According to an account to be published soon after this one relations between Cardinal Pacelli and the Nazis soured within two years of the Concordat.
"By March, 1935, many a bitter complaint had been voiced by German ecclesiasts against the growth of neo-paganism in Germany.
On March 24, 1935, Cardinal Pacelli took notice of this situation. He sent a message of congratulation to Cardinal Schulte, Archbishop of Cologne, on the latter's twenty-fifth anniversary as a Bishop. In it were phrases that the Nazis interpreted as a virtual command to all Catholic Bishops in Germany to challenge the validity of neo-pagan ideas.
Within a week there were retaliations. These chiefly took the form of wholesale arrests of nuns and monks on charges of violating German currency laws.
Once again, in June, 1935, Cardinal Pacelli replied to the Nazis. Speaking to more than 250,000 pilgrims at the closing of the Holy Year of Redemption in the Sanctuary of Lourdes, where he represented Pope Pius XI, he warned that the Roman Catholic Church would never make peace with those "enemies possessed by superstition of race or blood." The Vatican never denied the interpretation that these words were directed at Germany."
The account goes on in this vein for a while longer and ends as follows:
"Cardinal Pacelli led a list of twenty-one Cardinals who would not be acceptable to Germany. Der Angriff freely said his election would lead to a crusade against the totalitarian States."
It doesn't sound to me like the Nazis would consider Cardinal Pacelli "somewhat acceptable."
Homer:"It doesn't sound to me like the Nazis would consider Cardinal Pacelli "somewhat acceptable." "
Good point, well made. But I can't tell whose list of 21 that was, or who Der Angriff represents, if anyone, and what sort of "crusade" they fantasized.
The real standard for Church opposition to an abominable government is it's total rejection of Stalin's Communism. By that standard, what Cardinal Pacelli delivered to the Nazis was a mere rap on a schoolboy's knuckles. ;-)