June 17, 2009. The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano has reported that Hitler had intentions to assassinate Pius XII as a revenge against the Italians who arrested his ally Benito Mussolini.

According to the reconstruction of the events, the plot was being planned at the Reich’s General Headquarters in Berlin at the end of July 1943.

The Vatican newspaper says Hitler wanted to teach Italy a lesson by deporting or killing the King of Italy and the pope.

But the head of the German intelligence service at the time, admiral Wilhelm Canaris, decided to boycott the operation.

He told an Italian general who spread the word in Rome that the Nazis wanted to kill the pope. After that, the plan was abandoned.

Three years later, admiral Canaris was executed for participating in Operation Walkyria, the failed plot to assassinate Hitler.


JMB/RS