'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.

[Alberta's Child]

In addition to Zolli's defense of Pope Pius XII, Israeli consul Pinchas Lapide published a book in 1967 that was vociferous in its defense of how Pius XII dealt with the Nazis.

The Catholic Church was not the only organization that "failed to condemn the Holocaust" -- the Church's official response to the Holocaust was identical to that of the International Red Cross, and yet I've never heard anybody complain that the Red Cross "failed to condemn the Holocaust."

Interestingly, Edith Stein was originally protected from the Nazis in Holland because the Nazis left Christians of Jewish extraction alone. The Nazis began sending Christians like Edith Stein to the concentration camps after the Dutch bishops issued a formal statement condemning the Holocaust.

She was killed for being Jewish not for Cahtolicism. She is an odd person to see as a Catholic martyr.

In all of the things I've read about Edith Stein, I don't think I've ever seen a reference to her as a "martyr" -- at least in the formal sense from the perspective of the Catholic Church.

There are far better examples of Catholics who stood up to the Nazis and were martyred.

Maximilian Kolbe was one such person -- he was one of the first saints canonized by Pope John Paul II in the late 1970s.

[nickcarraway]

Okay, Now I understand why you dislike the Pope so much-He's Polish.

[MarMema]

Okay, Now I understand why you dislike the Pope so much-He's Polish.

Um, no these simple accusations of bigotry do not work. I am for an Italian pope, as was the original poster.
The reason I am for an Italian pope is because the Italians have been visiting Russia and meeting with Patriarch Alexy, and it looks like they are making friends.
It especially looks as if these Italian bishops are going to be able to work things out satisfactorily with Russia. I think that would be a good thing.

I dislike *this* pope because I feel he has harmed the RC church immeasurably and also done great harm to relations with us.

[nickcarraway]

What does a person's country of origin have to do with anything? In Christianity it doesn't!!

[MarMema]

I don't think it does. I suppose I may be wrong to assume/hope that the bishops who have been meeting with Patriarch Alexy (from Italy) would be the ones behind the next pope.
I'll try to find those news articles so you can see what I mean.

[MarMema]

verona

[NativeNewYorker]

The author whose book I cited personally interviewed folks directly involved, and combed physical archives for direct evidence. He didn't make stuff up.

[Mercat]

http://www.decentfilms.com/reviews/scarletandtheblack.html

You are correct, my bad.

[mlmr]

Much of what he left out is important to the debate. He fulfilled his biased antiChristian mission, but he didn't tell the truth.

[George W. Bush]

No matter, the utashe (which the vatican helped sneak out of Croatia before they could be tried as war criminals) are plenty of blood for the church. No doubt those records have disappeared completely from Rome, but the US State Dept has some left.

The Vatican must be made to understand that the Croatian crimes will not be forgotten.

They cannot be allowed to use freedom of religion to shield war criminals.

[Land of the Irish]

Thanks for the link.

[NativeNewYorker]

If you say so.

[mlmr]

Not just me:

Here are some links of interest and their are 12 more pages of links at the web site.

Go to http://www.firstthings.com/ and search on "Hitler's Pope" to see how thoroughly discredited and flawed the book is...

http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft0001/reviews/rubinstein.html

http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft0102/correspondence.html

http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft0111/reviews/briefly.html

http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft0010/reviews/hughes.html

http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft0004/correspondence.html

http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft0001/public.html

http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft0112/public.html

http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft0211/public.html

http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft0203/public.html

http://www.firstthings.com/ftissues/ft0206/articles/rychlak.html

I hope you find more food for thought here.

best,

mlmr

[mlmr]

See above post with links about Hitler's Pope.

[NativeNewYorker]

When I read the"Odessa" book I cited, my jaw hung down in shock and rage.

Remember, the Church is a very large organization, and WW2 was years of knife-at-the-throat tension.

Men aren't angels, and it would be foolish to pretend they are. That some clerics were beastly while others were noble shouldn't be a surprise.

[nickcarraway]

You show me were Christianity says anything about national origin or ethicity.

[nickcarraway]

You want me to read Pravda?