspicion of high treason.

[speaking German]

NARRATOR: For Pius XII,

Müller's arrest comes
at a particularly bad time.

1943 has brought the war
to his doorstep.

With Allied armies preparing
to invade Italy from the south,

it will only be a matter of time

before the fighting
engulfs Rome itself.

And if Müller talks
or his secret files are found,

Hitler may turn his wrath
on the Vatican.

[explosions]

[speaking Italian]

[explosions]

x

NARRATOR:
On the morning of July 19, 1943,

8

Pius' own beloved city
becomes a war zone.

X

More than 500 American bombers

Z

annihilate German military
targets in and around Rome.

�

EDSEL:
Many people described the sky

as just filled with airplanes.

There were bombs
that went off target

and hit a very, very
densely crowded neighborhood,

killing thousands of people.

NARRATOR: The Pope
knows that neighborhood well.

One of the city's oldest
and most venerated churches,

the Basilica of San Lorenzo,
is directly in the line of fire,

and so is the cemetery
next door,

where Pius' own parents
are buried.

[explosions]

[speaking Italian]

[explosions]

RYCHLAK:
When the bombing raid ends,

he tells people,
'Get the car, get blankets,

get medicine, get money.'
Goes out.

WOMAN: Il Papa! Il Papa!

¶ ¶

He finds where his parents
had been interred,

and their bodies
are blown out of the crypt.

Most people, you would expect

that might be
a breakdown for them,

but he couldn't
break down there.

He had to be there

for the people
who had been injured, killed,

who were suffering.

He was the father figure,
and he was strong,

and people drew
great solace from that.

EDSEL:
World War II had come home

in an extraordinarily
personal way--

witnessing bodies
that had been lined up

one next to the other
in the street,

the Pope kneeling down
to provide blessings

and blood staining his cassock.

This is a Pope
that returns to the Vatican

with this very, very personal
connection to World War II,

and it takes on a gravity
that wasn't there before.

VENTRESCA:
The bombardment angers him.

It saddens him.

But it actually
just confirms for him

that no good can come of war.

NARRATOR: After the bombing,

developments in Rome
come fast and furious.

[speaking Italian]

NARRATOR: Just six days later,

Italian dictator
Benito Mussolini

is arrested
by his own government,

and the future of Italy
is more uncertain than ever.

[speaking German]

EDSEL: Hitler's convinced
that it's a plot,

that somehow
the Vatican's involved

in the removal of Mussolini

and that this is a prelude
to the Italians switching sides.

NARRATOR: Word of Hitler's
designs on the Vatican

quickly reaches Admiral Canaris,

who relays
a warning to the Pope.

With a threat
of a Nazi invasion looming,

Vatican City hunkers down.

ALVAREZ: Assistants to the Pope
were instructed

to keep two suitcases packed
for immediate departure.

One they should keep
at their home

and the other one they
should keep next to their desk

in case
they have to leave quickly.

NARRATOR: The day of reckoning
arrives on September 8th,

when the new Italian government

announces an armistice
with the Allies.

Immediately, Nazi paratroopers
storm into Rome.

Within days,
the Vatican is surrounded.

RYCHLAK: There's a white line
on the ground--

Swiss guards with their pikes
on one side,

Nazi soldiers on the other side
with submachine guns.

NARRATOR: The Holy See
now borders Hitler's Reich,

and Pius' Vatican
is under siege.

EDSEL: It later comes out,
during the Nuremberg trials,

where General Erwin Lahousen
was asked the question

about the intentions of Hitler
trying to kidnap the Pope,

and he said they didn't intend
to kidnap him,

they intended to kill him.

NARRATOR: On September 13, 1943,

Nazi paratroopers
surround St. Peter's,

and the Church of Rome
is under siege.

ALVAREZ: The concern
was that the Germans

would enter Vatican City,

seize the Pope,
seize the archives,

seize the paintings,
the artworks.

RYCHLAK: Hitler wanted to bring
the treasures back to Berlin,

recreate Vatican City
inside of Berlin.

