Jews, Catholics and Pope Pius XII
Since the issuance of the Vatican document, "We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah," there has been an increase in voices adversely judging Pope Pius XII for his alleged "silence," implying that he was pro-Nazi and that he did not do enough to abate or prevent the Holocaust. Some writers have also been igniting flames of hatred by charging that the Catholic Church is mainly responsible for the Holocaust. The historically recorded truth to the contrary must be restored.
In 1933, in accord with Pope Pius XI, the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII, signed a concordat with Germany in order to protect German Catholics and the Church. Adolf Hitler signed this agreement, which promised freedom of religion, yet five days later he abolished the Catholic Youth Movement. Soon after, he forbade the publication of Catholic newspapers and religious processions. The concordat was not a political document, nor did the Catholic Church compromise its principles against racial persecution and genocide as, subsequently, forcefully expressed by both Pope Pius XI and Pope Pius XII.
On April 28, 1935, addressing 250,000 pilgrims at Lourdes, France, the future Pope stated that the Nazis "are in reality only miserable plagiarists who dress up old errors with new tinsel. It does not make any difference whether they flock to the banners of social revolution, whether they are guided by a false concept of the world and of life, or whether they are possessed by the superstition of a race and blood cult."
In 1937, Cardinal Pacelli participated to a substantial degree, in the drafting of Pope Pius XI's encyclical Mit Brennender Sorge (to the bishops of Germany on the Church and the German Reich), which condemned the "Nazi idolatry of race and blood." It urged German Catholics to resist all appeals to abandon their Catholic Faith for the quasi-paganisrn of Hitlerism, and it attacked the racism that was a fundamental part of National Socialism. Upon its publication, the Nazi press carried vulgar cartoons and claims that "Pius XI was half Jewish and Cardinal Pacelli was all Jewish.
Two months before the anti-Semitic horrors of Kristalinacht in November 1938, Pope Pius XI stated: "Anti-Semitism is inadmissible, spiritually we are all Semites."
The day after Cardinal Pacelli's election to the papacy, the Nazi newspaper Berliner Morgenpost stated its position clearly: "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.
With the start of the war in September 1939, Pope Pius XII pleaded that in occupied territory the lives, the property, the honor, the religious convictions of the inhabitants be respected." The following month he issued Summi Pontificatus (on the unity of human society), an encyclical condemning racism.
In his 1939 Christmas message to the cardinals, he referred to the invasion of Poland and related events: "We have been forced to witness a series of acts which are irreconcilable, both with the practices of international law, and with the principles of natural right based on the elementary feelings of humanity; acts which demonstrate in what chaotic and vicious circles we are now living....
"We find premeditated aggression against a small work-loving, peaceful people on the pretext of a threat which never existed nor was possible. We find atrocities and illicit use of means of destruction against old men, women and children. We also find contempt for freedom for human life, from which originate acts which cry to God for vengeance."
On Jan. 27, 1940, Vatican Radio proclaimed to the world the dreadful cruelties marked with uncivilized tyranny that the Nazis were inflicting on Jewish and Catholic Poles. The German ambassador protested while the Nazis jammed the broadcasts.
Pope Pius XII's 1941 Christmas message was editorially reported by The New York Times: "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 reciprocal 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."
Eight months later, the following appeared in the Times' front-page article titled "War News Summarized": "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 Pope'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."
Pope Pius XII's Christmas 1942 message was also the subject or praise in a New York Times editorial: "No Christmas sermon reaches a larger congregation than the message Pope Pius XII addresses to a war-torn world at this season. This Christmas more than ever he is a lonely voice crying out of the silence of a continent. The Pulpit whence he speaks is more than ever like the Rock on which the Church was founded, a tiny island lashed and surrounded by a sea of war."
The Gestapo interpreted the Pope's 1942 Christmas message as follows: "In a manner never known before ... the Pope has repudiated the National Socialist New European Order. It is true, the Pope does not refer to the National Socialists in Germany by name, but his speech is one long attack on everything we stand for.... Here he is clearly speaking on behalf of the Jews."
