http://www.catholicleague.org/pius/realstory.htm

http://www.catholicleague.org/pius/realstory.htm





Over the last year a number of commentators have sought to rehash old and
ill-informed accusations in an attempt to undermine the reputation of Pope
Pius XII. His war-time effort to save Jewish lives has, amazingly, been

principal area of attack. The BBC program Reputations, repeated on 14th
February 1996, was one especially virulent attack. It was followed by a
review in The Times by religious affairs correspondent, Ruth Gledhill,

attacked Pius XII apparently on the strength of the BBC program alone.
Later, the producer of the program, Jonathan Lewis, attempted to explain

position in the liberal Catholic Journal The Tablet.

Pius XII was one of the few world leaders outside Jewry itself who was

to recognize the danger of Nazism. Former Israeli diplomat Pinchas Lapide,
in his book The Last Three Popes and the Jews demonstrates convincingly

consistent and active protection provided to Jews in Europe by the papacy.
He does not shrink from strong criticism of other parts of the Catholic
Church where necessary and of some Catholic governments in particular.
Further, he commands respect from those reading from a Jewish perspective.

in your city and pick up the records. Anyway theres a few independent
witnesses.
http://www.vho.org/GB/Books/dth/fndstats.html

r=293321480
http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/print.asp?ID=2735

http://www.rense.com/general69/factua.htm

Rassinier seems to wrap it up.
http://www.ihr.org/books/rassinier/debunking1-0.html

http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v19/v19n2_Letters.html
On July 13, 1994, a documentary on the life of Charles A. Lindbergh
broadcast on the Public Broadcast System (PBS - KENW-TV) said that when
Lindbergh visited one of these few camps in Germany following WW2, he was
told that 25,000 died in 1-1/2 years
http://history.acusd.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/lindbergh3.html

It is estimated that the actions of Pius XII directly led to the saving of
800,000 Jewish lives during the war. The estimate of 800,000 Jewish lives

based upon the testimony of the post-war government of the recently

State of Israel which recognized and honored that pope's contribution. The
Israelis recognized the figure and a forest of as many trees was planted

commemoration in the Negeb, SE of Jerusalem, and was shown to Pope Paul VI
with some ceremony on his first state visit to Israel. Rev. Fr. Jean
Charles-Roux, now a Rosininian priest living in London and whose father

French Ambassador to the Holy See in the 30's, lived with his family in

during the fateful pre-war period. He recalls that the Pope told his

as early as 1935 that the new regime in Germany was "diabolical." The
Ambassador frequently warned his government but the general reaction in
France seems to have been that it was good to see the back of the Prussian
militarist and that it was no bad thing that an Austrian-Czech house

was now Chancellor.

The reaction in the USA and Britain was scarcely different at that time;

even later when they must have begun to know about the camps. The U.S.
government accepted a total of 10,000 - 15,000 Jewish refugees throughout
the war. - a truly scandalous statistic.

Britain was little better and before the war the government had been full

"appeasers," the Duke of Windsor visited Hitler and Lloyd George even went
so far as to call him "the greatest living German"!

Ambassador Charles-Roux's own government in Paris (and the British
government) were deaf to the pleas of the Vatican to assist the German
internal resistance to the Nazi government. From the very beginning Pius

tried to persuade the Allied governments to support the German opposition

Hitler, but since they would not listen to men like the Anglican Bishop

of Chichester or to the few Jews who had escaped from Germany to Britain

America, they would not and did not listen to a Pope. Men like Adam von
Trott zu Sulz (he had been a Rhodes Scholar at Balliol), Peter Yorek von
Wartenburg and many other leading Germans who later formed the Kreisau
circle, made continuous, repeated, energetic and ultimately futile

to reach and persuade the British government to back, or even talk with,

German resistance to Hitler. They were all killed in the 20th July plot to
assassinate Hitler, the last in a long line of foiled attempts to get rid

the dictator, which was triggered by the Roman Catholic officer, Count

Schenk von Stauffenberg. Stauffenberg was shot out of hand. Other
conspirators were not so lucky. They were tried by the infamous "People's
Court" and hanged by piano wire from butchers' hooks of Ploetzensce

This was filmed on Hitler's orders so that he could watch it himself

Count von Galen, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Munster, was another

critic of the racial and eugenic policies of the Nazis and would

have been liquidated by them if not for the prominence and prestige of his
position.

