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Hitler Ordered Destruction of Vatican and Kidnapping of Pius XII
RIMINI, Italy, AUG. 27, 2001 (Zenit.org).- Adolf Hitler once ordered his SS troops to level the Vatican with "blood and fire" and kidnap Pope Pius XII, a new book says.
In "Pius XII, Pope of the Jews," Italian historian Andrea Tornielli reveals that Hitler ordered the destruction of the Vatican and the deportation of Pius XII to Liechtenstein in 1943, in reprisal for the Pontiff´s reported assistance to Jews and for the Church´s opposition to the Nazi regime.
In his work, which has just gone on sale in Italy, Tornielli explains that the "Führer" was livid after the signing of the armistice between the Badoglio government and the Allies on Sept. 8, 1943, and ordered the SS to destroy the Holy See with "blood and fire."
Hitler´s plan did not materialize, however, thanks to General Karl Wolff, then SS commander in Italy, who succeeded in dissuading the Nazi dictator from this course of action.
Former Italian Minister Giulio Andreotti defended the validity of Tornielli´s thesis last week when he addressed the meeting of the Catholic movement Communion and Liberation. The meeting ended Saturday in this northern coastal city.
Andreotti supported Pius XII and rejected the criticisms leveled against the Pontiff at the end of World War II, accusing him of passivity in face of the Holocaust.
"The hostility against Pope Pacelli was not due to his weakness against Nazism, but to his rejection of Communism," Andreotti said.
Tornielli´s arguments had already been noted in recent years by historians and scholars, who quoted testimonies and documents from the time of the Nazi occupation of Rome.
Among Pius XII´s defenders is Antonio Gaspari, author of "The Jews, Pius XII, and the Black Legend," which offers testimonies of Jews in Rome who were saved from the Nazi-Fascist persecution thanks to the help of men and women of the Church, as requested by Pius XII himself.
Pius XII´s process of beatification is under way, though it is opposed by some Jews and leaders of the right in the Israeli government.
Eugenio Pacelli, Pius XII, died Oct. 9, 1958, in the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, after a 19-year pontificate.
Pius XII´s actions helped save 800,000 Jewish lives, either directly or indirectly, according to Jewish researcher Pinchas Lapide.
Far from affinity with Hitler, as claimed by Rolf Hochhuth in his play "The Vicar," Pius XII was actively involved in the German resistance´s plans to remove the tyrant, as revealed in the British Foreign Office documents on the so-called Schwarze Kapelle, which involved Admiral Canaris, Count Von Stauffenberg and other German personalities opposed to the Führer.
ping
The ADL ain't gonna like this.
So, if all this is true, why would Israelis oppose his beatification? And who cares what their opinion is anyway, since they aren't Catholics in the first place?
The ADL should know better.
The glib way in which thoughtless or uninformed writers condemn Pius XII for his “silence” is a good example of the very propaganda and prejudice that the Nazis themselves exemplified in spreading their doctrine of anti-Semitism.
Good question. Maybe they are guilty of bigotry too? Pius XII and the Holocaust -- A Reader-- A Catholic League Publication
Many fools fail to understand what motivated the Vatican when Hitler controlled all of Europe. If the Vatican and the Pope had openly resisted Hitler, he would have had them killed.
So they Vatican resisted as much as it could and helped as many Jews as it could. Anyone who has studied the life of Adolf Hitler knows any other course would have resulted in far more Jewish as well as Catholic deaths. The object was to survive and help those they could. The other option was to die and help no one.
During the war both England and the United States did all it could to convince the populations of their nations that all Germans were evil. The only good german is a dead German was on many lips. But not all Germans were evil. The vatican knew that some Germans had to do some evil things to survive. In our anger and attempts to punish all Germans, the vatican risked our wrath by helping people we wanted dead.
That made us nearly as angry as it made the Germans when the show was on the other foot.
My reading of history was that the Pope was trying to save innocnet lives. That included Jews and Germans. The Popes criteria for help, was not nationality but being innocent of evil intent. I find that very Christian.
We are in complete agreement. Unless I ascribe nefarious motives, I cannot for the life of me understand why modern Jews criticize this Pope. He personally did more to save individual Jews than any other single man during the war.
Let me guess his next book is on The History of Palestine tracing right back to when Pharoah Khufu gave Grand Mufti Abdul a Bul Bul Amir the temple mount in 3467bc.
"Jews for Jesus" sticks in their craw.
Maybe it's too bad our B-24s and P-51s (including my Uncle Jim, in a P-51 Checker Tail) did such a quick job of shutting down the southern offence, so well, and, oh, well.
