Kazimierz Papée (sometimes Anglicized Casimir, January 10, 1889 – January 19, 1979) was the ambassador from

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

to the

Holy See The Holy See (, ; ), also called the See of Rome, the Petrine See or the Apostolic See, is the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City. It encompasses the office of the pope as the Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishop ...

from 1939 to 1958, during and after World War II. Due to the Nazi invasion of Poland months after Papée's appointment, Papée represented the

Polish government-in-exile The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile (), was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Poland of September 1939, and the subsequent Occupation ...

for the remainder of

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...

's papacy, before being dismissed by his successor,

Pope John XXIII Pope John XXIII (born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli; 25 November 18813 June 1963) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 28 October 1958 until his death on 3 June 1963. He is the most recent pope to take ...

Early life

Kazimierz Papée was born January 10, 1889, in

Lwów Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

. His father Fryderyk was a renowned historian employed by the Ossolineum, his mother Wladyslawa was daughter of poet Wladyslaw Anczyc. In 1905, the family moved to

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

, where Fryderyk Papée got a job at the library of the

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (, UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by Casimir III the Great, King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and one of the List of oldest universities in con ...

. Kazimierz graduated from law department of the Jagiellonian University, later receiving his PhD. During World War I, he served in the Polish Legions (1915–1916), and after the war, when

regained independence, he became a diplomat, working in Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On April 1, 1920, Kazimierz Papée took a job in Polish legation in

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

, and two years later he was transferred to Berlin. In 1923, after returning to Poland, Papée became a deputy to the Director of the Political Department. On January 14, 1924, he took the post of

chargé d'affaires A (), plural ''chargés d'affaires'', often shortened to ''chargé'' (French) and sometimes in colloquial English to ''charge-D'', is a diplomat who serves as an embassy's chief of mission in the absence of the ambassador. The term is Frenc ...

of the Polish legation in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

, where he remained until December 1, 1924. The next four years Papée spent in Poland, working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On January 1, 1928, he became director of the consular office of the Polish legation in

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

. In the first half of 1929, he worked in the Polish legation in

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

, and on July 16, 1929, he became general consul of Poland in

Königsberg Königsberg (; ; ; ; ; ; , ) is the historic Germany, German and Prussian name of the city now called Kaliningrad, Russia. The city was founded in 1255 on the site of the small Old Prussians, Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teuton ...

Polish High Commissioner of Danzig

Papée became the "Polish High Commissioner of Danzig" on February 12, 1932; the "nomination was taken to mean that Poland intended to take a stronger attitude toward the Free City". Papée thus served as Poland's diplomatic representative to the

Free City of Danzig The Free City of Danzig (; ) was a city-state under the protection and oversight of the League of Nations between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) and nearly 200 other small localities in the surrou ...

, in which role he dealt with the Polish boycott of the city. As envoy, Papée's main demand was that the Free City turn over its customs revenue to Poland. Papée negotiated primarily with Arthur Greiser, the President of the Danzig Senate. The dispute and the ensuing reprisals became known as the "customs war". Papée was ultimately successful in obtaining the concession from Danzig. Papée combatted Nazi efforts to eliminate the

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

role in the governance of the Free City. Papée persuaded Greiser not to enforce various decrees designed to suppress the Danzig Opposition. Papée continued to convey the protests of Colonel

Józef Beck Józef Beck (; 4 October 1894 – 5 June 1944) was a Polish statesman who served the Second Republic of Poland as a diplomat and military officer. A close associate of Józef Piłsudski, Beck is most famous for being Polish foreign minister in ...

to Greiser.

Envoy in Prague

In 1938, Papée was relocated to

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

as envoy to Czechoslovakia, siding with the Czechs against Germany in the Sudetenland crisis. Papée held the diplomatic rank of "Minister".''New York Times''. 1939, June 24. "Poland Sends Papee to Vatican". p. 2. Polish-Czech tension was raised as well, and Papée soon lodged protests against Czech troop movements near the Polish border, and radio propaganda.

