'Hitler's Pope' tried to help Jews, say documents

The Sunday Telegraph ^ | February 16, 2003 | Michael Burleigh

[MadIvan]

Vatican papers offering the first direct evidence that Pope Pius XII tried to help Jews during the Second World War have been discovered by an Italian expert.

The documents undermine critics' claims that Pius - condemned by critics as "Hitler's Pope" - put the interests of Rome first and did not protest about the fate of Jews during the Holocaust.

A letter, signed by the Pope in October 1940 and sent to Giuseppe Palatucci, Bishop of Campagna in southern Italy, instructed him to give money "in aid to interned Jews", to whom Pius also referred in an earlier letter as "suffering for reasons of race".

The bishop was already involved in assisting Jews through his nephew, Giovanni Palatucci, the police chief in Fiume, in north-eastern Italy. Palatucci had distributed false identity papers to 5,000 Croatian Jews, enabling them to leave local internment camps for relative safety in his uncle's southern Italian diocese, an operation that would later lead to the police chief's death in Dachau.

A second letter to Bishop Palatucci in November 1940 contained a cheque for 10,000 lira that was to be used for the "support of Jews interned in your diocese".

Supporters believe that the letters will help to repair the reputation of a man whom the present Pope, John Paul II, is seeking to make a saint but who has been accused of being anti-semitic, culturally Germanophile, rabidly anti-communist and conspicuously silent about the fate of Europe's Jews.

"They appear to give compelling proof that will testify to Pius's attitude towards the Jews," said William Doino, an authority on Pius XII.

"Given the dangers then existing and the reluctance of the Church to put such matters in writing, these letters are remarkable. They establish beyond question that Pius XII took a direct, personal interest in helping Jews [and] did so very early on in the war.

"Numerous authors have maintained that there is no credible written evidence that Pius XII himself ever gave direct orders to assist persecuted Jews. Now, we have that evidence."

Mr Doino believes that other new documents to be released by the Vatican to scholars this weekend will shed light on one of the most controversial figures in the Catholic Church's history.

They cover between 1922 and 1939, when the then Eugenio Pacelli was nuncio to Weimar Germany and later papal secretary of state when Hitler came to power.

Controversy has long dogged Pacelli, the principal architect of the 1933 concordat between Germany and the Vatican which ring-fenced Catholic schooling and public worship in a climate that was hostile to "political Catholicism".

While Britain, France and Italy had already established relations with Germany, the concordat is widely viewed as having conferred "respectability" on the Nazis.

The alleged silence of Pius, who became Pope a few months before the outbreak of hostilities in 1939, would later become a stick with which to beat the Catholic Church over its wartime record.

While more than 80 per cent of Italy's Jewish population was rescued, critics of the Church have claimed that individual Italian Catholics acted spontaneously, without aid from Pius XII.

Defenders of Pius XII say he detested the Nazis, signed the concordat to protect German Catholics and put German conservatives who were plotting to kill Hitler in touch with the British, who failed to take much interest in them.

[MadIvan]

I doubt Pius XII's reputation will cease being a matter of controversy, but some food for further thought.

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

Bump!

[KickRightRudder]

Buchanan will be thrilled. He's been defending Pius from attacks, saying he did everything he reasonably could considering Nazis occupied the streets. Liberal Jews blaming the Pope is unfair. Its hard to be brave when you're looking down the barrel of a rifle.

[4.1O dana super trac pak]

http://www.catholicleague.org/pius/truth.htm

[KarlInOhio]

A second letter to Bishop Palatucci in November 1940 contained a cheque for 10,000 lira that was to be used for the "support of Jews interned in your diocese".

Does anyone have the 1940 exchange rate. I expect that 10,000 lira was more than the current $5.

[NewCenturions]

There was a book called "The Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican" about Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, who hid Jews at the Vatican. Was even made into a movie ("the Scarlet and the BLack" with Gregory Peck(?)
Here's a quote I found:
"Of 9,700 Roman Jews, 1,007 were shipped to Auschwitz. The rest were hidden, 5,000 of them by the official Church—3,000 in Castel Gandolfo, 200 or 400 (estimates vary) as "members" of the Palatine Guard and some 1,500 in monasteries, convents and colleges. The remaining 3,700 were hidden in private homes, including Msgr. O'Flaherty's network of apartments."