Knowing not only
that they might take stuff

but even that
they might just destroy stuff,

the Vatican tried to protect
these antiquities,

and they did hide things
under the floor,

they did hide things
down in the crypts.

NARRATOR: But there is more
at stake than precious artwork.

Rome's Jewish population,

a fixture in the city
for more than two millennia,

is suddenly threatened
with extinction.

By the fall of 1943,

about 5,000 Roman Jews
are hiding on church property.

RYCHLAK: I talked to a priest
once who was in seminary,

and he said,
'We had so little food.

We were on wartime ration,
and then the Pope told us,

Here's 100 Jews
you have to take in,

and you have to share
your rations with them.'

There are accounts of,

they'll be in the middle
of a Jewish prayer,

and there's a knock at the door,

and they break
into singing the Ave Maria

because they're trying to pass
themselves off as being Catholic

to avoid the persecution
from the Nazis.

NARRATOR: Word of the church's
covert efforts

to save Rome's Jews
soon filters back to Hitler.

The Führer fears the Pope
may finally go a step further

and publicly denounce
the Holocaust

that is now playing out
in his own backyard.

ROBERTSON: Nazi policy
depended very significantly

on the Pope remaining silent

so that all the Catholics
in the SS

could believe that God
might still be on their side.

The Pope's condemnation would
have sounded around the world

and been disastrous
for German foreign policy.

[speaking German]

NARRATOR: After the war,

Hitler's SS commander in Italy,
General Karl Wolff,

would claim
he received top secret orders

right after
the conquest of Rome

to invade the Vatican
and kidnap the Pope.

ALVAREZ: Karl Wolff
is an interesting,

not to say infamous, character

in the history
of the Second World War.

His story is that
he did everything he could

to delay and to undermine
this directive

so that he would not
have to invade the Vatican

and kidnap the Pope.

This claim is very controversial

because Karl Wolff
was a notorious fabricator.

He, on more than one occasion,

rewrote history in order to
improve his standing in history.

KARL WOLFF: Heil Hitler!

NARRATOR: Wolff would also tell
of a secret meeting

he arranged
with Pius months later

to inform him personally
of Hitler's plans

and urge him to refrain from
publicly criticizing Hitler.

[speaking German]

¶ ¶

WOLFF: Heil--

NARRATOR: With the Nazis
in command of his own hometown,

Pius again faces
an agonizing moral quandary--

to condemn the Holocaust
to the world

or hold his tongue for fear
of Hitler's retribution.

¶ ¶

VENTRESCA:
The occupation of Rome

and then the deportation of Jews
in October of 1943

really dramatizes that dilemma
that he's been grappling with.

He has to decide whether to say
something emphatic and public

or again continue along the path
of private diplomatic channels.

He chooses the latter again.

NARRATOR: On October 18th,
more than 1,000 Jews

are taken to Rome's
main railroad station

and herded into boxcars.

70 percent of them
are women and children.

Of these 1,000,
only 16 will survive the war.

BOTEACH:
This happened quite literally

under the windows of St. Peter's

because the Jews were being
rounded up in a military school

just a few blocks
from the Vatican.

Now, imagine
if the Pope would come out

in his flowing white robes
and say,

'Gas me first, but you are never
going to take these Jews,

who live under my protection,
in Rome.'

The Pope could even
have alerted the Jews

to the fact
that they were going to die.

Even that alone would have been

something
very, very significant.

ROBERTSON: Had he made it clear
that participation

in the extermination of a race
was a mortal sin,

that you would burn in hell
if you participated in it,

it certainly would have
prevented decent Catholics

from participating in the
killings of millions of Jews.

RYCHLAK:
If he had made a statement,

what would the impact
have been there?

He was pretty well convinced

that his words
never got behind enemy lines.

So, I mean, is it a fair
question to ask and think about?

Yes.

Do I think it would have
resulted in something better?

I don't really think so.

¶ ¶

NARRATOR: While Hitler imposes
his reign of terror on Rome,

to the south, Allied forces are
advancing up the boot of Italy.

For those trapped
inside the Vatican,

liberation
can't come soon enough.

