[Grem] Jewish historian / Pius XII was NOT Hitler's pope
Emoke Greschik
greschem at gmail.com
2014. Feb. 9., V, 19:13:56 CET
Another Jewish historian concludes that the latest research 'erases' the
image of a Pius XII indifferent to the fate of the Jews
Ha zavar a kiemelés, kérlek, kattints a linkre:
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2014/02/07/another-jewish-historian-concludes-that-the-latest-research-erases-the-image-of-a-pius-xii-indifferent-to-the-fate-of-the-jews/
Rabbi Dalin thinks that Pope Pius should be declared Righteous among the
Nations: it would only be common justice if he were
By William Oddie <http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/author/william-oddie/> on
Friday, 7 February 2014
[image: William Oddie] William
Oddie<http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/author/william-oddie/>
Dr William Oddie is a leading English Catholic writer and broadcaster. He
edited The Catholic Herald from 1998 to 2004 and is the author of The Roman
Option and Chesterton and the Romance of Orthodoxy.
Related articles:
The lie of 'Hitler's Pope' collapses, little by little: now, an important
new book shows how Pius XII's protection of the Jews worked on the
ground<http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2013/08/09/the-lie-of-hitlers-pope-collapses-little-by-lttle-now-an-important-new-book-shows-how-pius-xiis-protection-of-the-jews-worked-on-the-ground/>
- How to kill the myth of Hitler's
Pope<http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2010/07/08/how-to-kill-the-myth-of-hitlers-pope/>
- 'Why were you Catholics so awful to the Jews during the
War?'<http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2010/07/01/i-hope-you-dont-mind-my-asking-but-why-were-you-catholics-so-awful-to-the-jews-during-the-war/>
- Pope Francis 'leaves the exposition of doctrine to others, and
reserves for himself the merciful style of the care of souls': is he
playing a dangerous
game?<http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2013/11/14/pope-francis-leaves-the-exposition-of-doctrine-to-others-and-reserves-for-himself-the-merciful-style-of-the-care-of-souls-is-he-playing-a-dangerous-game/>
- Morning Catholic must-reads:
25/06/13<http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2013/06/25/morning-catholic-must-reads-250613/>
Zemanta <http://www.zemanta.com/?wp-related-posts>
[image: Pope Pius XII makes a radio broadcast in 1947 (AP)]
Pope Pius XII makes a radio broadcast in 1947 (AP)
I am writing this having just spotted* a piece I missed when it first
appeared on Sandro Magister's website
<http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/?eng=y> two weeks ago*. The piece was
headlined *"The Thousands of Jews Saved in Churches and Convents", and drew
attention to an article by the Jewish historian Anna Foa* which had been
picked up by L'Osservatore Romano, and also to the fact that *Pope Francis
will as soon as possible make available the complete documentation of the
pontificate of Pius XII, from 1939 to 1958,* a documentation that runs to
16 million pages, more than 15,000 folders, and 2,500 files. The work of
organising this vast mound of papers has been going on for six years, in
order to make it practically accessible to scholars. The prefect of the
Vatican secret archive, Bishop Sergio Pagano, has told Corriere della Sera
that "it will take another year, year and a half".
The point that emerges from Anna Foa's researches, however, is that t*he
question of access to this huge archive has dominated the whole controversy
of what the pope did or didn't do for the Jews quite wrongly for many years*,
*with frequent insinuations of its inaccessibility being motivated by
attempts to keep quiet about the shameful secrets it supposedly contains*.
Now, *Anna Foa suggests that this was quite unnecessary, since there was
always plenty of evidence of what was happening during the German
occupation*, outside the archives, in the witness of those Jews directly
involved. This is now being properly researched by historians like Dr Foa,
who insists that, as a result, we can be sure that the "more recent image
of the aid given to Jews by the Church arises not from pro-Catholic
ideological positions, but above all from thorough research into the lives
of Jews during the occupation, from the reconstruction of the stories of
families or individuals. From field work, in short." The research in this
regard, notes Sandro Magister, is highly advanced. And *from this it is
becoming ever more clear that the saving of many Jews was not only
permitted but also coordinated by the highest leadership of the Church*.
And as Anna Foa unambiguously makes clear, *this research "erases (my
emphasis) the image proposed in the 1960s of a Pope Pius XII indifferent to
the fate of Jews or even an accomplice of the Nazis"*.
A couple of years ago, I wrote a
piece<http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2012/07/04/the-yad-vashem-holocaust-museum-has-qualified-its-hostile-representation-of-pius-xiis-policy-towards-the-jews-but-this-though-welcome-is-not-enough/>suggesting
that the anti-Pius XII lobby of a few years ago was already
looking weaker as Jewish opinion moved, little by little, in the general
direction of the Jewish consensus of the immediate post-war years, which
was that the Pope's covert actions had saved many thousands of Jewish lives
during the German occupation of Italy and that everything he could have
done was in fact done.