Nice to see a "pro Pope" thread for a change.

[NativeNewYorker]

The Vatican can spin all it likes, but its WW2 track record is spotty, at best.

I'm no church/Catholic basher, so don't misunderstand me. But I read that book cited in the link, and the church has lots and lots of blood on its hands, despite the noble and valient efforts of some clergy to save innocents.

[Mercat]

Not Peck, Charlton Heston

[Chi-townChief]

There's a book by the late Malachi Martin (I can't remember the name) which claims that the Catholic Church saved about a million European Jews. I'll try to get the name.

[David1]

Here is a Catholic site which has many articles defending Pope Pius XII actions in the Holocaust.

http://ic.net/~erasmus/RAZ130.HTM

Scroll down till you reach: POPE PIUS XII AND THE NAZI HOLOCAUST

[ultima ratio]

"Spotty" my arse. It is estimated over 800,000 Jews were rescued due to the direct action on their behalf by Pius XII who commanded all monasteries and convents in Italy to hide those who were being hunted down like animals. Under his aegis all of Italy became a nation of Schindlers. Vatican trucks made daily rounds to bring food to these refugees. Tens of thousands of false "official" documents were issued by the Vatican. Pius XII himself hid thousands of Jews in his country villa and at the Vatican. Nor would he partake of any food or drink that was not likewise available for those in his care. That he, of all people, should have been accused of not having done enough is ironic in the extreme.

[Verginius Rufus]

Fiume is now known as Rijeka, Croatia. ("Fiume" and "Rijeka" both mean "river.")

[David1]

Hi, There are more great articles defending Pius XII in the link I posted in post #10.

[4.1O dana super trac pak]

bttt

[perform_to_strangers]

I've never read the book, but I saw the movie. It starred Gregory Peck and Captain von Trapp (what was his name?). As I recall, the movie had a rather despicable scene in which a nearly senile Pope Pius XII talks to O'Flaherty at the end of the war and asks if he thinks it was okay that he (the Pope) didn't say or do anything during the war. O'Flaherty (who in the movie, did everything in Pius's name) dissembles, telling the Pope that he's sure he did everything he could (meaning, although the Pope did nothing, O'Flaherty had done everything that could be done, so it was as if Pius had acted), and the pope whispers to himself, "I suppose I should have said something," and shuffles offstage, broken and ineffectual, finally conscience-stricken now that the danger has passed and the harm done.

[Coleus]

http://www.catholicleague.org/pius/piusxii_faqs.html

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/753131/posts

[Williams]

The anti-catholicism which is running rampant is one of the great disgraces of our time. Pius was an antiNazi bulwark. Because of the left's anti-catholic agenda, I know many jewish people who actually EQUATE the church and Nazis. Even friends of mine. The sad fact of the matter is that the religion in Europe which failed to resist Hitler soon enough was Judaism. Historically, jews believed it had been a mistake to fight against the Roman Empire, which led to the Diaspora. So many jews thought they should ride out Hitlerism. It was a fatal mistake. As a Catholic, I have always hated nazism and knew that the catholic church hated it too. Many people now believe a perverted version of history in which Hitler and the Pope were partners.

[Coleus]

Cardinal Roncolli saved about 800,000 Jews while he was a bishop in Turkey, he later became Pope John XXIII.

After WW II, the chief Rabbi of Rome converted to Catholicism.

Many people believe in what the slanted left-wing press and revisionist teachers tell them.

[Campion]

But I read that book cited in the link, and the church has lots and lots of blood on its hands, despite the noble and valient efforts of some clergy to save innocents.

How about the "noble and valiant" efforts of Pius XII, which saved -- according to Rabbi Pinchas Lapide, former Israeli ambassador to Italy -- between 700,000 and 860,000 Jews from certain death?

That's not a "spotty" record, it's a heroic record, and it makes very understandable the position of people like Rabbi David Dalin, who says Pope Pius should be formally granted the title of "righteous among the nations" for his efforts.