The Second World War through Jesuit Archives

The case of Europe (1939-1945)

Introduction

This online exhibition accompanies a book of the same name, which is the result of the first collaborative project by individual European Jesuit archives to promote their holdings within a single volume. Spanning the years 1939–1945, it brings together contributions from Jesuit archives across Europe to provide a comprehensive overview of their collections relating to the Second World War.

The war years were a time of profound disruption for the Society of Jesus, as for the wider world. Many Jesuits were conscripted or volunteered for military service, often as chaplains, while others faced imprisonment, deportation to concentration camps, or execution. Jesuit properties suffered damage, confiscation, or conversion to wartime use, severely limiting the Society’s educational, pastoral, and social justice work. Yet, despite these hardships, the Society’s global membership continued to grow during this period, with Europe remaining central to its mission and identity.

Drawing from 17 European Jesuit Archives, including Britain, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lebanon, the Low Countries, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, and Spain, this online exhibition showcases archival documents relating to the period of the Second World War.

Interactive map:
Documents from the European Jesuit Archives

For the best viewing experience, please use a laptop or desktop computer and switch to full-screen mode. Clicking the icons on the map will display a brief description of each document and its archival source. Click any image to enter the exhibition. To exit full-screen mode, press Esc.

Common threads

Across these national contexts, common threads emerge: resistance and collaboration, the trials of occupation, displacement and evacuation, chaplaincy service, and post-war recovery. Some of these are explored below.

Most Jesuits, unlike many European men, did not serve as soldiers or rarely lost their homes to the war. Although some faced danger and even death, most were safer and better off than much of Europe’s population.

Imprisonment & Deportation

The imprisonment of Jesuits is frequently discussed in the volume, as are the deportations of Jesuits to concentration camps. One example is Adolf Kajpr SJ (1902-59), a journalist and preacher belonging to the Czech Province, who was arrested on 20 March 1941 and imprisoned in Mauthausen and then Dachau. Although he survived to the end of the war, he was later imprisoned again under the communist regime and subsequently died in prison. In 2019, a beatification process for Kajpr was begun.

Accounts of executions and war tragedies abound in the book, such as the death of the Polish Jesuit Marian Morawski (1881–1940). He was a known theologian, a professor at Jagiellonian University in Kraków, a member of many scientific societies and a social activist, who died in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

The Czech magazine Dorost, No. 26, year XXI (25.6.1939), containing an article by Adolf Kajpr SJ (1902–59).

©Czech Province of the Society of Jesus Archiv, Ref: Collection of periodicals, folder entitled Dorost.

Medal awarded to Pierre Chaillet SJ (1900–72) in 1982 for his resistance work by Yad Vashem.

©Archives Jésuites EOF France, Ref: Fonds personnel du Père Pierre Chaillet TCh1.1

Resistance

Jesuit documents attest to the persecution of Jews and other vulnerable populations during the war. In Italy, Jesuits were instrumental in assisting baptised Jews, while in countries like Belgium, Greece, Hungary, and Poland, they actively hid and supported Jews.

An example from Greece is the case of Ioannis Marangos SJ (1901-1989), who sheltered a Jewish boy, during the German occupation of Athens by concealing his identity as a fictitious Catholic nephew from Syros. He cared for the child’s physical and educational needs throughout the occupation until the end of the war when he was reunited with his family.

Sixteen Jesuits from various European provinces, including Marangos, were later honoured with the title “Righteous Among the Nations” by the Yad Vashem Institute.

Military Activity

A distinctive role played by some Jesuits during the war was as military chaplains, whilst in some European countries they were enlisted in the army. For example, in France, most of the Jesuits who joined the French army were called up as soldiers, through conscription. Only a small number enlisted as military chaplains, most of whom were already serving as student chaplains. In Hungary, Jesuit brothers of military age were drafted into the army, with less than half returning to the Society after the war.

Some Jesuits received medals in recognition for their service, for example the British Richard Worsley SJ (1889–1972) received the Atlantic Star, Italy Star, 1939-1945 Star, and the Defence Medal.

Photograph of Guglielmo Misserville SJ (1903–65) military chaplain, celebrating a Mass with the troops, undated photograph and unknown location.

©Archivio Storico Provincia Euro-Mediterranea della Compagnia di Gesù, Ref: AEMSI, Fondo Provincia Romana, serie fascicoli personali, vol. LXVIII, fasc. 1866

Photograph of pupils at the Belgium College, Buxton, 21 February 1941. The photo is signed on the reverse by some of the pupils stating where they were from.

Evacuations

Some Jesuits were forced to evacuate buildings and cities, and in some cases even their native countries, due to the effects of the war.

One example is that the Belgian Jesuits, under the leadership of Robert Jourdain SJ (1897–1952) and Edouard Goulet SJ (1881–1965), founded a college for ninety Belgian pupils, both Flemish and Walloon, In Buxton, England, in preparation for entrance to universities in Belgium after the war. They all came from different schools in Belgium. The Jesuit college was housed at the buildings at The Grange, Park Road, and was subsidised by the Belgian government. The Prime Minister of Belgium, Hubert Pierlot (1883–1963), even sent four of his sons to the Jesuit College in Buxton.