Meanwhile,
700 miles to the north,

a devout member of Pius' flock

is plotting a liberation
strategy of his own.

German Colonel
Claus von Stauffenberg

is determined to destroy
Adolf Hitler once and for all,

and a new assignment
will soon offer him

the best chance yet to succeed.

NARRATOR: November 5, 1943.

As the battle
for Rome intensifies,

bombs fall on Vatican City.

HAROLD TITTMANN:
All of the sudden,

these loud explosions took place
and everything,

windows rattled and,
uh, everything shook,

and it was quite scary.

The next day we saw
how much damage had been done.

Actually, it was a miracle
that nobody was killed.

NARRATOR: The explosions damage
a Vatican office building,

the mosaic factory,

and priceless
stained glass windows

designed by Renaissance icon
Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

The bomber's identity
is never determined.

But the mysterious attack

underscores
the ever-present danger

looming over Pope Pius
and his Church.

As the pontiff
prays for deliverance

from the evil
that surrounds him,

a Catholic holy warrior

is preparing
to strike at its source.

Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg

is the last, best hope
for the German Resistance.

[speaking German]

JONES: After recovering
from his injuries,

he was recruited as chief
of staff of the Reserve Army,

whose official purpose was

to act as a sort
of National Guard

in American terms.

They were chiefly
meant to be used

in case there was
a rising in Germany

by the thousands and thousands
of slave workers

who were, by that time, the soul
source of German economy.

Under the cover of this plan

to put down a rising
by the slave workers,

which was code named Valkyrie,

Stauffenberg devised a plan
within a plan called Valkyrie 2.

NARRATOR:
It would be the ultimate ruse.

Stauffenberg would use
his Reserve Army

not to protect the Nazi regime,
but to dismantle it.

After killing Hitler,

he would mobilize his units
throughout the Reich

to suppress civil unrest,
while he worked secretly

to implement
a new anti-Nazi government.

[speaking German]

RIEBLING: We know from
the testimony of Father Leiber

that Pius XII was briefed
in great detail

about what Stauffenberg
had planned,

namely Hitler's elimination

through a bomb
that was going to be planted

by a Catholic agent
in the German Resistance.

[door opens]

[speaking Italian]

[door closes]

¶ ¶

NARRATOR: As Colonel
Stauffenberg sharpens his sword,

American forces
triumphantly enter Rome.

ANNOUNCER: As Army men
drive through the city,

past the Colosseum,

place of ancient Roman holidays
of quite a different nature,

the population
gives itself up to excitement

as the shackles
of German domination fall away.

NARRATOR: On June 4, 1944,
after a nine-month siege,

Vatican City's
prayers are answered.

[bells ringing]

[cheering]

¶ ¶

...et Filii et Spiritus Sancti.
Amen.

¶ ¶

¶ ¶

[speaking German]

NARRATOR: Six weeks
after the liberation of Rome,

Claus von Stauffenberg
stands on the eve of infamy.

JONES: He was
a devout Catholic.

We know that he went
into a Catholic church in Berlin

the night before the conspiracy
and prayed.

¶ ¶

¶ ¶

RIEBLING: He went
into a confessional booth,

and he asked the priest there
for St. Leo's absolution,

which Catholics
can traditionally be granted

before battle or before
some extraordinary event,

which is likely
to lead to their death.

¶ ¶

RIEBLING: Stauffenberg then left
the church and got into a car,

and told his driver to pick
him up early the next morning,

went inside his house,
closed the drapes,

and packed his suitcase with
two lumps of plastic explosive.

¶ ¶

NARRATOR: For five years,
a brave group of Germans

has quietly conspired
to reclaim their country

from the grip of evil.

Today, with their country
sputtering

hopelessly toward annihilation,

they will make
their final stand.

NARRATOR: All hopes rest with
Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg,

a decorated warrior
and dedicated Catholic

who believes
his cause is justified

by St. Thomas Aquinas'
teaching on tyrannicide.

ESCORT: Heil Hitler!

STAUFFENBERG: Heil Hitler!