Furthermore, I have read a convincing case that the playwright who originated these lies, Rolf Hochhuth, was an agent of the Czech secret police, doing the dirty work of the KGB. The Communists knew the only global moral voice in opposition to their atheistic Marxist agenda was the Roman Catholic Church. This false history served to undermine the moral authority of the current Popes at a time, when Communism had expansionist dreams in the western hemisphere, starting with Castro.
Yes there was a eulogy in 1937 he wrote that upset the nazis,yes in 1942 he mentioned you shouldn't murder based on race or religion,in 1944 the Vatican personally hid 4000 jews,in terms of lay people and LINE officers like Priests many took a bullet for jews in some cases instead of them,yes 800,000 were saved...but 35 million Europeans and 50 million overall weren't... a true apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ would of being going ballistic at Italy,Germany and Japans stupidity by 1932-regardless of consequence.
For all those that scream about how the Catholic church "didn't do enough" (exactly what could they have done, anyway?), I wonder how brave THEY would have been in the face of mass murderers.
I wonder how many Jews saved 800,000 Jews in the 1940s.
What was that? None?
That's what I thought. Where is the outrage of modern Jews at their predecessors who did NOTHING (as opposed to NOT ENOUGH) to save Jews from Hitler.
Complete Nonsense!!! The Catholic Church worked with the Nazi's. Example: Father Draganovich(Catholic Priest)and a Croatian Nazi who helped many Nazis escape to Argentina also helped the notorious Ante Pavelich, a Nazi Croat responsible for thousands of Slav's Deaths in the Jasenovac Camp was one of them. Pavelich hid away in the Vatican walls with the help of the Bishops and other "pious" individuals. Made him fake documents to escape trial. The Rat Line (Vatican Escape Rout for X-Nazis) allowed for Nazis to escape to Argentina through the Vatican and the Red Cross out of Austria. This is just another attempt to RE-Engineer History.
They're all too busy in coffeeshops on mobile phones to be considering your proposition,which is a pity if you don't learn from the past your doomed to repeat it.This seems to be their major problem...for about 6000 years.
a true apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ would of being
Good point! Where were the protestants? Why was only the Catholic church, ALONE, speaking on the world stage against these atrocities. Excellent point, brother. Where were the Bible Christians? Silent...truly silent. The pope combined WORDS with ACTIONS that saved LIVES. What did your folks do? What protestant leader was personally responsible for saving 800,000?
Sorry, you can't have it both ways.
Fine...some Catholics were bad. So were some protestants. Your point?
Your diatribe does not change HISTORY, as much as you wish it did.
Sorry I don't fit into any particular cardboard box of the 10000 species of registered Christianity,a significant proportion of protestants in that conflict had 'Gott Mitt uns' on their belt buckles; another significant proportion ran up beaches and dropped out of aeroplanes fighting the afforementioned,the same for catholics.
The answer is observable from airplanes: great big green fields with these white cross things by their tens of thousands in them.So your answer is they all failed dismally because the very human aspects of power,real estate,money and control with states using religion as a tool overwhelmed the intrinsic principles disseminated by Christianitys founder that are immutable and supposed to be imparted by individuals in a manner that makes such human behaviour an illogical choice...show me the ex-leper of any of these or current Religious patriarchs for that matter.
The glib way in which thoughtless or uninformed writers condemn Pius XII for his “silence” is a good example of the very propaganda and prejudice that the Nazis themselves exemplified in spreading their doctrine of anti-Semitism.
Pius the XII was silent because his motive was to save the lives of those he could from the Holocost. If Pius XII had publicly and vocally defended the Jews he would have found himself very dead along with the many Jews that he saved. Pope Pius XII did as Schindler (Schindlers List), he saved as many as he could given the circumstances of the War.
It is time people get of the back of the church and Pope Pius XII.
PS
I am not even Catholic.
My point you ask? You mean you don't get it? The point is, Catholics should stop hiding behind the vale of the Pope and take responsibility for the actions or inaction’s done by the Vatican. I think the Pope has the right idea when he sort of apologized to the Jews and the Orthodox church. This is indeed a required step to bringing the East and the West closer to some healing and understanding.
For your edification:
He was a member of the Nazi Youths in his teens and his father was a member of Hitler's repressive apparatus. The play was a piece of anti-Catholic trash, and as such it appealed to the anti-Catholic media that promoted it enthusiastically. When the play appeared, there were still living diplomats that knew the facts first hand. They were outraged with the slanderous lies against the Pope and the Church. Among the most outspoken were Wladimir d’Ormesson, member of the French Academy, Sir Francis d’Arcy Osborne, who was representative of England to the Vatican during the War, and the Ambassadors Grippenberg of Finland and Gunnar Haggelof of Sweden. Sir d’Arcy Osborne wrote a letter of protest to the London Times in March 20, 1963 that was added to the play program by order of the British government.