*In the immediate aftermath of the war, when memories were fresh, Jews
remembered that he had spoken out publicly against the Nazis* (contrary to
the post-Hochhuth orthodoxy that he had shamefully remained totally
silent) *even
though he had been careful about what he he said. That lasted until the
1960s*, *when it was blown out of the water by Hochhuth's defamatory play
"The Vicar"*; but *when Pius died in 1958, it was still quite natural that
Golda Meir, then Israeli prime minister , should send a cable to the Holy
See paying tribute to him*. "During the Nazi terror," she recalled, "when
fearful martyrdom came to our people in the decade of Nazi terror, the
voice of the Pope was raised for the victims. The life of our times was
enriched by a voice speaking out on the great moral truths, above the
tumult of daily conflict. We mourn a great servant of peace."
All that collapsed, of course; not only did Jewish opinion harden against
Pius XII in the aftermath of *Hochhuth's play depicting him virtually as a
Nazi collaborator, but the Holocaust became an article of indictment in the
general liberal Catholic campaign against the papacy, and especially
against popes Benedict and John Paul*: as Rabbi David Dalin put it: "Almost
none of the recent books about Pius XII and the Holocaust is actually about
Pius XII and the Holocaust. Their real topic proves to be an intra-Catholic
argument about the direction of the Church today, with *the Holocaust
simply the biggest club available for liberal Catholics to use against
traditionalists."*
Well, we all understand now, or should if we didn't, all about *books like
John Cornwell's shamefully entitled Hitler's Pope*, as evidence from the
Vatican archives emerges little by little. In my post I drew attention to
something of a minor volte face at* the museum at Yad Vashem*, the memorial
of the Shoah in Jerusalem. Though a wall panel at the museum still listed
occasions when Pope Pius failed to protest against the slaughter of
European Jews, it now also mentioned the views of those who say the
Church's "neutrality" helped to save lives. The museum *issued a statement
to say that this was "an update to reflect research that has been done in
the recent years and presents a more complex picture than previously
presented".*
Well, that was something, but nothing like enough: it might have
recalled *Golda
Meir's tribute*, for instance, which *recognised that the the Church was
not neutral.* But still, a step in the right direction. But Yad Vashem has
also been undermining its own post-1960s view of the Church of which Pius
XII was supreme pontiff in other ways, by declaring a perhaps surprising
number of Catholic individuals as being "Righteous among the Nations". One
name can perhaps be singled out: that of *Cardinal Elia Angelo Dalla Costa,
who organised the rescue of hundreds of Jews in Florence. Yad Vashem's *
*accoun*t of what he
did<http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/pressroom/pressreleases/pr_details.asp?cid=766>is
worth reading:
During the Holocaust, *Florence* became *the scene of a major rescue
endeavor*. Initiated by Rabbi Nathan Cassuto and Raffaele Cantoni, it
became a joint effort of Church people, guided by Cardinal Elia Angelo
Dalla Costa, Archbishop of Florence, and Jewish personalities. This*
Jewish-Christian network, set up following the German occupation of Italy
and the onset of deportation of Jews, saved hundreds of local Jews and
Jewish refugees* from territories which had previously been under Italian
control, mostly in France and Yugoslavia.
*Cardinal Dalla Costa initiated and encouraged* the participation and
activity in the rescue activity of the clergy, and* appointed his
secretary, Father Meneghello, to be in charge of these dangerous
life-saving operations.* Dalla Costa played a central role in the
organization and operation of a widespread rescue network, *recruited
rescuers from among the clergy, supplied letters to his activists so that
they could go to heads of monasteries and convents entreating them to
shelter Jews, and sheltered fleeing Jews in his own palace for short
periods until they were taken to safe places. *
But there are of course *countless other examples, especially in religious
houses *(see my
piece<http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2013/08/09/the-lie-of-hitlers-pope-collapses-little-by-lttle-now-an-important-new-book-shows-how-pius-xiis-protection-of-the-jews-worked-on-the-ground/>about
Dame Joanna Bogle's important book Courage
and Conviction <http://www.gracewing.co.uk/page470.html>, the story of how
two English Bridgettine sisters, Mother Riccarda Hambrough and Mother
Katherine Flanagan, sheltered Jews in their convents during the German
occupation of Rome). *Now, Ana Foa's article "When Priests and Jews shared
the same food*" -which Magister reproduces--adds another important piece to
a complex jigsaw. *Rabbi Dalin thinks that Pope Pius should be declared
Righteous among the Nations: could that really happen one day? It's surely
not entirely unimaginable. *
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