NARRATOR:
At 11 A.M., he arrives

at Hitler's top secret military
complex in East Prussia,

known as the Wolf's Lair,
with two bombs in his briefcase.

[speaking German]

JONES: Some minutes
into the conference,

he made an excuse
to leave the room,

allegedly
to take a telephone call

that would apprise him
of the latest news from Berlin.

METAXES: He wasn't planning
to die with Hitler.

He was planning to live.
He had a wife, children,

so he leaves and basically
hustles out of there.

[explosion]

WAGNER: He heard the explosion.
He saw it.

Windows were smashed.

Bodies were flying
through the air.

[car starts]

JONES: He immediately
got into his car

and drove through the two inner
and outer perimeter gates

of the headquarters.

¶ ¶

NARRATOR: Within minutes,

Stauffenberg is on a plane
back to Berlin,

certain that his mission
has succeeded.

[explosion]

JONES: He arrived back
shortly after 4:00,

at the headquarters
of the conspirators

in the Bendlerblock.

He then set about
phoning officers

all around occupying Europe,

giving them
the code word Valkyrie,

setting off the conspiracy,

but the news came through that
Hitler had survived the bomb,

that he'd only been
lightly wounded.

[hangs up phone]

¶ ¶

¶ ¶

¶ ¶

¶ ¶

METAXES: It's hard for us to
believe that history can hinge

on something as strange,
as quirky, as furniture design.

[explosion]

He sees that the bomb has gone
off, but what he doesn't know

is that in the two minutes or so
that he'd been out of the room,

someone who had been sitting
at the table

or felt the briefcase,

and it was just sort of
in an awkward position,

so that person looks down
and just picks it up

and moves it a couple of feet

to the other side
of what was a plinth,

a gigantic piece of wood
holding up the table.

So, it wasn't held up
by standard legs.

That pillar holding up the table

deflected the blast
of the explosion

such that Hitler survived.

NARRATOR: Hitler escapes
with injuries so minor

that he is able to keep
an afternoon appointment

with deposed Italian dictator
Benito Mussolini,

who is now
in Nazi protective custody,

and even give him a tour
of the bombing site.

That night, the Führer
appears on the radio

to quell the fast-spreading
rumors of his demise.

JONES: Hitler gave
immediate carte blanche

to arrest all the conspirators,

and that was
the end of the conspiracy.

[shouting in German]

[rifles cocking]

[shouting commands]

[gunshots]

JONES:
Stauffenberg was taken down

into the courtyard
of the Bendlerblock

and executed
by an impromptu court-martial.

[shouting]

¶ ¶

[shouting command]

[shouting command]

STAUFFENBERG: Es lebe unser
heiliges Deutschland!

[gunshots]

[shouting command]

JONES: His last words were,

'Es lebe
unser heiliges Deutschland!'

Long live our sacred Germany.

NARRATOR: For years,
this conspiracy to kill Hitler

has operated in the shadows,

largely evading the notice
of an all-seeing regime.

The Stauffenberg plot was to be

its long awaited moment
of redemption.

[shouting command]

NARRATOR: Instead,
it will be the death knell.

[shouting command]

[gunshots]

JONES: Because Hitler comes
so close to being killed,

he took revenge, and the whole
conspiracy began to unravel.

[drill whirring]

RIEBLING: In September 1944,

a bunch of documents
were uncovered

in a safe
in the Abwehr headquarters

incriminating
not only the German Resistance

and plot against Hitler,

but showing their links
to Pius XII.

NARRATOR: Among the documents
is the handwritten note,

on papal stationery,

endorsing the removal
of Hitler's regime.

ALVAREZ: This is
the most incriminating evidence

as far as the Vatican
is concerned

that they could possibly find,
because what used to be

only a supposition
of the Pope's involvement

now becomes a near certainty.

RIEBLING: This piece of paper

and other documents
which were found

put the Nazis back
on their heels.

And when Hitler saw
what they contained,

he couldn't get out of bed
for a week.

[door opens]

RIEBLING:
The medical reports show

that he had
a very disturbed nervous system.

