'Hitler's Pope' saved thousands of Jewish lives

Telegraph ^ | July 6, 2010 | Simon Caldwell

[Petrosius]

Pope Pius XII, the controversial wartime pontiff, may have saved thousands of Jews by secretly securing visas so they could escape Nazi Germany, a historian has claimed.

Pope Pius, who was labelled “Hitler’s Pope” because of his silence during the Holocaust, may have arranged the exodus of about 200,000 Jews from Germany just three weeks after Kristallnacht, when thousands of Jews were rounded up and sent to concentration camps.

[Williams]

“may have” ???

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

“”may” have arranged”

[Williams]

The phrase “Hitler’s Pope” is an outrage.

Sadly I know Jewish Americans who think the Pope was a Nazi. You can work all kinds of evil with liberal education and news media.

[Tax-chick]

who was labelled “Hitler’s Pope” because of his silence during the Holocaust

Why should we read anything by an author who repeats lies?

[conservonator]

These threads alway bring out some of the most disturbed Freepers that have yet to be banned.

[IrishCatholic]

I’m interested in history.

“Pope Pius XII greeted Hitler as the Savior of Germany.”

You put that in quotes. Who are you quoting? What is the source of your quote?

[Petrosius]

I encourage you to read the article. The opening line was penned by the Telegraph but the story is about new information by Dr Michael Hesemann, a German historian carrying out research in the Vatican archives. One quote:

He [Dr. Hesemann] said that Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli – the future Pius XII – wrote to Catholic archbishops around the world to urge them to apply for visas for “non-Aryan Catholics” and Jewish converts to Christianity who wanted to leave Germany. Elliot Hershberg, the chairman of the Pave the Way Foundation, said:“ We believe that many Jews who were successful in leaving Europe may not have had any idea that their visas and travel documents were obtained through these Vatican efforts. “Everything we have found thus far seems to indicate the known negative perception of Pope Pius XII is wrong.”

[vladimir998]

I have not been able to find any original source that says that yet so far. It might be a myth.

[Alex Murphy]

These threads alway bring out some of the most disturbed Freepers that have yet to be banned.

Yes - they're terrible! And disturbed FReepers will use these threads to proactively bash Protestants even before those Protestants show up to post anything.

[Petrosius]

Perhaps we should condemn the United States for supporting Hitler too because I can produce a picture of William Dodd (second person to the right of Hitler), the United States' ambassador to Germany standing with Hitler.

Cardinal Pacelli was the Vatican nuncio (ambassador) to Germany. Of course he meet with the Chancellor of Germany, Adolf Hitler, as did the ambassador of every country that had relations with Germany, including the United States. The use of these pictures to try to imply anything else is dishonest. The last I looked, all Christian denominations include "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor" as one of the Ten Commandments.

Also, please give the citation for your quote.

[Tax-chick]

I encourage you to read the article.

Okay, thanks.

[Tax-chick]

Sir Martin Gilbert, a British historian and the world’s leading expert on the Holocaust, has said that Pope Pius XII should be considered as a “Righteous Gentile” by Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust remembrance authority.

Thank for for (as it were) telling me not to be so hasty! This reminds me that I need to put more of Martin Gilbert's books on my library reserve list.

[IrishCatholic]

Can’t be. He used it to support his statement that the Pope Pius XII was only interested in saving his own neck. He’ll give us the source of the quote.

[TSgt]

http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/joseph_mccabe/big_blue_books/book_02.html#2

It was, however, not until Pacelli had left Germany that the Nazis showed any prospect of ever attaining power, and he regarded them as a vulgar and disorderly rabble led by a bunch of unsavory apostates and "pansies." Three years later he would, as Secretary of State, compel the proud German hierarchy, against their very decided will, to greet Hitler as the Savior of Germany and the White Hope of the Church, Let us remember, when we get to that point in the next booklet, that Pacelli did not act from ignorance. He was less innocent than Chamberlain. If he had any ability at all -- and he has considerable ability -- he knew Germany thoroughly. Will Catholics call it a wicked suspicion if we assume that this observer of events, who lived eight years in Munich and four in Berlin, had read Mein Kampf? He knew the program: the glorification of the German race, the domination of Europe, the annexation of the Ukraine, the massacre of the Jews, the annihilation of France -- in a word, war on a stupendous scale. Catholics do not obtrude today his intimate knowledge of Germany.

[TSgt]

Low, David Alexander Cecil, 1891-1963 :Hunting big game. [6 November 1940] Reference Number: NON-ATL-C-0106 Shows a scene at the Vatican; von Ribbentrop, Hitler's Foreign Minister from 1938 until the end of the Third Reich, dressed as a priest, hunts the pope with a large butterfly net. Adolf Hitler, disguised as a plaster saint, stands motionless in a corner clutching a volume titled 'Hitler, the white hope of the Church' and labelled 'Propaganda stunt no. 19'. Refers to the stance of Pope Pius X11 in relation to the Jews.

[dirtymac]

Let me see! 6,000,000 executed, 200,000 may have been saved. that is the kind of exchange any Nazi would like. So the Pope kept his mouth shut for a 30 to 1 kill ratio. sound like a cathlic martyr to me and about ready for sainthood. BTW Were the 200,000 all young boys? just asking

[vladimir998]

this is the closest to an oriinal source that I have found:

“as Secretary of State, Pope, Pius XII
(Eugenio Pacelli) greeted Hitler as the
Savior of Germany and the White Hope
of the Church.”
-How The Pope of Peace Traded in Blood;
The Red Record of the Holy Fathers;
by Joseph McCabe
Haldeman-Julius; 1941

http://babylon-the-great.xanga.com/674561228/item/

Here it is online:

“It was, however, not until Pacelli had left Germany that the Nazis showed any prospect of ever attaining power, and he regarded them as a vulgar and disorderly rabble led by a bunch of unsavory apostates and “pansies.” Three years later he would, as Secretary of State, compel the proud German hierarchy, against their very decided will, to greet Hitler as the Savior of Germany and the White Hope of the Church, Let us remember, when we get to that point in the next booklet, that Pacelli did not act from ignorance. He was less innocent than Chamberlain. If he had any ability at all — and he has considerable ability — he knew Germany thoroughly. Will Catholics call it a wicked suspicion if we assume that this observer of events, who lived eight years in Munich and four in Berlin, had read Mein Kampf? He knew the program: the glorification of the German race, the domination of Europe, the annexation of the Ukraine, the massacre of the Jews, the annihilation of France — in a word, war on a stupendous scale. Catholics do not obtrude today his intimate knowledge of Germany.”

http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/joseph_mccabe/big_blue_books/book_02.html

[TSgt]

Perhaps we should condemn the United States for supporting Hitler too because I can produce a picture of William Dodd (second person to the right of Hitler), the United States' ambassador to Germany standing with Hitler.

The US never signed a Reichskonkordat with Hitler. The Roman Catholic church did...

The signing of the Reichskonkordat on July 20, 1933 in Rome. (From left to right: German prelate Ludwig Kaas, German Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen, Secretary of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs Giuseppe Pizzardo, Cardinal Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli, Alfredo Ottaviani, and member of Reichsministerium des Inneren (Home Office) Rudolf Buttmann)