Harold Hilgard Tittmann, Jr. (January 8, 1893 - December 29, 1980) was an Americandiplomat and expert onFascist Italy who served asFranklin D. Roosevelt's representative to theVatican City duringWorld War II.

Harold Hilgard Tittmann, Jr. was born in 1893 in St. Louis, Missouri, into a family ofGerman immigrants who came to this country from the Saxon city ofDresden. His grandfather, Edward Tittmann, was the first ancestor to come to America, arriving inBelleville, Illinois, in 1833. His father Harold Hilgard Tittmann was the seventh child born to Edward and Rosa Hilgard Tittmann. He attended the Taft School in Connecticut, graduating in 1912 and then enteredYale University where he graduated in 1916. He worked for a year before the United States entered World War I.^[1]

After the United States enteredWorld War I in 1917, he enlisted in theUnited States Army Air Service. In June 1918 he was assigned toEddie Rickenbacker's94th Pursuit Squadron based in northeastern France and became a fighter pilot with the rank of First Lieutenant. On June 3, 1918, while on patrol over German-held territory, he was attacked by five German fighter planes, one of which he shot down. With his aircraft riddled with bullets and himself severely wounded, he managed to fly back to French territory and crash-land in a wheat field. He was taken to a U.S. Military field hospital where initially his condition was considered hopeless. He spent two years in military hospitals, first in France and later in America. He miraculously recovered. However he lost his right leg, a kidney, and half of one lung, incurring as well major bone damage to his arms and remaining leg. He was reputed to be the most severely wounded-in-action American to have survived the First World War. He was decorated for bravery by both the American and French governments, being awarded theU.S. Distinguished Service Cross for Extraordinary Heroism as well as theFrench Croix de Guerre.^[1]

In 1920, he joined theU.S. Foreign Service and was sent to theAmerican Embassy in Paris asThird Secretary. In 1925, the year thatBenito Mussolini asserted his right to supreme power and became dictator of Italy, he was posted to theRome embassy where he remained for the next eleven years, thus becoming one of the State Department's leading experts on Fascist Italy. There he met Eleanor Barclay, fromSan Antonio, Texas. They were married in 1928.^[2] Their first son, Harold III was born in 1929, and their second son, Barclay, was born in 1932.^[1]

In 1936, he was transferred to theState Department in Washington, where he spent three years in the Division of Western European Affairs. In August 1939, a few weeks before the outbreak of World War II he was assigned toGeneva,Switzerland, as Consul General. His involvement with theVatican began at that time as he was also assigned to be part-time assistant toMyron Taylor, President Roosevelt'spersonal representative to the Vatican. Although most European countries had ambassadors to the Vatican, because of religious objections from a largely Protestant nation, the President could not politically appoint an American ambassador to the Pope.^[3] A concerted effort was made many times by Taylor to persuade the Pope to try to influence Mussolini to remain neutral in the war. The Pope sent many messages to Mussolini during the first half of 1940, as did Taylor, but on June 10, 1940, after the defeat of theBritish Expeditionary Force (BEF), Italy declared war onEngland. After that happened, it became clear that the mission had failed. The European ambassadors to Italy moved out of the embassies intoVatican City as diplomatic relations with Italy were cut. AfterPearl Harbor and the US. entry into the war in 1941, Tittmann was reassigned to Rome, and he also moved into the Vatican where he became theCharge d'Affaires and the chief source of information to President Roosevelt of the happenings insideFascist Italy. After Taylor returned to the United States, Tittmann remained inside Vatican City until theliberation of Rome in 1944. At that time he and his family moved back to Rome where he remained until 1946.^[3]

He was then appointed Ambassador toHaiti.^[4] In 1948 he was named Ambassador toPeru,^[4] a post he held until 1955. He then became the Director of the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration in Geneva (International Organization for Migration) from 1955 until his retirement in 1958 at the age of 65. He spent his retirement writing the memoirs of his Vatican assignment during World War II, which were edited and published by his son Harold H. Tittmann III. He died inManchester, Massachusetts, on December 29, 1980, a few days prior to his 88th birthday.^[5]

• 1893 births
• 1980 deaths
• 20th-century American diplomats
• Yale University alumni
• Pope Pius XII and World War II
• Ambassadors of the United States to Peru
• Ambassadors of the United States to Haiti
• Consuls for the United States
• American officials of the United Nations
• Diplomats from St. Louis

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