Catholics And The Holocaust

[daugher-of-Mary]

The other thing you have to remember is a lot of the Churchs' activities in helping the Jews were done underground (for obvious reasons!) and not recorded.

If you're interested, Assisi Underground is a wonderful movie about Padre Rufino, and how monasteries and convents helped protect thousands of Italian Jews.

[Thy Geekdom Come]

I recommend the book "Hitler, the War, and the Pope" by Ronald J. Rychlak. It's a bit long, but very well written and very informative, not to mention well documented.

[VeraMaria]

There's this book "Hitler's Pope" that's a bunch of garbage and my teacher used it as a "reliable source" when teaching us about the Holocaust :angry:

[Thy Geekdom Come]

Actually, the book I recommended has a direct refutation of "Hitler's Pope".

[DojoGrant]

Has anyone been to the Holocaust Museum in Wash. DC? I'll be going there in July, and am curious if it has anything on Catholics there.

[Thy Geekdom Come]

[quote]Has anyone been to the Holocaust Museum in Wash. DC? I'll be going there in July, and am curious if it has anything on Catholics there.[/quote]

I haven't been there, but my family is planning to be around DC in early July...I've only been to the Capitol Building (VIP tours RULE!) and the Air and Space Museum...

[musturde]

My religion teacher talked about it in class after we visited the Holocaust Museum (she didn't go with us). She said did yall notice how Catholics aren't mentioned? Catholics had the 4th most deaths and then the gays came later at number 7. She said it's because Catholics and Jews kinda have a history of tension. She mentioned that we were asking the to put something for a Saint in the holocaust and we were rejected. (actually maybe that mighta been someone from Phatmass)

[Cure of Ars]

[quote name='VeraMaria' date='Jun 6 2004, 09:24 PM']There's this book "Hitler's Pope" that's a bunch of garbage and my teacher used it as a "reliable source" when teaching us about the Holocaust :angry:[/quote]
In a review on the Book “Hitler’s Pope: The secret History of Pius XII” by the New York Times on October 2, 1999 says:

[color=blue]“If PiusXII was “Hitler’s pawn” as Mr. Cornwell writes, then everyone else was Pacelli’s pawn. No one seems to act from motives or principles, virtues or vices, independent of his, not the German bishops, the Center Party leaders of even Pius’s predecessor, Pius XI. One chapter describes the young Pacelli’s hand in the negotiation of a June 1914 concordat with Serbia, and the reader ends up wondering whether this man did not also start World War I!”[/color]

Ronald J. Rychlak in his book “Hitler The War And The Pope” addresses Cornwell misinformation in the Epilogue of his book. I am going to quote from an article of “This Rock” of Jan 2001 written by Ronald J. Rychlak because it is more condensed. It says:

[color=blue]“Cornwell, a professed Catholic, claims that he set out to defend Pius XII and that he obtained permission to look at Vatican’s secret archives. After viewing this “previously unseen material,” he says he became convinced that Pius XII was “Hitler’s Pope”. I traveled to Rome in December 1999, and I saw the documents that Cornwell used. In particular, I reviewed the transcripts of testimony given by people who knew Pius. Cornwell claimed these transcripts left him in a “state of moral shock”. He called them “explosively critical matter” that was revealed to him “at great risk” to the priest who made them available.

The same priest-Fr. Peter Gumpel- made the material available to me. In fact, as Cornwell finally admitted in an exchange I had with him last April in Brill’s Content magazine, these documents are not secret. More importantly, they are not in any way shocking. Every witness testified positively about the heroic virtue of Pope Pius XII. Many spoke of his concern for the Jewish people and the help that he gave them both before and after he became pope.

When Cornwell addressed the fact that there was nothing “shocking” in these transcripts, his only reply was, “[Pius XII younger sister, Elisabetha] tells us that he was accused of having had an affair with his housekeeper nun and that the housekeeper in turn had been engaged in a flirtation with the Vatican architect. Is that not explosive? What a dull fellow Rychlak is” (“A Different Read: Vatican Chronicles,” Brill’s Content, April 2000).

Dull perhaps but smart enough to understand that this testimony-which was that Pius immediately ordered an investigation when he heard this rumor and was pleased when it was disproved-has nothing to do with the Vatican’s relationship to Jews, Nazis, or the Holocaust. The claim of having been left in a “state of moral shock” is but one of many obviously fictitious parts of Cornell’s story.”