WAGNER: He was utterly
frustrated when he realized

how widespread this
July 20th event, in fact, was.

He really was hoping it was
just a small group of officers,

and then he realized that
it was much more widespread,

that it was not
just within Germany,

but it was, in fact,

also leading
all the way up to the Vatican.

That was a shock to him.

[footsteps]

RIEBLING: Perhaps this was
so upsetting to Hitler

because he had once had been
a very believing Catholic.

As he came
toward the end of his life,

it was probably deeply and
subconsciously disturbing to him

to think
that the supreme authority

of Christian moral power
in the world

had aligned itself against him
and his projects.

[speaking Latin]

¶ ¶

¶ ¶

NARRATOR: Hitler is finally
roused from bed

by eye drops laced with cocaine.

His vigor restored,
he resolves to annihilate

all the members
of the conspiracy

while he still can.

JONES: Revenge was
very sweet for him.

He was in an almost bloodlust
outburst of killing.

[explosion]

NARRATOR: In the weeks
after the Wolf's Lair attack

on Adolf Hitler,

the conspiracy against him
unravels quickly,

and the trail of evidence leads
all the way to the Vatican.

Pope Pius' top German spy,
Joey Ox,

has been in prison
for over a year,

but now,
he's headed to death row.

[door slams]

RIEBLING: In November 1944,

when Josef Müller
was in Gestapo custody,

he was presented
by an SS officer

with the original piece
of papal stationery

on which Father Robert Leiber,
the Pope's deputy,

had written
the British peace terms in 1940.

This was a clear smoking gun
and, at this point,

Müller knew that he and Pius XII
were caught dead to rights.

¶ ¶

RIEBLING: The Gestapo officer
went silent, and he said...

[door closes]

RIEBLING: And he left the room.
Well, Müller wasted no time.

¶ ¶

When the SS officer returned
about 10 minutes later,

he just pretended

that the piece of paper
had never even existed.

NARRATOR: Gone is
a direct piece of evidence

implicating Pius
in the plot to kill Hitler.

But for Müller and his
accomplices in Gestapo custody,

the punishment
is only just beginning.

[grunting]

METAXES: That was the dark hour
of these people.

Müller and others
were tortured horribly.

RYCHLAK: He was chained,
he was beaten, he was cut,

and they held
virtually nothing back.

But he never broke.

¶ ¶

NARRATOR:
A long, agonizing winter passes

in solitary confinement.

Outside the prison walls,

Hitler's Reich is crumbling
by the day,

L

and the Führer
focuses his final wrath

on those who betrayed him.

ROBERTSON:
He ordered that Canaris,

great figure in German military
history of the first World War,

should actually be killed in
the most torturous way possible.

¶ ¶

¶ ¶

[choking]

¶ ¶

JONES: They deliberately
strung out his hanging

so that he lost consciousness

and then revived him
and hung him again

so that he would, as
they put it, taste death twice.

¶ ¶

[speaking German]

[choking]

ROBERTSON: And Hitler directed
the best cinematographer

to take colored movies
of the agonies

of Canaris
and the other plotters,

and these were delivered to him
in the bunker

so that he could,
as it were, rub his hands

and delectate
over the monstrous way

that his enemies
were being killed.

¶ ¶

NARRATOR: Those films captured
the final moments of Canaris

and many other conspirators,
but not Josef Müller.

[speaking German]

[airplanes]

RIEBLING: Müller prayed.
He thought of his daughter,

who was that day going
to receive her First Communion,

and he thought,

'Well, at least as I am being
led to my death at the gallows,

maybe even at this same moment,

my daughter
is walking down the aisle

to receive the bread
of eternal life.'

¶ ¶

¶ ¶

RIEBLING: He, any second,
expected to be joining

Canaris, Oster,
and the others who were hanged,

but as he stood there,
nothing happened.

[aircraft approaching]

[speaking German]

NARRATOR: In the waning hours
of World War II,

with Allied
forces closing in fast,

Pope Pius'
most valued secret agent

stands on the precipice
of imminent death.

[airplanes]

RIEBLING: Josef Müller
was taken to the gallows.