Squid you are full of B.S. You have choosen your pen name quite well, you are as slimy as the squids. All those slanderous alegations are complety baseless, the product of sick bigoted minds.
re : Hitler Ordered Destruction of Vatican and Kidnapping of Pius XII
The name given I think was operation Dog Collar, but it was always on the cards before taking power Hitler had promised that the Catholics would share the Jews fate.
Pius XII displayed a very hit and miss attitude towards the Jewish question, partly due to the fact that he was prepared to sacrifice the Jewish religion in Europe so as to save the Catholic.
When the Jews in Rome were rounded up theory were rounded up with a lot more public brutality than other Western European countries rumour has it that they wanted to get the pope to protest, a number of SD Battalions were on stand by who would then of swung into action to remove the catholic leadership.
Tony
who cares. It's ancient history. In the past long ago. Get on with yer lives and get over it. By drudging this up all you do is make sure that it will happen again in time. Some people can't be happy unless they have something to whine about. Get over the holocaust there were plenty worse things that happened to people in the world than that. It is minute in comparison with the mass exterminations in China. Get over it and get on with your life.
Those allegations are slanderous and baseless. The testimonies of Jewish leaders that were direct witnesses of that period, contradicts your spurious allegations.
Dr. Raphael Cantoni, a leader in Italy’s Jewish Assistance Committee, affirmed “The Church and the Papacy have saved Jews as much and insofar as they could Christians. Six million of my co-religionists have been murdered by the Nazis…but there would have been many more victims had it not been for the efficacious intervention of Pius XII.”
On October 12, 1945, Leo Kubwitsky, on behalf of the World Jewish Congress made a gift of 2 million lire (the equivalent of over one million dollars at present value) to the Vatican as a token of gratitude. Pius XII decided that the sum should go exclusively to needy people of Jewish origin. Jews who had first hand knowledge, or participated in the extraordinary efforts of Pius XII and the Catholic Church in saving Jewish lives during this most tragic period, were not short in publicly expressing their profound gratitude while this great Pope was still alive.
Moshe Sharett, Israel’s first Foreign Minister, (and later the second Prime of Minister), met Pius XII in 1945 and said later: “I told him that my first duty was to thank him, and through him, the Catholic Church, on behalf of the Jewish people, for all they had done in various countries to rescue Jews, to save children and Jews in general.”
Among those who mourned the death of Pius XII pronouncing heartfelt tributes were the President of Israel Ben-Zevi, Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Jewish Congress and the World Zionist Organization, and many Rabbis including Dr. Israel Goldstein of New York. Rabbi Elio Toaff, Chief Rabbi of Rome, said: “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, when it seemed that there was no hope left for us.” Rabbi Israel Zolli stated: “What the Vatican did will indelibly and eternally engraved in our hearts…Priests and even high prelates did things that will forever be an honor to Catholicism.”
The Israeli’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mrs. Golda Meir’s cablegram to the Vatican read; “We share in the grief of humanity at the passing away of His Holiness Pope Pius XII. In a generation afflicted by wars and discords, he upheld the highest ideals of peace and compassion. 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.”
Unfortunately, today we are witnessing a campaign against this great benefactor of Humanity. His memory is being slandered and dishonored through falsehoods and innuendoes. This matter should be open to honest analysis and discussion. Legitimate discrepancies might exist while studying historical facts, but that should not be of excuse for those people who are moved by the same great evils of ignorance, hatred, and bigotry that made possible the brutal onslaught of innocent people by the Nazis and the Communists.
Get over it and get on with your life.
We Catholics are not the ones continuing the slanderous lies and revisionist histories. It is the bigots repeating these lies that force us to defend Pius XII. We'll "get over it" when the bigots stop their slander.
American Jewish Rabbi to Italians: Pius XII a Righteous Gentile
by John Drogin
RIMINI, Italy, August 23, 2001 -- American Rabbi David Dalin proclaimed Pius XII a "great friend of Jews" and one of the "righteous among the gentiles" at a meeting last night attended by thousands of Italians in the resort town of Rimini.
Dalin, who lives in West Hartford, Connecticut, made the comments during a panel discussion at the annual "Rimini Meeting" sponsored by the lay Catholic movement "Communion and Liberation."
Pius XII "is a great friend of Jews," Dalin said, "and merits to be called 'Righteous among the Nations.' He saved many of my 'brothers', more than Schindler... At least 800,000 according to some statistics."
The venue for the week-long meeting is the steamy resort town of Rimini, on the Adriatic coast just south of Venice. Dalin, along with the Italian Senator Giulio Andreotti, answered questions posed by host Andrea Tornielli, an Italian journalist who wrote a book entitled "Pius XII: The Pope of the Jews." Some 5,000 people, mostly Italians, gathered under the sweltering-hot circus tent, while thousands more gathered around the outsides of the tent.
