New York - Four months after Germany was defeated in the second World War, Pope Pius XII asked Gen Eisenhower not to stand in the way of attempts to create a new majority Catholic country from Austria and parts of Germany, according to national archive documents.
The declassified documents were provided to Reuters on Tuesday by the World Jewish Congress as part of its research into Pius XII's role in the Holocaust. The information comes from a summary of an audience the Pope granted Eisenhower, the US commander, and Gen Mark Clark, who led US troops in Austria, from September 17th, 1945. The wartime pontiff, whose failure to more publicly protest at the Holocaust is seen by Jews as one of the bitterest examples of how Europe betrayed their people, sought a new central European state dominated by Catholics to be led by Archduke Otto, heir to the Hapsburg throne in Austria.