What the critics who charge Pope Pius XII with "silence" mean is that he failed to make sufficiently trenchant and forceful denunciations of the Nazis, which they claim would have halted the atrocities. This contention fails to consider the realities and the experiences flowing from the Nazis' ruthless conduct of the war, as well as the certain retaliatory consequences which would have followed from such condemnatory action. Some of these experiences follow.
After the issuance of Pope Pius XI's encyclical in 1937, which was about the most impressive form of denunciation open to the papal office, its effect was to intensify the anti-Catholic activity, and the Jewish persecutions, by the Third Reich.
When Pope Pius XII learned of the Nazi atrocities in Poland, he issued a secret letter to all the bishops of Europe, entitled Opere et caritate, in which he urged them to do everything they could to save the Jews and other victims of Nazi persecution. Inspired by this message, on April 19, 1942, the bishops of Holland issued a letter that was read in every Catholic church in the country, denouncing "the unmerciful and unjust treatment meted out to Jews by those in power in our country." In response, the Nazis made a special effort to round up and deport to concentration camps 300 Religious suspected of having Jewish blood. Ultimately, 79 percent of Holland's Jews (110,000 men, women and children) were murdered---the highest percentage of any Nazi-occupied nation in Western Europe.
Among the 93 papal communications to German bishops in World War II, a letter from Pope Pius XII to Bishop Yon Preyming of Berlin is dated April 30, 1943: "It was for us a great consolation to learn that Catholics, in particular those of your Berlin diocese, have shown such charity towards the sufferings of the Jews. We express our paternal gratitude and profound sympathy for Monsignor Lichtenberg, who asked to share the lot of the Jews in the concentration camps [Dachau] and who spoke up against their persecution in the pulpit.
"As far as episcopal declarations are concerned, we leave to local bishops the responsibility of deciding what to publish from our communications. The danger of reprisals and pressures---as well perhaps of other measures due to the length and psychology of the war---counsel reserve. In spite of good reasons for our open intervention, there are others equally good for avoiding greater evils by not interfering. Our experiences in 1942, when we allowed the free publication of certain pontifical documents addressed to the faithful justifies this attitude."
In 1942, in a letter to Pope Pius XII, Polish Archbishop Adam Sapieha, of Krakow wrote: "We much deplore that we cannot communicate Your Holiness' letters to the faithful, which would provide a pretext for fresh persecution and we already have those who are victims because they were suspected of being in secret communication with the Holy See."
The International Red Cross and the World Council of Churches in Geneva also agreed to avoid making any statement that would obstruct their work or cause an increase in the suffering of the victims in retaliation for public protest.
Writing to the present author in January 1995, Carlo Sestieri, a well-known Jewish businessman who was hidden in one of the Vatican buildings stated: "Perhaps only the Jews who were persecuted understand why the Holy Father could not publicly denounce the Nazi-Fascist government. I believe that, because of the Pope's leadership, thousands of Roman Jews were saved.... Personally, I feel that the politics of the Vatican was prudent. Without doubt, it helped avoid worse disasters.'
After the cessation of hostilities, the wisdom of Pope Pius' strategy of not publicly and directly denouncing the Nazi terrorism was further vindicated. According to Robert Kempner, the American deputy chief of the Nuremberg war-crimes tribunal, "All the arguments and writings eventually used by the Catholic Church only provoked suicide; the execution of Jews was followed by that of Catholic priests."
At the Nuremberg trials, Ernst Von Weizsacker, chief secretary of foreign affairs until 1943, and then ambassador to the Holy See, testified: "It was well-known---everybody knew it---that the Jewish question was a sore point as far as Hitler was concerned. To speak of interventions and requests submitted from abroad---requests for moderation of the course taken---the results of these, almost in all cases, caused the measures to be made more aggravated, and more serious even, in effect."
Albrecht von Kessel, Von Weizsacker's immediate aide in the Roman Embassy, also testified: "I am convinced, therefore, that His Holiness the Pope, did, day and night, think of a manner in which he could help the unfortunate Jews in Rome. If he did not lodge a protest, then it was not done because he thought, justifiably, that if he protested, Hitler would go crazy, and that would not help the Jews at all, that would give one the justified fear that they would be killed even more quickly. Apart from that, the SS would probably have been instructed to penetrate into the Vatican and lay hands on the Pope."