Another misrepresentation is the cover of Cornell’s book. It shows Pope Pius coming out of a building with solders standing around the building and his chauffer saluting him. The problem is that the background is blurred and they cut out the door of the car. It makes it look like the Pope had a meeting with the Germans. With the title it gives the impression that the Pope had a meeting with Hitler (which never happened). The last thing is that the solders are not German but from the Weimar republic. Their helmets are similar. This picture is used to mislead people.[/color]

To see the book cover go to this link.

[url="http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/0140296271.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg"]http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/01402...01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg[/url]

Edited June 7, 2004 by Cure of Ars

[crusader1234]

Israel Asper (may he rest in peace) donated huge amounts of money to Winnipeg so that we could be the location of Canada's human rights museum. For you Michiganders, this would probably be closer than DC, and its going to be a beautiful buldling. You shuold all check it out when it opens.

[Sojourner]

[quote name='DojoGrant' date='Jun 6 2004, 09:52 PM'] Has anyone been to the Holocaust Museum in Wash. DC?  I'll be going there in July, and am curious if it has anything on Catholics there. [/quote]
I've been, several years ago, and can't remember if there were any Catholics in it. It is an amazing museum, though.

[cmotherofpirl]

New EWTN series the [i]Assisi in Silence [/i]will address this issue.

EWTN GLOBAL SHOWCASE
ASSISI IN SILENCE (60:00) NEW

The hidden network by the clergy of Assisi saved persecuted Jews during WWII. Under secret orders by Pope Pius XII to do all that was humanly possible to save the Jews, the Bishop of Assisi began a clandestine operation that would open up monasteries and cloistered convents to hide the persecuted. With interviews of some of those directly involved and historical footage of the era, this inspirational story is told.

Saturday
June 5, 2004
8:00 PM

Tuesday
June 8, 2004
3:00 AM

Thursday
June 10, 2004
1:00 PM

[musturde]

[COLOR=red]"Tuesday
June 8, 2004
3:00 AM"[color]

3 fricken am?

[Lil Red]

the Holocaust Museum is very sad, but very moving. leave one day just to go through it. you'll need it.

This is from Lifeteen:

[quote]Pope Pius XII vs the Nazi Regime

There are a number of misconceptions regarding the Catholic Church’s stance with Nazi Germany prior to and during WWII, and the perceived “lack of involvement” on the part of the Vatican, especially then Pontiff, Pope Pius XII.

Below are just a few facts to set the record straight, in sincere hope of showing just how actively the Roman Catholic Church waged a war on Nazism and their culture of hate.

Some people claim that prior to the war, Pius XII’s  predecessor, Pope Pius XI was supportive of the Nazis.  False.
I. Pope Pius XI did not sign an accord endorsing Nazi Germany, he signed a concord, securing the rights of Christians in the country.
a. Hitler went back on the deal and began voiding the rights of Christians
II. The Vatican response was the only encyclical ever written in German, Mit Brennender Sorge (which loosely translated means) “with Burning Anxiety”
a. It was smuggled into Germany, and read from every Catholic pulpit
b. The encyclical was strongly worded, and denounced the Nazis, and stating how wrong it was for them to remove scripture from the classrooms, and promulgate the German National Church

Some people claim that Pope Pius XII helped build the Nazi war machine, and only changed sides when Hitler began losing.  False.

I. Pope Pius XII, formerly Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, hated Nazism
a. He actively spoke out against it for years prior to his election
b. The German paper, the Berlin Morgenpost, stated after he was elected, that “the election was not accepted with favor…..he was always opposed to Nazism.”

II. In ’35, four years before the war started, he gave a speech to 250,000 pilgrims in France stating that the Nazis were just “plagiarists who dress up old errors with new tinsel”
a. Other public remarks and notes by the Cardinal won him no favor with the Nazi party

III. Of the forty-four speeches he made on German soil between 1917 and 1929, forty of them attacked Nazism

IV. Before the Pope’s election, Hitler sent his secretary von Ribbentrop to dissuade the new Pontiff from carrying on his predecessor’s (Pius XI) policies.
a. Pius XII opened a ledger documenting all the Nazi crimes, and sent the secretary on his way with a strong and fearless message to be delivered to Hitler, outlining the Church’s unwavering stance and refusal to stop

Some people claim that the Pope remained silent, and by doing so, cost several Jews their lives.  False.
I. Nowadays in popular culture, “silent” means indifferent, apathetic, etc., which isn’t its actual meaning.
a. He was not silent out of fear, but sensitivity, as he waged a subversive, covert and secretive war against Nazism
b. He knew they would be harmed
c. He had seen what happened when Archbishop of Utrecht spoke out, getting the Catholic Jews of Holland killed, including Edith Stein

II. Most Jews living in Berlin who were later asked about this “silence” stated that it was better that the Pope didn’t speak out, believing that it saved their lives

III. Much of the ignorance surrounding the “silence” was the result of a smear campaign, stemming from a stage play, The Deputy, by a German playwright, Hochhuth.

