It was Pius XI who made the future Pius XII his nuncio to Germany, where he proceeded to annoy Hitler greatly. Most people don't realize that Hitler's animus against the Church was only slightly less than his hatred of the Jews. Both were seen as obstacles to institution of a new, neo-pagan order based on the Deutsche Volk. Only practical considerations kept Hitler from actively persecuting the Church in Germany and Austria; i.e., a large percentage of the German population was Catholic. But various documents lay out Hitler's intent to deal with the Church once the war was won and the Jewish question resolved. A decade of so of indoctrinating German youth in Nazi ideology was laying the groundwork for that.

During the war, Hitler monitored the Vatican's activities closely and was very much aware that Pius XII was working quietly against him, but there was little he could do other than pick off more obnoxious churchmen in Germany and the occupied territories. After Italy's surrender in 1943, the Germans occupied Rome and prepared plans for the capture of the Vatican City. Only the assertion of the German commander in Italy, Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, that this would cause a partisan uprising in Italy, prevented its implementation.

Here are two boys that that Satanic @#$% couldn't touch:

Santo Subito!

Interesting article on this subject in New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/nyregion/08pius.html?pagewanted=1&ref=nyregion