In August 1943 Pius XII received a plea from the World Jewish Congress to
try to persuade the Italian authorities to remove 20,000 Jewish refugees
from internment camps in Northern Italy. "Our terror-stricken brethren

to Your Holiness as the only hope for saving them from persecution and
death" they wrote. In September 1943, A.L. Easterman on behalf of the WJC
reported to the Apostolic Delegate in London (there was no Nuncio since

British government always refused to recognize the diplomatic rights of

Holy See-a hangover from our anti-

Catholic past). He reported that the efforts of the Holy See on behalf of
the Jews had been successful and wrote, "I feel sure that the efforts of
your Grace, and of the Holy See have brought about this fortunate result,
and I should like to express to the Holy See and yourself the warmest

of the World Jewish Congress."

Around the same time, the German Chief of Police in Rome threatened to

some 200 Jews to the Russian front unless they produced within 36 hours 50
kg of gold or equivalent in currency. The Chief Rabbi approached the Holy
See which immediately placed 15 kg at his disposal and lent the necessary
money free of charge. More than half the Jews of Rome were sheltered in
ecclesiastical buildings opened on the express instructions of Pius XII
himself. The Vatican Secretariat of State saved more Jews by faking their
baptisms and sending lists of "baptized" Jews to the German Ambassador,
Weizsacker, so that they could be evacuated. Many of those saved were

to escape by the massive over-issuing of Vatican passports, particularly

the latter half of 1944, and records exist of many of these. However, this
had perforce to be handled with little or no ordinary documentary evidence
since the Nazis would without doubt have crushed this means of escape
immediately if they had become aware of the extent to which it was being
used to facilitate the rescue of Jews.

In November, 1943 Chief Rabbi Herzog wrote to Cardinal Roncalli, the

Pope John XXIII, then Apostolic Delegate for Turkey and Greece, saying: "I
take this opportunity to express to your Eminence my sincere thanks as

as my deep appreciation of your very kindly attitude to Israel and of the
invaluable help given by the Catholic Church to the Jewish people in its
affliction. Would you please convey these sentiments which come from Sion,
to His Holiness the Pope (Pius XII) along with the assurances that the
people of Israel know how to value his assistance and his attitude." The
American Jewish Welfare Board wrote to Pius XII in July 1944 to express

appreciation for the protection given to the Jews during the German
occupation of Italy. At the end of the war, the World Jewish Congress
expressed its gratitude to the Pope and gave 20 million Lire to Vatican
charities. A former Israeli diplomat in Italy claimed that: "The Catholic
Church saved more Jewish lives during the war than all the other Churches,
religious institutions and rescue organizations put together. Its record
stands in startling contrast to the achievements of the International Red
Cross and the Western Democracies."

The Pope protested particularly against the deportations of Jews in
Slovakia, Hungary and Vichy, France, since these were formerly Catholic
countries where Fascists had gained control and they still had a majority

Catholic citizens. In Hungary the Nunciature used thousands of blank and
forged forms to help Jews escape. A Red Cross worker even complained that
the use of forged documents was against the Geneva Convention! Happily

rather officious complaint did not prevent the Nuncio's covert operation
continuing.

