Following the Anschluss and the extension of antisemitic laws in Germany , Jewish refugees sought sanctuary outside the Reich . In Rome , Pius XI told a group of Belgian pilgrims on 6 September 1938 , " It is not possible for Christians to participate in anti-Semitism . Spiritually we are Semites . " Following the November '' Kristallnacht '' of that year , Pius XI condemned the pogrom , sparking mass demonstrations against Catholics and Jews in Munich , where the Bavarian Gauleiter Adolf Wagner declared : " Every utterance the Pope makes in Rome is an incitement of the Jews throughout the world to agitate against Germany " . The Vatican took steps to find refuge for Jews . On 21 November , in an address to the world 's Catholics , Pius XI rejected the Nazi claim of racial superiority , and insisted instead that there was only a single human race
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Catholic resistance to Nazi Germany