In today’s letter, John Pehle–or really, Lawrence Lesser, since you can see the author of the letter on the bottom of the last page–contacts Archbishop Cicognani, the Apostolic delegate in Washington.
A lot of the WRB stuff seems like a massive game of diplomatic telephone. In this case, the WRB received information that Josef Tiso, the fascist leader in Slovakia, had responded to a request from Maurice Perlzweig of the the Joint through the Vatican. So let’s go over that one more time. Perlzweig (the Joint) asked the Vatican to ask Tiso to promise that he will not persecute the Jews. Tiso, a Roman Catholic priest after all, said he would not persecute the Jews when the Vatican asked.
The WRB wasn’t convinced that this actually meant anything. So in this cable, Pehle asked Cicognani to ask the Vatican to ask Tiso to be more specific. They wanted him to guarantee that he would not allow Jews in Slovakia to be deported out of the country.