Pope Pius XII knew Germany well, having previously been papal Nuncio

It was he himself who wrote (after reading the first draft by Cardinal
Faulhaber of Munich) the criticism of racial policies in the Encyclical

Brennender Sorge (which means "with burning anxiety" i.e. about the Nazi
threat to racial minorities and specifically the Jews) addressed directly

the German people during the pontificate of Pope Pius XI. He wrote that
Catholics must never be anti-Semitic because "we are all Semites
spiritually" and ought to hold the Jewish people in high regard

As a matter of simple historical fact, Rabbi Israel Zolli, the Chief Rabbi
of Rome, was received into the Catholic Church in 1945 after the war was
over. He was baptized entirely of his own free will and asked Pius XII,

whom he had worked closely in the saving of Jewish lives, to be his
godfather. Dr. Zolli chose the name Eugenio a his baptismal name precisely
because it was Pius XII's own name.

These facts are rarely mentioned by commentators, yet they are clearly

to any assessment of the reputation of Pius XII. Instead an insidious
campaign has been maintained against the good name of that Pope, largely
centering around the accusation that he kept silent during the war about

plight of the Jews and refused to mention them by name. It is now

implied by some that this was so because he was racist and an anti-Semite.
It is difficult to conceive of a more detestable lie.

Pius XII, as Cardinal Pacelli, had a hand in writing the encyclical Non
Abbiamo Bisogno which condemned Italian Fascist doctrines, as well as

Redemptoris which opposed Soviet Communism and the massacres and

that were being perpetrated in its name in Russia (e.g. the 10 million
peasants starved to death in the Ukraine). Pius XII was a highly active,
energetic and zealous opponent of totalitarianism and oppression. Pope

XI issued the encyclical letter Mit Brennender Sorge in 1937 because he

the ruling Pope; but it was Cardinal Pacelli, later Pius XII, who wrote

The German Roman Catholic hierarchy thanked Pope XI for the letter, which
condemned racism and anti-Semitism roundly, and the Pope pointed to

Pacelli saying it was he who had been responsible for it. Pius XII's first
encyclical in 1939, Summi Pontificatus, repeated the theme and the Gestapo
were immediately given orders by the Nazi leadership to prevent its
distribution.

Thereafter, Pius XII adopted his policy of not naming the Jews explicitly.
This was partly because his experience of the diplomatic "deafness" of the
Allied governments and partly because of his knowledge and experience of

increased persecution of Jews which followed the condemnatory statements
made in the two mentioned encyclicals.

He devoted himself instead to the covert rescue operation to save Jewish
lives, which was probably the most successful of all those attempted
particularly if one takes into account the saving of the Hungarian Jews

the joint actions of the Vatican and the papal Nuncio in Hungary at that
time. It is well recognized that the saviors of the Hungarian Jews were

papal Nuncio and the Swedish Embassy (in the person of Raoul Wallenberg),
both seeking to outwit the Chief Nazi murderer, Adolf Eichmann.

Pius XII followed the Dutch Roman Catholic hierarchy's plan to name the

explicitly in their condemnation of Nazi deportations and intended to

a similar statement himself. The Nazis threatened to arrest more Jews. The
Dutch Reformed Church agreed not to protest openly but the Roman Catholic
hierarchy issued, in May 1943, their famous protest against the
deportations. The Nazis then launched an all-out offensive against Jews
(except those who had converted to the Dutch Protestant Reformed Church).
Ironically, it was the Dutch hierarchy's letter of open condemnation which
led to the arrest and execution of Edith Stein, the Jewish Roman Catholic
nun and philosopher.

The news of the increased persecution reached Pius XII. His own protest

due to go into L'Osservatore Romano that very evening but he had the draft
burnt saying "If the protest of the Dutch Bishops has cost the lives of
40,000 people, my intervention would take at least 200,000 people to their
deaths." (See II Seitimanale, 1 March 1975, p.40.) Such was the result of
openly naming the Jews; more death from vain gestures.

There is no doubt that if Pius XII had made such a vain gesture, instead

saving more Jewish lives, he would then have been open to the criticism of
having made the situation worse by vain and inopportune public statements.
Those who now criticize him for not saying enough would then have attacked
him for saying too much.

