[Petronski]

Many righteous people who saved Jews from the Holocaust have a tree planted in their name at Yad Vashem.

In a just and honest world, Pius XII would need a forest to pay him tribute.

860,000

[BroJoeK]

"Many righteous people who saved Jews from the Holocaust have a tree planted in their name at Yad Vashem. In a just and honest world, Pius XII would need a forest to pay him tribute. 860,000"

I've never seen that number 860,000 before, and would be curious to learn where it comes from.

Remember, of Europe's pre-war nine million Jews, three million survived the war, but those included Jews who lived in or escaped to places like Spain, Britain and the eastern Soviet Union.

Within Nazi controlled Europe, the total numbers of Jewish survivors was much smaller -- France: 275,000 Italy: 33,000 Germany: 80,000 Poland: 50,000 Netherlands: 20,000. That's less than half a million total.

In Eastern Europe, Romania, Hungary and Czechoslovakia totaled 675,000 survivors.

So, how many of these is it said that Pius XII saved, and what exactly did he do to save them?

Remember, the criticism of Pius XII is not that he did nothing to oppose Nazism, but rather that he did not do as much as he could have, or should have.

Contrast this with the Vatican's strong opposition to Stalin's Communism. For example, the Vatican declared Communism incompatible with membership in the Catholic Church. It never made such a declaration against Hitler's Nazis.