Kazimierz Papée

His father Fryderyk was a renowned historian employed by the Ossolineum,[1] his mother Wladyslawa was daughter of poet Wladyslaw Anczyc.

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".

[13] Polish-Czech tension was raised as well, and Papée soon lodged protests against Czech troop movements near the Polish border, and radio propaganda.

[16][17] For example, Papée met with Pius XII on September 30, 1940—along with Cardinal August Hlond, the primate of Poland, and 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".

[22] 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.

[23] Papée was present in a 1944 audience with Polish officers where Pius XII urged Poland to avoid retribution against Germany or Russia.

[25] Pope John XXIII 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.

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).

Dr. Dariusz Libionka'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".