It is easy to forget that there was only so much that the Pope could do.

had no Army or police beyond the Swiss Guard and he was not listened to by
the Allied powers. Under constant surveillance and threats from the Nazis
when they occupied Rome, his statements were seized and destroyed by the
Gestapo. As for his influence with loyal Roman Catholics, he had already
spelt out precisely and forthrightly what his views and those of the

were in the two above-mentioned encyclicals and in constant

of his position in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatoire. No loyal Roman
Catholic need have been in any doubt at the time what the Catholic

views on Nazism and racism were. The fact that some bad Catholics allowed
themselves to become involved with the Nazi terror cannot be blamed on

Pius XII-any more than the fact that there were Jewish Kapos and a Jewish
police helping the Nazis enforce their extermination policies can be

upon Jewish religious leaders. Pius XII plainly repudiated the perverted
doctrines of the Nazis and also the immoral Fascist doctrines of Benito
Mussolini (which had been condemned in the encyclical Non Abbiamo Bisogno
meaning "we have no need" i.e. of Fascist doctrines).

He is also sometimes criticized for not excommunicating Hitler, but Hitler
was already excommunicated ipso facto for a whole range of crimes and

only have returned to the Catholic faith, even assuming that he would ever
have wanted to, by having his excommunication lifted by the Pope himself.
The lifting of the sentence was reserved to the Holy See, latae

Besides, the complaint assumes that Hitler took some notice of the Holy

and the Catholic Church. Insofar as he did, it was for purely political
reasons, since he was forced to recognize the influence of the Catholic
Church and the papacy. Hitler described himself as "a complete pagan" (see
Hitler's Table Talk) and regarded the Catholic Church as his greatest

which he would destroy when he had the opportunity.

One must remember, too, that the Pope had a duty to his own flock, who

in equal danger if they spoke out against the Nazis. Prince Sapicha, the
Cardinal of Cracow in Poland, told the Pope, perfectly accurately, that if
there were open public denunciations Catholics and Jews would be massacred
in Poland. It was better to try and rescue as many as possible through the
religious houses and allow the opposition Army to build up (which it did -
the Armija Krajowa, the secret underground Army under General

which was later betrayed by the soviets and massacred by the Nazis). In
1940, 800 priests died in Buchenwald, 1,200 in 1942 and 3,000 in 1943. And
that was just Buchenwald.

Later, after the war was over, Pius XII received a large delegation of

Jews in the Vatican and ordered that the Imperial steps be opened for them
to enter by. These steps were usually reserved for crowned Heads of State
(although they were later opened once for President Charles de Gaulle).

Pope received them in the Sistine chapel and, seeing that his Jewish
visitors felt uncomfortable in that place, he came down from his throne

warmly welcomed them telling them to feel completely at home, saying "I am
only the Vicar of Christ but you are His very kith and kin". Such was his
great love for the Jewish people, augmented by his knowledge of their
terrible sufferings.

Oskar Schindler, a Roman Catholic, is regarded as a "righteous gentile" by
many Jews for saving the lives of some 3,000 - 4,000 Jews in his

Why then is Pope Pius XII so unjustly criticized, despite saving 800,000
Jewish lives?









--
----------

J Young
youngopinions@aol.com

http://www.catholicleague.org/pius/realstory.htm





Over the last year a number of commentators have sought to rehash old and
ill-informed accusations in an attempt to undermine the reputation of Pope
Pius XII. His war-time effort to save Jewish lives has, amazingly, been the
principal area of attack. The BBC program Reputations, repeated on 14th
February 1996, was one especially virulent attack. It was followed by a
review in The Times by religious affairs correspondent, Ruth Gledhill, which
attacked Pius XII apparently on the strength of the BBC program alone.
Later, the producer of the program, Jonathan Lewis, attempted to explain his
position in the liberal Catholic Journal The Tablet.

Pius XII was one of the few world leaders outside Jewry itself who was quick
to recognize the danger of Nazism. ...