A Special Mission: Hitler's Secret Plot to Seize the Vatican and Kidnap Pope Pius XII by Kurzman Dan

Author:Kurzman, Dan [Kurzman, Dan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Published: 2007-05-07T00:00:00+00:00

The king, in fact, was being true to an ancient Roman tradition. Particularly before the destruction of Jerusalem two thousand years ago, Roman leaders had often been good to the Jews by ancient standards. Julius Caesar had treated them so well that when he was assassinated they wept for him and chanted dirges. And they bewailed for a whole week the death of Augustus, who had enriched the Temple of Jerusalem with costly gifts and had encouraged the Jews to strictly observe their Sabbath. They did—refusing to lose their identity whoever sat on the conqueror’s throne in Rome.

Kappler thought he had found a way to save the Jews, and, at the same time, enrich the Gestapo. And Wolff apparently approved of it. The colonel’s tone thus suddenly changed in his confrontation with Almansi and Foa and his angular face hardened, accentuating the long, thin scar that crossed his left cheek.

“You and your co-religionists,” he said quietly, “are Italian nationals, but that is of minor importance to me. We Germans consider you only as Jews and therefore our enemy. Rather, to be more precise, we consider you a distinct group, but not completely apart from the worst enemies we are fighting. And we will treat you accordingly.”

Almansi and Foa listened with dread, finally realizing that their community was in grave danger.

“It is not your lives or the lives of your children that we will take—if you agree to our demands,” Kappler went on. “It is your gold we want, in order to buy new arms for our country. Within thirty-six hours you must pay fifty kilograms of gold. If you pay, you will not be harmed. If you do not, two hundred of your Jews will be arrested and deported to Germany, where they will be sent to the Russian frontier or otherwise rendered harmless.”

The shocked Jewish leaders persuaded Kappler to extend the deadline by more than four hours and pridefully turned down an offer of men and vehicles to help them collect the gold. As they were leaving, Kappler warned: “Keep in mind that I have conducted a number of operations like this in the past, and all ended well. I failed only once, and a few hundred of your brothers paid with their lives.” As Kappler departed, he felt rather proud of himself; the Jewish lives for gold idea was his own. He could only hope that Hitler and Himmler would realize it made sense and that, with the Jews safe, there was no need to take action against the Vatican.

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