On April 6, 1963, in "Die Welt," von Kessel wrote: "We were convinced that a fiery protest by Pope Pius XII against the persecutions of the Jews would have in all probability put the Pope himself and the Curia into extreme danger but... would certainly not have saved the life of a single Jew. Hitler, like a trapped beast, would react to any menace that he felt directed at him, with cruet violence."
The truth is that Pope Pius XII, through his inspiring actions and moral leadership, saved many thousands of Jews and countless other refugees from deportation to concentration camps, torture and death. Details of the Vatican's humanitarian work are available to all who seek the truth: in the records of the Vatican's activities during World War II, in the preserved accounts of individual witnesses to some of its tragic events and, as those occurrences were reported, in the newspapers.
It is well-known that, in consonance with the Pope's direct urging, hundreds of convents, monasteries and other religious buildings were opened, not only in Italy, but also in Poland, France, Belgium and Hungary, to shelter and hide thousands of men, women and children from Nazi cruelties.
Everywhere those protecting Jews and other refugees were not immune from suspicion and arrest, were sent to prison, and were treated with brutality and contempt. Many were murdered in reprisal killings. Priests and nuns were also arrested, imprisoned and subjected to brutal interrogation. Many were sent to concentration camps and gas chambers.
In his 1967 book "The Last Three Popes and the Jews," Jewish historian Pinchas Lapide concludes that during the Nazi period "Pius XII, the Holy See, the Vatican's nuncios, and the whole Catholic Church saved between 700,000 and 850,000 Jews from certain death."
Father Robert A. Graham, S.J., the leading expert on the activities and actions of Pope Pius XII and the Church during World War II, wrote on Feb. 4, 1995, regarding the "real record of Jewish-Vatican relations during the war. The Vatican has published four volumes on its work for the victims of the war and, in particular, its correspondence with the world Jewish organizations appealing for help. This assistance was readily given and earned the spontaneous appreciation of the Jewish leaders in Britain and the United States. They found that the Pope was one of the few on the Continent from whom they could expect understanding and help. There ensued an uninterrupted series of appeals, with corresponding action on the part of the Pope on behalf of stricken Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe. Never before in history had there been such regular and cordial relationship between a Pope and the world Jewish leadership.'
Are we to "forget" this "bright chapter?"
Jewish physicist Albert Einstein testified to his appreciation of Pope Pius XII's actions in a 1940 article published 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.'
At the end of World War 11, Dr. Joseph Nathan, representing the Hebrew Commission, addressed the Jewish Community and expressed heartfelt gratitude to those who protected and saved Jews during the Nazi-Fascist persecutions. "Above all," he stated, "we acknowledge the Supreme Pontiff and the religious men and women who, executing the directives of the Holy Father, recognized the persecuted as their brothers and, with great abnegation, hastened to help them, disregarding the terrible dangers to which they were exposed."
The he Italian Jewish Community sent the following message to Pope Pius XII: "The delegates of the Congress of the Italian Jewish Communities, held in Rome for the first time after the Liberation, feel that it is imperative to extend reverent homage to Your Holiness, and to express the most profound gratitude that animates all Jews for your fraternal humanity toward them during the years of persecution when their lives were endangered by Nazi-Fascist barbarism. Many times priests suffered imprisonment and were sent to concentration camps, and offered their lives to assist Jews in every way. This demonstration of goodness and charity that still animates the just has served to lessen the shame and torture and sadness that afflicted millions of human beings."
An American newspaper carried the story of the Thanksgiving service in Rome's Jewish Temple that was heard over the radio. The Jewish chaplain of the Fifth American Army gave a discourse in which, among other things, he said: "if it had not been for the truly substantial assistance and the help given to Jews by the Vatican and by Rome's ecclesiastical authorities, hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees would have undoubtedly perished before Rome was liberated."
The following petition was presented to Pope Pius XII in the summer of 1945 by 20,000 Jewish refugees from Central Europe: "Allow us to ask the great honor of being able to thank, personally, His Holiness for the generosity he has shown us when we were being persecuted during the terrible period of Nazi Fascism."
