His efforts completely dwarfed all others, including those of the Red Cross.
The foremost Jewish Scholar of the Holocaust at its height in Hungary, Jeno Levai, insisted some years ago that it was a "particularly regrettable irony that the one person in all of occupied Europe who did more than anyone else to halt the dreadful crime and alleviate its consequences is today made the scapegoat for the failures of others."
The Israeli diplomat and scholar Pinchas Lapide concluded his careful review of Pius XII’s wartime activities with the following words: "The Catholic Church under the pontificate of Pius XII was instrumental in saving lives of as many as 860,000 Jews from certain death at Nazi hands."
He went on to add that this "figure far exceeds those saved by all other Churches and rescue organizations combined."
After recounting statements of appreciation from a variety of preeminent Jewish spokespersons, he noted. "No Pope in history has been thanked more heartily by Jews . . . .Several suggested in open letters that a Pope Pius XII forest of 860,000 trees be planted on the hills of Judea in order to fittingly honor the memory of the late Pontiff ("Three Popes and the Jews" pp. 214–215)."
Levai in his own book did not hesitate to argue that the attacks on the Pope’s wartime record are "demonstrably malicious and fabricated . . . . The archives of the Vatican of diocesan authorities of Ribbentrop’s foreign ministry, contain a whole series of protests—direct and indirect, diplomatic and public, secret and open. The nuncios and bishops of the Catholic Church intervened again and again on the instructions of the Pope," he wrote.
The former chief rabbi of Rome during the German occupation, Emilio Zolli, concluded his firsthand account of wartime events Hungarian Jews and the Papacy: in the following manner: "Volumes could be written on the multiform works of Pius XII, and the countless priests, religious and laity who stood with him throughout the world during the war." "No hero," he said, "in all of history was more militant, more fought against, none more heroic, than Pius XII in pursuing the works of true charity . . . and thus on behalf of all the suffering children of God."
Zolli was so moved by Pius XII’s work that he became a Catholic after the war and took the Pope’s name
Pinchas Lapide acknowledged in his book (Before the Dawn). that the Church "in an endless flood of sermons, allocutions, pastoral letters and encyclicals was a clear and unrelenting foe to all forms of racism at the time, and everyone knew it—Jews, Poles, Russians and most ominously the Nazi secret police." Their files mention recalcitrant Catholic clergy in this regard more than any other group.
The New York Times in its Christmas editorials of 1941 and 1942 praised Pius XII for his moral leadership as a "lonely voice crying out of the silence of a continent" and for, among other things, assailing "the violent occupation of territory, and the exile and persecution of human beings, for no other reason than race."
Golda Meir, Israel’s representative to the United Nations, was the first of the delegates to react to the news of Pope Pius XII’s death. She sent an eloquent message: "We share in the grief of humanity at the passing away of His Holiness, Pope Pius XII. In a generation afflicted by wars and discords he upheld the highest ideals of peace and compassion. When fearful martyrdom came to our people in the decade of Nazi terror, the voice of the Pope was raised for its victims. The life of our times was enriched by a voice speaking out about great moral truths above the tumult of daily conflict. We mourn a great servant of peace."
Leonard Bernstein, on learning of Pope Pius XII’s death while conducting his orchestra in New York’s Carnegie Hall, tapped his baton for a moment of silence to pay tribute to the Pope who had saved the lives of so many people without distinction of race, nationality, or religion.
The great Jewish physicist, Albert Einstein, who himself barely escaped annihilation at Nazi hands, made the point well in 1944 when he said, "Being a lover of freedom, when the Nazi revolution came in Germany, I looked to the universities to defend it, but the universities were immediately silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers, but they, like the universities were silenced in a few short weeks. Then I looked to individual writers . . . . they too were mute. Only the Church," Einstein concluded, "stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s campaign for suppressing the truth. . . . I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel great affection and admiration . . . . and am forced thus to confess that what I once despised, I now praise unreservedly."
Hope this is helpful.
