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"In an article for the New York Times, James Feron noted forty years ago that Jewish historian Pinchas Lapide, after two years of research, came to the conclusion that Pope Pius XII deserved a memorial forest in the Judean hills with 860,000 trees, the number of Jewish lives saved through papal efforts. He had obtained information from accounts of survivors in Israel, from privately published accounts and from the archives of Yad Vashem. Indeed, the Church was instrumental in saving more Jews than those saved by all other institutions and organizations combined.

"The Pope depended on the local clergy to thwart Hitler’s extermination policy. “The book dramatizes one point above all others,” Feron states, “that the Pope’s efforts were dependent on the strength and heroism of his churches in each country.” Lapide traces the efforts of Roman Catholics to save the Jews and quotes a variety of sources to indicate that Papal Nuncios had received messages from the Vatican to contest the deportation of Jews. Lapide tells how Pope Pius XII sent his Papal Nuncio in Berlin to visit Hitler in Berchtesgaden to plead for the Jews. That interview ended when Hitler smashed a glass at the Nuncio’s feet. From Hitler’s reaction the Pope was convinced that public pronouncements would have sealed the fate of many more Jews. After this incident, in retaliation, Hitler connived to kidnap Pope Pius XII."

- Margherita Marchione, "Did Pope Pius XII Help the Jews?"

If you don't like Lapide, and consider him prejudiced because he was an Israeli diplomat and angling for recognition of Israel by the Vatican (that's the attack I've heard), there's still Rabbi David Dalin to deal with. He took apart Cornwell's book in The Myth of Hitler's Pope. Cornwell, of course, has recanted much of what he said in that book.

Did he recant how Syrbian Orthodox Christians were treated by Croatian Catholics particulaly Catholic priests during WWII? I don’t think so! He also presented photos. Not nice to look at. And I recall the name Tiso - he was a Slovakian priest who helped run a concentration camp. Very nice.

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