In August 1943, the Fulda Bishops’ Conference rejected the proposal. In any case, it was too late: by this time, most of the Jews were dead. The most influential figure in German Catholicism, Cardinal Bertram, refused to be briefed any further by Margarete Sommer, insisting that he was only willing to receive written reports from her if they were countersigned by Preysing to guarantee their authenticity. Such a procedure, as the cardinal was well aware, would also have exposed both signatories to the Gestapo. If Bertram did not know what had happened to the Jews, it was because he made every
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