The majority of the crowd outside listened to the hidden rabbi's words with great intensity, surprised to hear what had not been said publicly in Italy since shortly after World War II ended in 1945. "We haven't heard any of what you said in at least 50 years," burst out Thomaso Toschi, a professor at the University of Bologna, after the presentation, "and we are all in complete agreement with you." Indeed, many others in the crowd said they felt the same way.
To hear Papa Pacelli (Pius XII's name before he became Pope was Eugenio Pacelli) defended so actively for his wartime activity, and from the lips of a Jew, was something many in the crowd thought would never be possible in their lifetimes.
The words were also heard across the country as at least three Italian radio stations, including Vatican Radio, transmitted the discussion live.
Andreotti recalled a Jew who had been positive about Pius XII, but who has not been around in the last 50 years to defend him. "After the war, the chief Rabbi of Rome, Israel Zolli, went to pay homage to the Pope; Zolli converted and took the name Eugenio." He also said: "Pius XII was very firm against the onslaught of Communism." The comment received loud audience approval.
Dalin, the author of a landmark article entitled "Pius XII and the Jews", originally published in America in the "Weekly Standard" magazine, and reprinted in the most recent issue of "Inside the Vatican" (August-September, 2001) responded to a hypothetical question posed by Tornielli regarding whether the Pope should have formally excommunicated Adolf Hitler.
"First of all, it would have been a merely symbolic act, seeing that when one commits such sins he is automatically excommunicated," Dalin replied. "Secondly, it would not have prevented or stopped the Holocaust, but rather made it much worse.
The American rabbi pointed out that the ex-chief rabbi of Denmark said he could testify that had the Church formally excommunicated Hitler, he would have killed many more Jews. Dalin then posed a question: "What could be worse than the death of six million Jews? The slaughter of thousands and millions more Jewish lives."
This matter should be open to honest analysis and discussion
I agree
In the spring of 1940, the Chief Rabbi of Palestine, Isaac Herzog, asked the papal Secretary of State, Cardinal Luigi Maglione to intercede to keep Jews in Spain from being deported to Germany. He later made a similar request for Jews in Lithuania. The papacy did nothing.
Within the Pope's own church, Cardinal Theodor Innitzer of Vienna told Pius XII about Jewish deportations in 1941. In 1942, the Slovakian charge d'affaires, a position under the supervision of the Pope, reported to Rome that Slovakian Jews were being systematically deported and sent to death camps.
In October 1941, the Assistant Chief of the U.S. delegation to the Vatican, Harold Tittman, asked the Pope to condemn the atrocities. The response came that the Holy See wanted to remain "neutral," and that condemning the atrocities would have a negative influence on Catholics in German-held lands.
In late August 1942, after more than 200,000 Ukrainian Jews had been killed, Ukrainian Metropolitan Andrej Septyckyj wrote a long letter to the Pope, referring to the German government as a regime of terror and corruption, more diabolical than that of the Bolsheviks. The Pope replied by quoting verses from Psalms and advising Septyckyj to "bear adversity with serene patience."
On September 18, 1942, Monsignor Giovanni Battista Montini, the future Pope Paul VI, wrote, "The massacres of the Jews reach frightening proportions and forms."(9) Yet, that same month when Myron Taylor, U.S. representative to the Vatican, warned the Pope that his silence was endangering his moral prestige, the Secretary of State responded on the Pope's behalf that it was impossible to verify rumors about crimes committed against the Jews.
Wladislaw Raczkiewicz, president of the Polish government-in-exile, appealed to the Pope in January 1943 to publicly denounce Nazi violence. Bishop Preysing of Berlin did the same, at least twice. Pius XII refused.
While I'm not Catholic, I was stunned at the anti-Catholic/Christian sentiment I've seen posted on some of these threads. Here's a beauty that was posted a few days ago along similar lines. Apparently Jewish scholars want to investigate Pius XII stating he knew about the holocaust and "didn't do enough" to stop it. It's sickening. It all sounds like a build up for a demand for an apology/reparations. Someone forwarded the thought that such persecution of innocent Catholics today might be justified because of the "Inquisition" that took place 800 years ago. That's a long time to hold a grudge.
Read the whole thread if you want to catch some interesting exchanges here. No, I wasn't so nice about it in response, but I've calmed down a lot since then.
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Some of the anti-Catholic posts are so far over the edge it's disgusting. On the other side, there are some Catholic threads posted here that belong better on some other forum. It's difficult to see how the biography of an obscure monk who has been dead for 1400 years is even remotely related to the purposes of this forum.