On April 7, 1944, Chief Rabbi Alexander Saran, of Bucharest, Romania, made the following statement to Msgr. Andrea Cassalo, papal nuncio to Romania: "In the most difficult hours which we Jews of Romania have passed through, the generous assistance of the Holy See was decisive and salutary. It is not easy for us to find the right words to express the warmth and consolation we experience because of the concern of the Supreme Pontiff who offered a large sum to relieve the sufferings of deported Jews---sufferings which had been pointed out to him by you after your visit to Transnistria. The Jews of Romania will never forget these facts of historic importance."
Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog of Palestine, in February 1945, wrote: "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 true civilization, are doing for our unfortunate brothers and sisters in the most tragic hour of our history, which is living proof of divine Providence in this world.'
Reuben Resnick, American Director of the Committee to Help Jews in Italy, on Jan. 6, 1946, declared that "all the members of the Catholic hierarchy in Italy, from cardinals to priests, saved the lives of thousands of Jews, men, women and children who were hosted and hidden in convents, churches and other religious institutions."
When Pope Pius XII died in 1958, Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Jewish Congress, wrote: "With special gratitude we remember all he has done for the persecuted Jews during one of the darkest periods in their entire history.
Elio Toaff, Chief Rabbi of Rome, stated: "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."
Also upon the demise of Pope Pius XII, Golda Meir sent the following message of condolence: "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 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."
It is incomprehensible that a negative portrayal of Pope Pius XII should be given credibility among many Jewish leaders and in some parts of the present Jewish Community.
The fact that Pope Pius saved thousands of Jews from torture and death cannot be obliterated by the deviations of revisionists of true history, nor can the fact that, in gratitude and unanimity, the Jews of their affected generation praised the Pope's heroic efforts in their behalf, during and after the Holocaust.
Recent assertions which hold the Catholic Church mainly responsible for the Holocaust require a response. In the words of Pope John Paul II: "Anti-Semitism has no justification and should be absolutely condemned. In the Christian world---I do not say the Church itself--- erroneous and unjust interpretations of the New Testament regarding the Jewish people and their alleged culpability have circulated for too long, engendering sentiments, combined with pagan themes, to fuel the racism that racked Europe under the Nazi regime." However, he pointed out that it would be a distortion of the historical record to suggest that the Nazi racial ideology was based on Christianity.
Citing the encyclicals of his predecessors, Pope John Paul II stated: "The Church firmly condemns all forms of genocide, as well as the racist theories that inspire them and give them the pretense of justification."
In accordance with this clear statement of Pope John Paul II is the assertion of Marc Saperstein, professor of Jewish history and director of the program in Judaic studies at George Washington University: "Yet this discussion should not blur the distinction between the failure of Christian individuals to protest or to resist, and the crimes of the Nazis who conceived and implemented the policy to annihilate the Jews. There were limits to the capacity of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church to prevent a world power with military domination over a continent, from murdering the civilians it defined as its enemies. The fundamental responsibility for the Holocaust lies with the Nazi perpetrators. Not with Pope Pius XII. Not with the Church. Not with the teachings of the Christian Faith."
When the Church reaches out in a statement of sincere repentance, let it be a two-way street. 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. That there are bad Christians is no more an indictment of Christianity than that there are bad Jews is an indictment of Judaism.
We ask our Jewish brethren to join Catholics, 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 Meir eulogized as "a great servant of peace."
This is a plea for brotherhood and peace, for Jews and Catholics to build together a human bridge of love and understanding. It is also a call for justice toward the memory of Pope Pius XII. Finally, it is a prayer for the restoration of the true historical record of the activities of the Catholic Church during World War II, in light of the documentation that has been ignored.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT: About the Author--Sister Margherita Marchione, M.P.F., professor emerita of Fairleigh Dickinson University, is the author of "Yours is a Precious Witness: Memoirs of Jews and Catholics in Wartime Italy," Paulist Press, 1997.---This article appeared in "The Catholic Answer" Published by "Our Sunday Visitor Inc." 200 Noll Plaza, Huntington IN 46750