Bump for later reference
The 700 Club gets an awful lot wrong these days. I think largely due to Pat Robertson’s advancing age and perhaps creeping dementia. I think his family really needs to sit him down for the retirement talk.
My understanding is that Hitler received more resistance from Catholics than the fragmented Protestants. Hitler also saw the Catholics as more serious opponents than he did the fragmented Protestants.
The 700 Club must be using some Freepers as sources.
Read “Pius XII Greatness Dishonoured”, by Michael O’Carroll, C.S. Sp.
2) The 1933 Nazi-Vatican Concordat was not a show of solidarity. As Rabbi David Dalin has shown, it was a protective measure designed to protect German Catholics from persecution. In fact, at least 34 letters of protest were sent from the Vatican to the Nazis between 1933 and 1937, culminating in a 1937 encyclical that condemned Nazi violations of the Concordat and its racial ideology. It was smuggled out of Italy and distributed on Palm Sunday to Catholics in Germany. Nothing like this happened in Protestant churches in Germany.
3) It is not true that Hitler met resistance from Protestants alone. There are 800,000 trees planted in Israel that represent the 800,000 Jews saved by the Catholic Church. None have been planted as a tribute to Protestants. During the war, the New York Times twice said the Church was “a lonely voice crying out of the silence of a continent”; Albert Einstein also singled out the Church during the war. After the war, Golda Meir praised the work of the Church, as did the ADL, the World Jewish Congress, and scores of other Jewish organizations.
Ping for later.
That argument simply makes it worse. As with liberal RCs today, it is how Rome acts that interprets her words, and treating them as members in life and in death, such as Teddy K., interprets canon law though that that is supposed to preclude such "notorious sinners" from being given ecclesiastical funerals, which even Chavez was given. And please spare the unsubstantiated excuse, "he must have repented."
If Hitler was to be considered excommunicated, it should have been manifestly done, and all Catholics forbidden to have fellowship with him, (1Cor. 5:11-13) like as Paul named names of those who were handed over to the devil due to their sins. (1Tim. 2:10)
I do not know anything about the Pope but I was watching a show about WW 11 and they were talking about how Catholics allowed Nazi war criminals to escape after the war. I tried to research it but got side tracked. Do y’all know anything about that?
Hitler was born at Braunau. Braunau is in that part of upper Austria which went Protestant at the Reformation. After that it was forcibly Catholicized by the forces of the Counter-Reformation, the hapsburgs and the Jesuits. Since then there has been no religion in that part of the world.
Baloney. We've been told here that *Once a Catholic, always a Catholic* and that baptism into the Catholic church leaves an indelible mark on ones soul.
bfl
Lots of good stuff to capture here.
Salvation constantly tells us that 'once a Catholic, always a Catholic'...So one of these is not true...Which one is not true??? Which one of you guys is wrong???
SIR...NKP_Vet,
There Were Many Protestant Christians Who Helped My Jewish People During The HOLOCAUST!
TWO Brave Christians Come To Mind...Corrie Ten Boom...Who Authored..THE HIDING PLACE. And Her Family From Holland...There Is Also Dietrich Bonhoeffer, A Lutheran Pastor, Authored...The Cost Of Discipleship...ALL Except Corrie Perished,
They Were Brutally Tortured And Murdered By The NAZIS...Because They Were CHRISTIANS!
Have YOU Been To ISRAEL? To Witness First Hand YAD VASHEM?
Maybe YOU Should Plan A Visit THERE To See The Garden Of The Righteous...IT DOES NOT HAVE 800,000 TREES As You Have Stated In Your Statement!
HOW Do I Know...Because I Was At YAD VASHEM...NOT Once But Twice...I was Trying To Find My Mother's Family In The Data Banks..
With All Of That Said...I Want To THANK YOU SIR, For Serving Our Country In The Viet Nam War, And For FIGHTING TO KEEP US SAFE AND FREE!!
GOD BLESS YOU!
Simcha7