However, much of the discussion regarding the Catholic church is relevant, especially in terms of the influence of the Pope on society and on governmental affairs. And, in that context, it is completely fair to launch criticisms of the church's position, so long as they are reasonably fair. Usually, it seems, the criticisms get out of control and many become nothing more intellectual than Catholic-bashing.
I'm not Catholic and I think some of the Church's positions are downright silly, but I also recognize that many of my friends whom I respect believe otherwise. There is absolutely no need to ridicule them or their beliefs.
I don't care one or the other whether Pius XII is beatified or not. That's an internal church matter, as far as I'm concerned. I'm not even entitled to have an opinion, which is why I find it curious to have opposition from outside parties.
But the historical question of whether Pius XII was a positive influence during WWII is absolutely fair game for discussion, which is why I'm glad this article was posted.
You are completely off base influenced by the anti-Catholic propaganda. I would like to express my gratitude for giving me the opportunity to prove the falsehood of those allegations.
You said: “In the spring of 1940, the Chief Rabbi of Palestine, Isaac Herzog, asked the papal Secretary of State, Cardinal Luigi Maglione to intercede to keep Jews in Spain from being deported to Germany. He later made a similar request for Jews in Lithuania. The papacy did nothing.”
Open you mind to the truth.
In November, 1943, Isaac Herzog, Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, wrote to Cardinal Roncalli, (the future Pope John XXIII) then Apostolic Delegate to Turkey and Greece, stating: “I take this opportunity to express to your Eminence my sincere thanks as well as my deep appreciation of your 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.”
On February 28, 1945, Rabbi Isaac Herzog, sent a letter of gratitude to the Apostolic Nuncio in Rumania, Msgr. Andrea Cassulo, stating that: “The people of Israel will never forget what His Holiness and his illustrious delegates, inspired by the eternal principles of religion which form the very foundations of civilization, are doing for us unfortunate brothers and sisters in the most tragic hour of our history, which is living prove of divine Providence in this world.”
You are parroting lies and you should be ashamed. Rabbi Herzog’s heartfelt words should suffice to end once and for all the slanderous attacks to the memory of the great protector of the Jews, Pius XII and the Catholic Church.
All the other slanderous allegations do not merit response; they have been discredited by the testimonies of the Jewish world leaders that knew the truth first hand.
As affirmed by historian Robert A. Graham, foremost scholar on Pius XII, even before 1944, the world Jewish organizations had recognized in the Vatican a friend who was willing- and often able- to help their people during their tragic ordeal in occupied Europe. The concerns of the Jewish organizations were also those of the Holy See. Sometimes The Church acted on the appeal of a Jewish organization, at other times, they acted on the basis of reports received from its own representatives in the occupied territories where they held a relationship of confidence with the local Jewish leaders. In many instances, the Holy See had already acted upon information received from its own nuncios before the appeals from Jewish organizations arrived at the Vatican.
Pope Paul VI, who was a close collaborator with Pius XII, authorized in 1964 the publications of the documents of the Holy See relating World War II. In Volume X, there is a day-by-day record of the Holy See’s correspondence with the most active international Jewish organizations. Among the more important of these are the ones from the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe, the World Jewish Congress, the American Jewish Congress, Agudas Israel World Organization, Vaad Hahatzala of the Unions of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada, Hijefs (Schweizerischer Hillfsverein fur Judische Fluchling im Ausland), the Jewish Agency for Palestine and the American Jewish Committee.
The American Jewish Welfare Board wrote to Pius XII on July 1944 to express their appreciation for the protection given to the Jews during the German occupation of Italy. In 1944 the War Refugee Board came into existence as the united effort of several American Jewish organizations. During and after the war, the War Refugee Board publicly acknowledged its close relationship with the Holy See. The documentation includes the correspondence from eminent rabbinical leaders who made special appeals to the Holy See; among them are the Grand Rabbi of Jerusalem, Dr. Issac Herzog; the Grand Rabbi of the British Empire, Dr. Joseph Hertz; and Rabbi Abraham Kalmanowitz, leader of the rabbinical school of Mir, in Lithuania.
Fr. William Saunders has quoted Dr. Raphael Cantoni, a leader in Italy’s Jewish Assistance Committee, declaring that “The Church and the Papacy have saved Jews as much and insofar as they could Christians. Six million of my co-religionists have been murdered by the Nazis…but there would have been many more victims had it not been for the efficacious intervention of Pius XII.”
