Seat 12
Seat 12, also known as Operation Seat 12, was a
Description
According to Pacepa, in February 1960, Nikita Khrushchev authorized a covert operation to discredit the Vatican's moral authority in Western Europe with a campaign of disinformation due to its fervent anticommunism, Pope Pius XII being the prime target.[1][4][3] The motto of Seat 12 was "Dead men cannot defend themselves", since Pius died in 1958.[5] Pacepa states that General Ivan Agayants, chief of the KGB's disinformation department, created the outline for what was to become a play mischaracterizing the Pope as a Nazi sympathizer, The Deputy; that the purported research for the play consisted of forgeries;[6] that the research was done not by its author Rolf Hochhuth, but by KGB agents; and that the play's producer, Erwin Piscator, founder of the Proletarian Theater in Berlin who had sought asylum in the USSR during the war,[citation needed] was a devout Communist who had long established ties with the USSR.[4][3][7]
Pacepa states that the KGB employed Romanian spies to feign that Romania was preparing to reestablish diplomatic relations with the Holy See.[5] Under this ruse, Pacepa states he obtained entry into Vatican archives from the Church's head of secret discussions with the Warsaw Pact, Monsignor Agostino Casaroli.[5] Three communist spies in the guise of priests over two years secreted materials out of the archives for copying and transfer to the KGB.[5] "In fact," Pacepa reported, "no incriminating material against the pontiff ever turned up."[5] According to Pacepa, General Ivan Agayants, head of Soviet disinformation, informed him while in Bucharest in 1963 that the disinformation campaign had "materialised into a powerful play attacking Pope Pius XII", Agayants having authored the outline of The Deputy and overseen KGB's compilation of the "research" which incorporated documents Pacepa's agents had purloined from the Vatican.[5]
Writer and law professor
According to Rychlak, a declassified British intelligence memorandum, dated January 10, 1969, surmises that Hochhuth may have played a knowing role in spreading communist propaganda, rather than having been a dupe, saying he "might perhaps be an ‘intellectual agent', writing either on behalf of the East Germans or the Soviets" and the British agents declined to "discount the possibility of long-term efforts by the communists to foster Hochhuth's allegations until they become legend."[9] The memorandum continued: "whether Hochhuth is motivated only by the urge to write historical plays, to rehabilitate the Germans or is up to some more sinister game is difficult to determine at this stage. But the Russians are certainly reaping some of the benefit."[10]
Rychlak concludes that Hochhuth might not have been a knowing actor in the propaganda but was a "perfect candidate to be an unknowing dupe."
Referring to Pacepa's account, German historian Michael F. Feldkamp writes that "Pacepa's report is wholly credible. It fits like a missing piece in the puzzle of communist propaganda and disinformation aimed at discrediting the Catholic Church and its Pontiff."[11][12] English historian, Michael Burleigh, concurring with Feldkamp, states: "Soviet attempts to smear Pius had actually commenced as soon as the Red Army crossed into Catholic Poland", noting that the Soviets "hired a militantly anti-religious propagandist, Mikhail Markovich Sheinmann" – "Hochhuth's play ... drew heavily upon Sheinmann's lies and falsehoods."[2]
Pacepa's story has not been corroborated; the national German paper Frankfurter Allgemeine stated in 2007 that "Hochhuth did not require any KGB assistance for his one-sided presentation of history".[13]
See also
- Pope Pius XII and Judaism
- Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust
- Catholic Church and Nazi Germany
- Persecutions of the Catholic Church and Pius XII
- Religion in the Soviet Union
- Persecution of Christians in Warsaw Pact countries
- Persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union
- Ratlines (World War II aftermath)
References
Citations
- ^ The Jewish Ledger. Hartford, Connecticut. Archived from the originalon April 10, 2015.
- ^ Balwyn, Victoria. Archived from the originalon October 16, 2009.
- ^ a b c d Follain, John (February 18, 2007). "KGB and the plot to taint 'Nazi pope'". The Times. London, UK.
- ^ National Review Online.
- ^ a b c d e f Follain, John (February 19, 2007). "KGB bid to depict pope as anti-Jew". The Australian. Surry Hills, New South Wales. Archived from the original on August 11, 2011.
- ^ Kaylan, Melik (October 28, 2008). "Rehabilitating Pope Pius XII". Forbes. Archived from the original on January 2, 2013.
- ]
- ^ Rychlak (2010), p. 291.
- ^ a b c Rychlak (2010), p. 304.
- ^ Rychlak (2010), p. 303.
- ^ Feldkamp, Michael F. (March 2007). "Hochhuths Quellen" [Hochhuth's Sources] (PDF). Vatican (in German). pp. 26–28.
- ^ Rychlak, Ronald. "The Play and the Plot to Denigrate the Pope" (PDF). Pave the Way Foundation. p. 25. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 6, 2012.
- ^ Brechenmacher, Thomas (April 26, 2007). "Hochhuths Quellen. War der 'Stellvertreter' vom KGB inspiriert?" [Hochhuth's sources. Was 'The Deputy' inspired by the KGB?]. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (in German).
Bibliography
- ISBN 978-1-59276-565-2.