Some people claim that the Pope didn’t lift a finger to help.  False.
I. The Vatican was aiding in the issuing tens of thousands of false documents to allow Jews to pass secretly as Christians, in order to escape.

II. Lichten, Lapide, and other Jewish writers who chronicled the events, recorded that the Church gave millions upon millions of dollars away to aid in escape and war efforts.
a. At one point, a Rabbi in need of assistance snuck into the helpful Vatican, and was given 100 pounds of gold in 36 hours to aid in the escape of hundreds of Jews

III. In 1943, the Vatican was acting so strongly that Mussolini was almost overthrown, only to be reinstalled by Hitler, who was himself losing control

IV. Pope sent out the order that all religious buildings were to serve as refuge for the Jews, enacting a rule and releasing the monasteries and convents from their cloister rules that would prohibit such an action
a. 155 convents and monasteries in Rome, all property of Vatican housed Jewish refugees
b. 5000 Jews were hidden in Rome,
  i. Over 3000 Jewish refugees where hidden in the Pope’s summer house, Castel Gandolfo
  ii. 60 were housed for over nine months in Jesuit Gregorian University
  iii. A dozen more were hidden in the cellar of the Pontifical Institute

And, finally, consider these facts:

I. After the war it was stated and validated that only 8000 Jews had been taken from Italy by the Nazis, due in large part to the Church’s efforts.
II. In 1944, Pius XII, himself, sent a telegram to the Hungarian Admiral, halting the deportation of 800,000 Jews.
III. At the conclusion of the war, the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem sent a personal note of thanks, stating his gratitude to the Church for all of its assistance.
IV. The Chief Rabbi of Rome, (obviously Jewish) even became Catholic, and took “Eugenio” (Pope Pius XII’s birth name) as his baptismal name.
V. Conservative estimates show us that about 860,000 souls were saved by the Vatican’s actions, more than all of the relief organizations in Europe combined.
VI. Golda Meir, the future prime minister of Israel, even gave a eulogy at the funeral of Pope Pius XII.

Pius XII was a hero.

Going to prove the premise, yet again, that perception is not always reality.[/quote]

[musturde]

"Only the Catholic Church protested against the Hitlerian onslaught on liberty. Up till then I had not been interested in the Church, but today I feel a great admiration for the Church, which alone has had the courage to struggle for spiritual truth and moral liberty."
-- Albert Einstein

"We share the grief of the world over the death of His Holiness Pius XII. . . . During the ten years of Nazi terror, when our people passed through the horrors of martyrdom, the Pope raised his voice to condemn the persecutors and to commiserate with their victims"
--(Golda Meir, Israeli representative to the U.N. and future prime minister of Israel).

"With special gratitude we remember all he has done for the persecuted Jews during one of the darkest periods in their entire history"
--(Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Jewish Congress).

"More than anyone else, we have had the opportunity to appreciate the great kindness, filled with compassion and magnanimity, that the Pope displayed during the terrible years of persecution and terror
--(Elio Toaff, Chief Rabbi of Rome, following the former Chief Rabbi Zolli's conversion to Catholicism in 1945)

"The voice of Pius XII is a lonely voice in the silence and darkness enveloping Europe this Christmas... In calling for a 'real new order' based on'liberty, justice and love,' to be attained only by a 'return to social and international principles capable of creating a barrier against the abuse of liberty and the abuse of power, the Pope put himself squarely against Hitlerism. Recognizing that there is no road open to agreement between belligerents 'whose receprocal war aims and programs seem to be irreconcilable,' he left no doubt that the Nazi aims are also irreconcilable with his own conception of a Christian Peace."
--(The New York Times, December 25, 1941)

"I am happy to evoke in your presence today the dedicated and effective work of my predecessor Pius XII on behalf of the Jewish people."
--(Pope John Paul II, meeting with Jewish leaders in Rome on March 12, 1979)

[url="http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Backstage/2726/piusxii.html"]http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Backs...26/piusxii.html[/url]

[St. Catherine]

musturde, nice quotes. I especially like the Einstein one.