Ambassador to the Holy See

Papée was appointed ambassador to the Holy See on June 23, 1939. The post had lain vacant since the 1937 death of Władysław Skrzyński. Papée attended to

's attempts to mediate the disputes between Germany and Poland. Papée unsuccessfully pressured Pius XII to more strongly speak out against the situation in occupied Poland throughout the war.Phayer, 2000, p. 23. For example, Papée met with Pius XII on September 30, 1940—along with Cardinal August Hlond, the

primate of Poland This is a list of archbishops of the Archdiocese of Gniezno, who are simultaneously primates of Poland since 1418.Wladimir Ledóchowski, the Superior General of the Jesuits—but all three left disappointed when Pius XII declined to condemn the double invasion of Poland because he did not want the Vatican "to become a platform for Polish objections against Germany". However, Pius XII's June 3, 1941, and May 21, 1943, meetings with Papée were perceived as ''de facto'' recognition of the

. Papée never accepted Pius XII's proposal to accept the Nazi annexation of a portion of Poland. Later, in May 1942, he complained to Cardinal Secretary of State Luigi Maglione that Pius XII had not condemned the recent wave of terror in Poland. When Maglione replied that it was impossible to document such atrocities, Papée retorted "there was sufficient proof and, besides, when something becomes notorious, proof is not required". Papée reported after the war: "I remember when I came to see the Holy Father for ..perhaps the tenth time in 1944; he was angry. When he saw me as I entered the room and stood at the door awaiting permission to approach, he raised both his arms in a gesture of exasperation. 'I have listened again and again to your representations about Our unhappy children in Poland. Must I be given the same story yet again?'".Phayer, 2000, p. 61. Papée pressured Pius XII to speak out not only against the persecution of Poles, but also against

The Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

. Papée was present in a 1944 audience with Polish officers where Pius XII urged Poland to avoid retribution against Germany or Russia. By 1953, Papée was entitled by virtue of seniority to the title of dean of the

diplomatic corps The diplomatic corps () is the collective body of foreign diplomats accredited to a particular country or body. The diplomatic corps may, in certain contexts, refer to the collection of accredited heads of mission ( ambassadors, high commis ...

, but had not acted as dean for years due to his continuing representation of the government-in-exile, not Communist Poland.

revoked Papée's accreditation as ambassador in December 1958, in a move that somewhat improved relations between the Vatican and the

People's Republic of Poland The Polish People's Republic (1952–1989), formerly the Republic of Poland (1947–1952), and also often simply known as Poland, was a country in Central Europe that existed as the predecessor of the modern-day democratic Republic of Poland. ...

. Also de-recognized was Stanislovas Girdvainis, the ambassador of the Lithuanian government-in-exile.

Memoir

After the war, Papée published ''Pius XII i Polska'' (''Pius XII and Poland'', 1954), documenting the policies of Pius XII vis-a-vis Poland from 1939 to 1949. He wrote that when he pleaded with Pius XII to denounce or condemn the mass killing centers of Auschwitz and Birkenau, he received only a generic reply: "The Vatican is always ready to alleviate all misery due to war" (p. 94). Papée wrote memos to the Pope notifying him specifically about topics such as the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto, mass executions in specialized killing centers, and mass deportations of Jews.Phayer, 2000, p. 48. He died on January 19, 1979, in Rome. Dr.

Dariusz Libionka Dariusz Marian Libionka (born 25 June 1963 in Bielsko-Biała) is a Polish historian affiliated with the Institute of National Remembrance in Lublin. Life Dariusz Libionka graduated from the Catholic University of Lublin (''KUL'') and the School f ...

's analysis of Papée's attempts to get Pius XII to act or speak out against the Holocaust in Poland is bluntly titled "Against a Brick Wall".

Notes

References

* Chadwick, Owen. 1988. ''Britain and the Vatican During the Second World War''. Cambridge University Press. *Luxmoore, Jonathan, and Babiuch, Jolanta. 2000. ''The Vatican and the red flag''. * Phayer, Michael. 2000. ''The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930–1965''. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Papee, Kazimierz 1889 births 1979 deaths Jagiellonian University alumni Ambassadors of Poland to the Holy See Pope Pius XII foreign relations Polish Underground State History of Catholicism in Poland Polish people of French descent Diplomats from Lviv