SOVIET AND BRITAIN SIGN WAR AND PEACE PACT; MOLOTOFF AND ROOSEVELT PLAN FOR 2D FRONT (6/12/42)

Microfilm-New York Times archives, Monterey Public Library | 6/12/42 | Raymond Daniell, Ralph Parker, W.H. Lawrence, Robert P. Post, Robert Trumbull, Daniel T. Brigham

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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[BroJoeK]

PeterPrinciple: "We have been told that the churches would not stand up to Hitler and supported him.
Another left lie of history."

There is a lot of confusion on this subject, much of it fostered by anti-Christians.
The truth is somewhat complex.

Thousands of clergy, especially Catholics were jailed and murdered, or held as hostages to prevent the Church, especially the Pope, from acting publicly against the Nazis.
The result was: after strong public criticisms of Nazism before the war, the Pope did remain publicly silent during the war -- a fact which was known and complained about at the time.
For example, note the Holocaust post for June 13 where the British ambassador complains of the Pope's inactivity.

In fact, the Pope was not "inactive".
He secretly did everything he could to protect the Church and Jews from the Nazis.
Sadly, what he could do was not enough to save the lives of thousands of Catholic clergy or millions of Jews.

But the Pope's silence and seeming inactivity were the source of much post-war hand-wringing and finger-pointing.
Add to that the fact that at least some clergy in most Nazi controlled countries were Nazi sympathizers, and you can see where the case for "Hitler's Pope" found its basis.

We should also note that criticisms of the Pope reflect those of President Roosevelt, who didn't let the fate of Europe's Jews become the central focus for the Allies' war on Nazism.
As important as the deaths of 6 million Jews were, so also were the war-deaths of about 75 million non-Jews.