Confiscation

Jesuits in various European Provinces had buildings confiscated or requisitioned for war efforts.

For example in Malta the Jesuit College at Birkirkara attracted the attention of the authorities. In June 1940, the college was transformed into a dormitory for patients, hospital wards, and an operating theatre. Later that year, medical students began receiving their lectures in the college. A large underground air-raid shelter began to be excavated and an old building was turned into the hospital’s mortuary.

Extract from Chaplains' Weekly 28 December 1941 which includes passages of Bishop von Gallen's sermon as reportedly quoted in the Canadian Messenger in which he notes the confiscation of German Jesuit buildings.

©British Jesuit Archives, Ref: Chaplains' Weekly series

Copy of a letter from the Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, Berlin to the editor of Stimmen der Zeit, Theo Hoffmann SJ (1890–1953), giving a “reprimand” and further measures threatened for similar “offences” in the future.

©Archiv der Zentraleuropäischen Provinz der Jesuiten, Ref: APECESJ, Dept. 48 - 19, No. 3.6

Publications

The role of Jesuit publications are also often discussed in the book.

For example, the German Stimmen der Zeit [Voices of the time], which had a circulation of around 5,000 copies in the 1930s. It soon came into conflict with the Nazi regime due to its critical examination of contemporary issues, in particular the Myth of the Twentieth Century, the main work of Nazi party ideologist Alfred Rosenberg (1892–1946), which was first published in 1930. As a result, the magazine was repeatedly subjected to censorship and other repressive measures, including the first search of the writers’ house in Munich’s Veterinärstraße, where the editorial office was located, in June 1937.

Pastoral Work

Even as the war hindered, and at times completely halted, their pastoral work, the Jesuits continued to operate schools and parishes and to offer other ministries, for example British Jesuits managed Osterley as a house of studies, a sort of ‘pre-seminary’ for delayed vocations and retreats for soldiers were held here too.

Pastoral care also remained significant in the postwar period. The personal papers of several Belgian Jesuits record their ministry to political collaborators; for example, the archives of Maurice Claeys-Bouüaert SJ (1882–1956) contain extensive files documenting his mediation in cases involving victims of persecution and repression between 1942 and 1956.

Retreatants at Osterley.

Front cover of the published diary of István Koch SJ (1904–89), on the last two years of the Hungarian Jesuits mission and the civil conflict in China (1945–46). The diary’s typewritten copy was made a few years after the events. It was published in Hungary: Vámos, Péter ed.: Bevégeztetett. Koch István naplója a magyar jezsuiták kínai missziójának pusztulásáról [It is finished. István Koch’s diary on the dissolution of the Hungarian Jesuits’ Chinese Mission]. Budapest: Terebess, 1999.

Overseas Missions

In 1926, the Jesuit mission to Hong Kong was founded and entrusted to the Irish Province: at the time politically administered by the United Kingdom, in 1939, the Hong Kong area was the base for thirty-four Irish Jesuits, who ran Wah Yan College, Ricci Hall (a Catholic hostel of the University of Hong Kong), and Loyola Language School; Irish Jesuits also ran the Regional Seminary at Aberdeen.

As Ireland was neutral, many Irish Jesuits stayed in Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation (1941–45). They assisted with the local population and refugees, while some Jesuit scholastics made the journey to inland China and India. Patrick Joy SJ (1892–1970) and Gerard Casey SJ (1905–89) were briefly imprisoned by the Japanese, and military chaplain Richard Kennedy SJ (1906–86) spent three years in prisoner of war camps.

Archival Activity

Many Eastern European provinces had their archives seized by their governments during the communist era, leaving them with limited material from this period. In other cases, such as in France, the archives now include collections from several former Jesuit provinces that operated under diverse conditions during the Second World War.

Two major events shaped the archival history of the Superior General's Archives in Rome (ARSI): the division of the archives after the Jesuits’ expulsion from Rome in 1873, and the later decision to transfer the Roman holdings abroad to prevent their confiscation by the Italian state. Through the clandestine efforts of Jan Baptist Van Meurs SJ in 1893, most of the archives were successfully moved to the Netherlands, where they remained until their return to Rome in 1939, eventually being reunited with the Florentine section and, in 1945, with the formerly confiscated Fondo Gesuitico. During the Second World War, Joseph Teschitel SJ oversaw the care of the reassembled ARSI collections.

Photograph of Joseph Teschitel SJ

To order a copy of the book, please visit:

https://www.fondazionepolanco.org

Avenues for study

The intention when producing the book was not so much to produce a definitive guide to the collections on this subject, as much as to offer a useful overview as the basis for possible starting points and research directions for scholars interested in this topic, and an entry-point for those seeking to explore the archival collections more generally. It is hoped that more research will be undertaken and that researchers will engage with the significant gaps in the current historiography which are outlined in the book.

Title image is a photograph of the house chapel in the Writers’ House in Rakowiecka street, Warsaw, destroyed during the massacre in 1944, when an SS unit murdered sixteen Jesuits and many civilians seeking refuge there.

All images used with permission. No images in this exhibition may be reproduced without the prior written permission of the respective archives.