The British Ambassador to the Vatican says that the Pope was the most warmly humane, kindly, sympathetic, and saintly character he had known
D’Arcy Osborne, the Protestant Minister of Britain to the Vatican wrote of Pope Pius XII: as “the most warmly humane, kindly, generous, sympathetic, and incidentally saintly, character who has been my privilege to meet in the course of a long life.” (26)
Charles de Gaulle described the Pope as pious and compassionate Charles de Gaulle, after an audience with the Pope on June 30, 1944, declared: “The Holy Father receives me. Beneath the kindly welcome and the simplicity of his language, I am gripped by the sharpness and power of his thought. Pius XII judges everything from a viewpoint superior to that of men…the supernatural burden, which is laid on him alone in all the world, weighs, one feels, on his soul, but he carries it without flinching, certain of his goal, sure of his way…Pious, compassionate, political in the highest meaning these words can have, thus this pontiff and sovereign appears to me, through the respect which he inspires in me.” (27)
The World Jewish Congress gives Pius XII a token of gratitude On October 12, 1945, Leo Kubwitsky, on behalf of the World Jewish Congress made a gift of 2 million lire (the equivalent of over one million dollars at present value) to the Vatican as a token of gratitude. Pius XII decided that the sum should go exclusively to needy people of Jewish origin. Jews who had first hand knowledge, or participated in the extraordinary efforts of Pius XII and the Catholic Church in saving Jewish lives during this most tragic period, were not short in publicly expressing their profound gratitude while this great Pope was still alive. Moshe Sharett, Israel’s first Foreign Minister, (and later the second Prime of Minister), met Pius XII in 1945 and said later: “I told him that my first duty was to thank him, and through him, the Catholic Church, on behalf of the Jewish people, for all they had done in various countries to rescue Jews, to save children and Jews in general.” (28)
The Founders of the State of Israel express their condolences at the death of Pius XII in 1958
Among those who mourned the death of Pius XII pronouncing heartfelt tributes were the President of Israel Ben-Zevi, Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Jewish Congress and the World Zionist Organization, and many Rabbis including Dr. Israel Goldstein of New York. Rabbi Elio Toaff, Chief Rabbi of Rome, said: “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, when it seemed that there was no hope left for us.” Rabbi Israel Zolli stated: “What the Vatican did will indelibly and eternally engraved in our hearts…Priests and even high prelates did things that will forever be an honor to Catholicism.” (29)
The Israeli’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mrs. Golda Meir’s cablegram to the Vatican read; “We share in the grief of humanity at the passing away of His Holiness Pope Pius XII. In a generation afflicted by wars and discords, he upheld the highest ideals of peace and compassion. 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.” (30)
Unfortunately, today we are witnessing a campaign against this great benefactor of Humanity. His memory is being slandered and dishonored through falsehoods and innuendoes. This matter should be open to honest analysis and discussion. Legitimate discrepancies might exist while studying historical facts, but that should not be of excuse for those people who are moved by the same great evils of ignorance, hatred, and bigotry that made possible the brutal onslaught of innocent people by the Nazis and the Communists.
CONCLUSION The relationship of trust and collaboration during WW II between the Holy See, the Jewish organizations, the Allies’ intelligence services and their governments, including the anti-Nazi German Generals, is well proven and documented. However, there is not the slightest thread of evidence to substantiate the preposterous and vicious allegations raised against Pius XII and the Catholic Church of collaboration or sympathizing with the Nazis.
Did the Church do enough to save the Jews? As usual those who do the less complain the most and those who do the most always think they could have done even more. When Michael O’Carroll, author of the scholar book “Pius XII: Greatness Dishonoured” related in the Foreword that in 1957 he met Dr. Isaac Herzog, Chief Rabbi of Israel, and he told him with emotion of an audience he had with the Pope and how they discussed the prophet Ezechiel. “My blessing to him” said the saintly old man, and O’Carroll promised to be the bearer of the message of his goodwill. When O’Carroll gave the message to Pius XII he added “I think Jews everywhere are grateful for what you did for them during the war.” “I wish I could have done more” was the Pope’s reply.
Those testimonies aforementioned, as powerful as they might be, are just a few samples of the hundreds of messages of gratitude sent to Pius XII by Jews from around the world. There are at least 4 to 5 million descendants of those 860,000 Jews around the world whose lives were saved by Pius XII and the Catholic Church. They should be able to bring to light much more valuable documentation if they were to delve into their family’s historical records, the Israeli’s archives, and so many other serious, unbiased, Jewish scholarly researches in this matter.
