The Shoah, by Sr. Margherita Marchione, Ph.D.

On May 15, 1998 at the 92nd annual meeting of the American Jewish Committee in Washington, D.C., Edward Cardinal Cassidy, head of the Pontifical Commission that issued the Shoah repentance document, responded to the negative reactions of Jewish leaders who claim that Pope Pius XII did not do enough to stop the Holocaust. His reference to Pius XII was clearly stated: "It is our conviction that in recent years his memory has been unjustly denigrated. ...Monstrous calumnies...have gradually become accepted facts especially within the  Jewish community." He reiterated that "anti-Semitism of the Nazis was the fruit of a thoroughly neo-pagan regime with its roots outside of Christianity, and in pursuing its aims it did not hesitate to oppose the Church and persecute its members also."

Relying uncritically on flawed books, some critics shamelessly misuse wartime documents. Their statements and charges have been and can be demolished by scholars. During the past several months, repeatedly the media has informed the public about issues denigrating the Catholic Church. Instead of accusing Pope Pius XII of "silence," critics should study his negotiations with the Nazis and his efforts to alleviate the persecuted Jews and other refugees. Perhaps critics should also study-in addition to the countless favorable statements of praise and gratitude toward the Holy Father found in the media-what the Axis propagandists were saying about the Pope's protests, as well as the angry reaction of both the Nazi and the Fascist Press.

These issues may be allowed to subside, but only to be resurrected again. For example, The Deputy "myth" was revived in 1983 on its 20th anniversary by Deborah E. Lipstadt of UCLA who concluded that "Hochhuth's work has stood the test of time. ....Millions are now aware of the indelible scar of shame borne by the Catholic Church and its leaders. " (Michael Schwartz, The Persistent Prejudices: Anti-Catholicism in American, 1984)

Only in 1963, when Rolf Hochhuth portrayed Pius XII as a Nazi collaborator, was the Pope accused of "silence." Hochhuth offers no historical evidence for his claims against Pope Pius XII. His play shows fanatical prejudice. Incidentally, it is interesting to note that Hochhuth also wrote a play about Churchill. In this play the pilot was said to have sabotaged the plane killing the Polish commander of the volunteers who were allied to the British. According to the play, the pilot was then liquidated by the secret service. Hochhuth was sued and forced to pay considerable damages to the British Government and to the pilot who was found living in California.
In Pius XII: Greatness Dishonored (Laetare Press, 1980), John O' Carroll questions: "why should Catholics with any self-respect tolerate meekly a sustained campaign of denigration, characterized by unscrupulous manifestations of the truth?"

Pius XII's secret diplomatic initiatives, solemn warnings and appeals to peoples and governments were not heeded. Apparently critics failed to do their research or refused to acknowledge the evidence regarding the alleged "silence" of Pius XII.

With the start of the war in September 1939, Pius XII pleaded that "in occupied territory the lives, the property, the honor, the religious convictions of the inhabitants will be respected." The following month he issued Summi Pontificatus, the encyclical condemning racism.

In January 1940, Vatican Radio and the Osservatore Romano proclaimed to the world the dreadful cruelties the Nazis were inflicting on the Poles. The Nazis interfered with the broadcasts and the Nazi ambassador protested.

In his 1940 Easter homily, Pius XII spoke about the bombardment of defenseless citizens, infirm and aged people and innocent children. On May 11, he condemned the invasions of Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg, and referred to a world poisoned by lies and disloyalty and wounded by excesses of violence. ("The Tablet, " May 18, 1940)

The record shows that Pope Pius XII was not a German collaborator nor was he pro-Nazi. The day after his election, the Nazi newspaper Berliner Morgenpost (March 3, 1939) stated its position: "The election of Cardinal Pacelli is not accepted with favor in Germany because he was always opposed to Nazism and practically determined the policies of the Vatican under his predecessor."

The Pontiff was not "silent" during the Holocaust. Newspaper and magazine articles set the tone for the media around the world:

October 28, 1939 - The New York Times: "Pope Condemns Dictators, Treaty Violators, Racism; Urges Restoring of Poland." The article is a powerful attack on totalitarianism proclaiming the Pontiff's determination to step forward boldly into "the immense vortex of errors and anti-Christian movements" and to fight the enemies of the Church defending the rights of the individual and the family. The encyclical was printed on pages 8 and 9.

December 23, 1940 - It is interesting to note Albert Einstein's statement in Time Magazine: "Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing truth. I had never any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel a great affection and admiration because the Church alone has had the courage and persistence to stand for intellectual truth and moral freedom."

December 25, 1941 - The New York Times editorial reported that the Pope's Christmas message was clear. The Gestapo interpreted the Pope's words as one long attack on Nazism: "...Here he is clearly speaking on behalf of the Jews."

