Vatican Assistance to Soviet Prisoners of War During and After World War II

Abstract

During the Second World War, the Vatican was active in humanitarian work, setting up its own charitable institutions, among them the Aid Commission. For the first time in Russian historiography, the article examines the principles and methods of its work with Soviet prisoners of war, examines the process of gathering information on their situation and numbers, describes the preparation and distribution of gifts to prisoners of war, states the financial costs of the Commission, examines the views of members of the State Secretariat of the Holy See on the issue of repatriation. The article draws on the materials of the Vatican Apostolic Archives that were opened to researchers in spring 2020: the records of the Aid Commission, the Nunciature and the Congregation for Extraordinary Church Affairs of the 2nd Section of the State Secretariat of the Holy See, which contain information on how the Commission obtained information on POWs and also make it possible to reconstruct the decision-making process on aid issues. The work of the Aid Commission followed the principles of helping those in need and advocating for the protection of human rights. The study identified the mechanism behind the work of the Aid Commission and the key role of the Nuncios in it. Through representatives of the Holy See, icons, religious literature, clothing and symbolic gifts were sent to the camps. The Vatican systematically replenished the Commission's funds towards these needs. In the post-war years, the problem of the forced repatriation of Soviet prisoners of war to the USSR came to the fore.