In Pius XII’s own words in an address given on June 13, 1943, he said: “Our speeches and messages will not be able to be crossed out or run down by anyone, neither in their intentions nor essence. Everyone has been able to hear them as words of truth and peace…The Church is not afraid of the light of truth, neither of the past, the present, nor the future.” (32)
To those seeking the truth, what a better witness than the testimony of Albert Einstein, the great Jewish physicist, who had first hand experience of the horrors of Nazism? In 1944 he said: “Being a lover of freedom, when the Nazi revolution came in Germany, I looked to the universities to defend it, but the universities were immediately silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of newspapers, but they, like the universities were silenced in a few short weeks. Then I looked to individual writers…they too were mute. Only the Church,” Einstein concluded, “stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s campaign for suppressing the truth…I never had any special interest in the Church before, but now I feel great affection and admiration…and am forced thus to confess that what I once despised, I now praise unreservedly.” (33)
Just as the evils of the Holocaust must never be forgotten, neither should the kindness of those spiritual brothers from another faith who tried to help the Jews, at the risk of their own lives, under the most enormously dangerous travails be forgotten. The new generations ought to honor the moral commitment made by the founding leaders of the State of Israel towards the memory of Pius XII. The truth will prevail and with it, a greater understanding and brotherhood among Jews and Catholics.
Quote taken from “Pius XII and the Holocaust, Myth Vs. Truth” by Jesus J. Chao http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a39a2d2830ee5.htm
bump
I'm not trying the change HISTORY, I'm trying to keep it from being rewritten.
I'm sorry I forgot! The Pope is infallible. You can only find such proof in the investigative details after the trails in Nuremberg. Read through the NAZI documents and officer journals.
Hitler only did what he was told!
Complete Nonsense!!!
Ranting and raving is one thing, but can't we at least expect complete sentences?
This is just another attempt to RE-Engineer History.
There is a certain familiar incoherence to this rant.
You wouldn't happen to be Muslim, would you?
From all the anti-catholic slams on this thread, I guess the Catholics know how us Southern Baptists feel. As far as I am concerned, Pope Pius did what he could in the face of enormous evil. Hitler stated very clearly that after the war again the Jews was over the Catholics and Protestants were next.
Maybe the focus should be less on what man (all men) has failed to do, and what Jesus Christ has already done for mankind.
Yes, he did a lot for some Jews, which was not easy (just ask FDR). But he failed to exert moral leadership in 1938, when Italy passed Racial Laws. Pius XI had condemned racism as a heresy, and Pius XII should have condemned the Italian version. That was before the war, his life and the survival of the Vatican were not at stake, only a question of moral leadership. Had he done that, perhaps more Catholics would have resisted, although it's a lot to ask...the SS were not from the local debating club.
From all the anti-catholic slams on this thread, I guess the Catholics know how us Southern Baptists feel.
Frankly, I have far more in common with Southern Baptists and other fundamentalists honestly repeating what they think to be true anti-Catholic sentiment than the atheists, communists, and liberal Catholics, main stream protestants, and secular Jews trying to destroy Pius's reputation.
At least I share all 5 fundamentals of the Christian faith with anti-Catholic fundamentalists. I share zeal and fervent faith in Jesus christ, the Trinity, Heaven, etc. I can tolerate anti-Catholic attacks from fundamentalists because I know at least they mean well, even if their methods are wrong. They are trying to serve the Lord.
But I have ZERO tolerance for the rest. Their methods are evil and their motives are evil, and they are lukewarm Christians and often outright enemies of Christ.
Revisionist history against Pius XII serves a demonic agenda.
If you think you have won an argument, wait a few years and you will have to fight it all
over again. "Pube" truth hurts baby. Your infallible tool was a dagger in the hearts of
many.
He rather have fought communism and turn his back on what was going on then condemn
the "man with the master plan".
ping
It seems that you are misinformed. How can you call “some Jews”, to almost a million saved by the Church? Under Pius XII orders more Jews were saved than all other nations and world organizations put together.
You maintained that Pius XII "failed to exert moral leadership in 1938, when Italy passed Racial Laws. Pius XI had condemned racism as a heresy, and Pius XII should have condemned the Italian version."
First your are wrong, Cardinal Pacelli was not the Pope as you affirmed, he was elected Pope on March 2, 1939. Another falsehood is to affirm that the Church did not protest Mussolini’s anti-Semitic laws. The Church not only strongly protested those laws, but they hired many of the fired Jews, either as Vatican’s employees or found work for them in Latin America.
Dr. Joseph L. Lichten, wrote in 1963 a monograph entitled “A Question of Judgement: Pius XII and the Jews”, while serving as director of the Intercultural Affairs Department for the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith. Dr. Lichten revealed how the Holy See and the Jewish organizations worked together to save Jewish lives. He cites that during the German occupation of Italy, The Church, following the Pope’s instructions, hid and fed thousands of Jews in Vatican City and in Castel Gandolfo (the papal Summer residence outside Rome), as well as in various churches and convents. As a result of this, the Jews in Italy had a much higher survival rate than in other of the nazi occupied countries. There were about 50,000 Jews in Italy in 1939. Dr. Litchen recorded that at the end of the war the Nazis took only 8,000 Jews from Italy. Miraculously, during the whole period of the mass hiding of the Jews, the Germans only raided the Church’s refuges twice capturing only a handful of people.