He was held there
for a couple hours

while bombers
were going overhead.

And, after a while,
he was led back inside.

¶ ¶

And the next morning,

he got up and looked
out the bars of his cell,

and he saw what seemed like
snowflakes drifting in,

and the flakes floating
into Müller's jail cell

were all that remained
of his friends.

It wasn't until after the war

that Müller realized
that he had been saved

by a telephone call
literally at the last minute.

NARRATOR: It turns out Joey Ox

has an old friend
in Hitler's bodyguard.

During a cigarette break outside
the Führer's Berlin bunker,

SS General Hans Rattenhuber

hears about Müller's
impending execution

from fellow officer
Ernst Kaltenbrunner,

who had led the manhunt
for the conspirators.

RIEBLING: Rattenhuber said,

'Can't you strike his name
off the list?'

And Kaltenbrunner agreed
under the pretext

that, well,
maybe Josef Müller,

because of his close connections
to the Vatican,

could help negotiate
more favorable surrender terms

during the last days
of the Reich.

[airplanes]

[distant explosions]

RYCHLAK: I mean, talk about
a man who really was a hero.

When you read the torture
he went through,

how close he came
to actually being executed.

Müller went on
to be an important man

throughout Europe after the war.

He's sometimes called
the godfather of the euro,

and helping build Europe
into a stronger, unified entity.

¶ ¶

[speaking Italian]

RIEBLING: On June 1, 1945,
Joey Ox, Josef Müller,

entered Pius XII's apartment
in Rome.

According to Müller,
Pius crossed the room,

greeted him
like a long-lost son.

They embraced and, during
the next two or three hours,

Pius XII would not let go
of Müller's hands.

They talked about all
that Müller had been through,

and they discussed
the plots against Hitler.

[speaking German]

NARRATOR:
Pope Pius XII would serve

another 13 years as pontiff,

dying in 1958
at the age of 82.

At the time of his death,
he was lauded the world over

as a towering figure
in the cause of world peace.

¶ ¶

But in the decades
since his papacy,

he has been criticized
for his decision

not to condemn the Nazis by name
during the war.

Some have even called him
'Hitler's Pope.'

ROBERTSON: I believe
that although he wasn't

in any sense pro-Nazi,

he was nonetheless Hitler's Pope
in the sense that his silence

for four or five years during,
uh, these terrible events

was simply a profoundly
mistaken decision.

BOTEACH:
No one's saying the Pope

never helped to save Jews
secretly, quietly.

What we are saying is that he
never put his life on the line.

He didn't put the Church
on the line.

The most effective way
of stopping Hitler

was not through
these secret spy networks.

The world did not need Pope Pius

to suddenly become
the head of the CIA.

We needed him to be what he was,
or purported to be--

the moral voice to the world.

NARRATOR: But supporters of Pius
contend that his silence was

a justifiable strategy to avoid
adding fuel to Hitler's fire.

EDSEL: I think sometimes
in the debate

what gets missing
is that Pope Pius XII,

before he was the Pope,
was a man,

and no man is perfect.

I think Pope Pius the XII
had sincere determination

to protect the Church.

It's an awesome responsibility,

one that's hard for any of us
to fathom.

For those that say
he was the silent Pope,

consider that circumstances
are unpredictable.

They have unpredictable
consequences.

NARRATOR: In the midst of
this battle over Pius' legacy,

there was an ongoing movement
to make him a saint.

In 2009,
he was declared venerable,

the first of three steps
to canonization.

VENTRESCA:
The biggest problem I have

with the canonization cause
is those doubts,

that nagging sense
that, perhaps at times,

he just was too timid
or too diplomatic

and just didn't show enough
of the prophetic voice.

Those lingering questions,
I think,

make it very difficult
to think of this man as a saint.

Robert Leiber,
who knew him well,

worked with him very closely,
reportedly said, in Italian,

'Grande, si. Santo, no.'

Great, yes.
A saint, no.

NARRATOR: This debate
about Pius' wartime conduct

provokes broader questions
that transcend history.

How directly should
religious leaders intervene