December 25, 1942 - The New York Times editorial praised Pius XII as "a lonely voice crying out of the silence of a continent... The Pope expresses as passionately as any leader on our side the war aims of the struggle for freedom." Everyone understood the meaning of Pope Pius XII's Christmas message which expressed concern for "those hundreds of thousands who, without any fault of their own, sometimes only by reason of their nationality or race, are marked down for death or progressive extinction." The SS leader Reinhard Heydrich responded: "The Pope has repudiated the National Socialist New European Order. ...He is virtually accusing the German people of injustice toward the Jews and makes himself the mouthpiece of the Jewish war criminals."

August 6, 1942 - The New York Times front page article, "War News Summarized" stated: "According to reports reaching Berne, Switzerland, from Vichy, Pope Pius has protested through his Nuncio against mass deportation of Jews from occupied France." On the same page another article spoke about the Pop's plea for Jews: "The Papal Nuncio protested to Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, French Chief of State, against the inhuman arrests and deportations of Jews from the French occupied zone to Silesia and occupied parts of Russia."

October 1942 - The Times of London praised Pius XII: "A study of the words which Pope Pius XII has addressed since his accession in encyclicals and allocutions to the Catholics of various nations leaves no room for doubt. He condemns the worship of force and its concrete manifestation in the suppression of national liberties and in the persecution of the Jewish race."

In view of this evidence, the charge of modern critics that Pius XII was "silent" is unfair. The record amply supports the conclusion that his was a strategic approach to protect Jews and other refugees from retaliatory Nazi terrorism.

In 1963, Pope Paul VI appointed four Jesuit historians to study and publish Jewish-Vatican documents relating to the activities of Pope Pius XII and the Church's role in World War II. Thus, between 1965 and 1982, documents were released and printed in twelve volumes, four of which deal with the Vatican's work for the victims of the war and, in particular, its correspondence with the world Jewish organizations appealing for help. What remains in the Vatican Archives has not been opened to the general public because it contains confidential documents which must be respected during the lifetime of the persons involved.

The evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of Pope Pius XII. The representative of the Hebrew Commission, Dr. Joseph Nathan, Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden in the House of Commons, the Jewish Chaplain of the Fifth American Army, and members of the Italian Jewish Community-all resound with a common message: that Pope Pius XII as well as other religious men and women are to be acknowledged for their charity and courage in protecting and saving the lives of countless Jews.

To state that the Catholic Church openly collaborated with the Nazis in Germany, and idly stood by while six million Jews were exterminated, is a lie. Millions of Christians also died at the hands of the Nazis.

In May 1940, when Pius XII came into possession of vital military intelligence concerning when and where the German attack against Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg was going to take place, he did not hesitate to communicate with Paris and London, but he was not believed. He had been in contact with German generals who wanted to get rid of Hitler. They informed him that they would be able to prevent the attacks if Germany was guaranteed honorable terms in a peace treaty after the Fuhrer was disposed of. Reports in the British Embassy confirm that the Pope passed on this information, but the British mistrusted it and did nothing.

For fear of worsening the plight of the Jews and other victims, Pope Pius XII did not issue a public condemnation. Instead he mobilized all the forces of the Church and extended his charity to all war victims, without distinction of nationality, race or religion.

At the Pope's death in 1958, Golda Meir sent an eloquent message: "We share in the grief of humanity. ...When fearful martyrdom came to our people in the decade of Nazi terror, the voice of the Pope was raised for its victims. The life of our times was enriched by a voice speaking out about great moral truths above the tumult of daily conflict. We mourn a great servant of peace."

The Jewish News Bulletin of the British Eighth Army, stated: "It is to the credit of Pope Pius XII that ... Instead of preaching Christianity ...he and the churches practiced its principles and set an example by their acts and lives, as did the Founder of Christianity." The charges that Christianity is responsible for the Holocaust are without rational basis. Attacking Christianity, because of the human weakness and personal failure of some members to have met the difficult demands of the Catholic Faith and charging the Church with such failure, as having led to the Holocaust, is seriously unjust.

The fact the Pius XII saved thousands of Jews from the gas chambers cannot be obliterated by revisionists. Nor can the fact that the Jewish Community praised the Pope's efforts during and after the Holocaust be denied. Apparently, posterity wishes to ignore these facts. This is the real "silence."

Pope John Paul II wrote: "To this day, Auschwitz does not cease to admonish, reminding us that anti-Semitism is a great sin against humanity, that all racial hatred inevitable leads to the trampling of human dignity" (Crossing the Threshold of Hope New York, Knopf, 1994).

Only by becoming more sensitive to each other can Jews and Catholics improve their relationship and achieve reconciliation and peace. We ask our Jewish brethren to join us, in the interests of historic truth and community harmony, to rectify calumnies that malign the Catholic Church and the memory of Pope Pius XII, whom Golda Meir eulogized as "a great servant of peace."

From: Margherita Marchione, Ph.D., author of YOURS IS A PRECIOUS WITNESS; MEMOIRS OF JEWS AND CATHOLICS IN WARTIME ITALY, Paulist  Press, 1997. (Tel. 973-538-2886/ FAX 973-539-9327).

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