Adolf Hitler and the wartime Pope, Pius XII, discussed a secret co-operation using Queen Victoria’s great-grandson as a go-between, newly published Vatican documents have revealed.
In long-distance negotiations held between 1939 and 1941, Pius discussed stifling criticism of Hitler in return for an end to the Nazi crackdown on the church in Germany, according to archive material hidden for 80 years by the Vatican.
The secret communications were conducted with the help of Hitler’s emissary, Prince Philipp of Hesse, a 36-year-old German aristocrat descended from Queen Victoria who was a third cousin of the Queen.
“Outside Hitler’s political circle, Philipp was one of the closest people to him,” said the US historian David Kertzer, who discovered the documents and will publish his findings this month