In 1943,The Pope publicly denounced the first mass arrest of Italian Jews in an article in L’Osservatore Roman and protested their internment and the confiscation of their properties.
In August 1943, Pius XII received a plea from the World Jewish Congress to try to persuade the Italian authorities to release 20,000 Jewish refugees from internment in Northern Italy. They wrote, “Our terror-stricken brethren look to Your Holiness as the only hope for saving them from persecution and death”. In September 1943, A.L. Easterman on behalf of the WJC reported to the Apostolic Delegate in London that the efforts of the Holy See on behalf of the Jews had been successful. He wrote, “I feel sure that the effort 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 thanks of the World Jewish Congress.”
Around the same time, the German Chief of Police in Rome threatened to send about 200 Jews to the Russian front unless they produced within 36 hours 50 Kg of gold or the equivalent in currency. The Chief Rabbi approached the Holy See, who immediately placed at the Rabbi’s disposal the 15 Kg. of gold they needed to complete the ransom. More than half of the Jews in 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 helped to escape by the massive issuing of Vatican passports.
Indeed, Adolph Eichman, the Nazi butcher in charge of the deportation of the Jews in Italy, noted in his diary The Church’s role in the rescuing of Jews. The German Ambassador at the Vatican, Ernst von Weizsacker, a humane man who did not approve of the genocide, was receptive to the Holy See’s complaints. According to Eichman, “the objections given and the excessive delay in the steps necessary to complete the implementation of the operation, resulted in a great part of the Italian Jews being able to hide and escape capture.”
The Chief Rabbi in Rome during the German occupation, Israel Zolli, once said, “No hero in history was more militant, more fought against, none more heroic, than Pius XII.” In fact, Zolli was so moved by Pius XII, with whom he worked closely in the saving of Jewish lives, that he converted to Catholicism after the war and took the Pope’s own name, Eugenio, as his baptismal name.
At the beginning of 1944 Rome had already been under German control for four months. More than six months were yet to pass before the German troops would retreat to the North. The churches, seminaries, and convents, even those solemnly bound to the cloister were opened to all categories of refugees, regardless of political leanings, religion or race (the dispensation was granted by the Pope). More than 180 Church’s facilities were used in the rescue effort. They harbored Jews, military officers and members of the resistance. Of the refugees hidden at Castel Gandolfo more than 3,000 were Jews. In the convent of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Sion there was a group of 200 Jewish men and women for several months. In the Roman Seminary of St. John Lateran nearly the entire National Committee of Liberation was hidden-only a few paces from the headquarters of the Gestapo police. In a raid into the extra-territorial Basilica of St. Paul’s Out-side the Walls; the neo-Fascist police found that the monastery was a shelter for the very people they were seeking. During the German occupation of Rome, more than half of the Jewish population found refuge in The Church’s facilities, including the Vatican itself.
The Vatican City was in imminent risk of being occupied by the German troops. Spain and Brazil offered refuge to the Pope, but the Pope adamantly refused any possibility of abandoning Rome. As Cardinal Tisserant said: ”Everyone knew that the Pope was ready to go to a concentration camp.” Speaking to the College of Cardinals on February 9, 1944, when the fate of Rome was in question, Pius XII surely manifested his courage:
“There is no need to declare that we, whatever may happen, will never leave the Apostolic See or our beloved Rome. We shall yield only to violence. We do not have anxiety for our lot, but we do for yours, Venerable Brothers. Therefore we dispense you from your obligation to share our fate. Each of you is free to do as he thinks most efficient for his own safety.” (18)
I've found the oddest place, for me, to find reliable historical information:
A wonderful resource. I checked out how the Church feels about me, a Unitarian, and I learned many things I did not know about my faith.
Like em or not, Catholics do keep track of who is who and what is what. My only regret is the Catholic encyclopedia linked about stopped in 1918.
But that is so typical of Catholics. They do take the long view.
Most of the Catholic bashing is based on plain ignorance of the facts and of a systematic anti-Catholic bigotry pervading throughout most of the media.
According to Holocaust expert, Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis of Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, California, twenty-five hundred Christians Poles were executed for helping Jews. Poland was the only Nazi occupied country where there was an automatic death penalty for anyone trying to hide or help the Jews.
Pius XII went beyond contributing to the saving the lives of hundreds of thousands of persecuted Jews, in a show of extraordinary courage, he plotted the overthrow of Hitler with a group of anti-Nazis high ranked officers of the Abwehr, the German Army intelligence service. The plot failed and most of the involved were put to death by hanging using piano strings. If Hitler had known the Pope’s participation, it would unquestionably have led to his death.
51 Posted on 12/05/2001 16:17:22 PST by Zadokite
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