Pius XII and the Jewish Holocaust
George Sim Johnston
Catholic apologetics must address the subject of Pope Pius XII and the Jewish Holocaust. Since 1963, when Rolf Hochhuth's play THE DEPUTY indicted Pius XII for complicity in the Nazi genocide, it has been a commonplace of editorial writers that the
But an examination of the facts puts to rout all the charges which are made against the pope by certain parties, none of whom are serious historians. The following are the main points to consider:
--Before he became Pope Pius XII, Cardinal Pacelli drafted the papal encyclical, MIT BRENNEDNDER SORGE, in which Pius XI denounced Nazi paganism and racism; the document was smuggled into
--It is well documented by Jewish scholars like Joseph Lichten of B'nai B"rith that Pius used the assets of the
--Largely as a result of the Church's efforts, the Jews in Italy had a far higher survival rate under Nazi occupation than was the case in other countries; estimates of the number of Jews saved by the Vatican's efforts range up to several hundred thousand; this was one reason why the chief Rabbi of Rome converted to Catholicism at the end of the war;
--In appreciation of what Pius did for the Jews, the World Jewish Congress made a large cash gift to the Vatican in 1945; in the same year, Rabbi Herzog of Jerusalem sent a "special blessing" to the Pope "for his lifesaving efforts on behalf of the Jews during the Nazi occupation of Italy"; and when Pius died in 1958, Israel's Foreign Minister Golda Meir gave a him moving eulogy at the United Nations for the same reason;
--What was to be gained by Pius's getting up on a soap box and lashing out at the Nazis? Both the International Red Cross and the World Council of Churches came to the same conclusion as the
--In 1942, the Catholic hierarchy of Amsterdam spoke out vigorously against the Nazi treatment of the Jews; the Nazi response was a redoubling of round-ups and deportations; by the end of the war, 90 percent of the Jews in Amsterdam were liquidated. Jewish relief officials were in complete agreement that a public attack by the Vatican against the Nazis would a) not have the slightest effect on Hitler and b) would seriously jeopardize the lives of Jews who were being hidden in convents, monasteries, etc.;
--Nevertheless, Pius's Christmas message in 1942 decried the fact that hundreds of thousands were being persecuted "solely because of their race or ancestory." The German ambassador to the Vatican complained that Pius was "clearly speaking on behalf of the Jews." A NEW YORK TIMES editorial on Christmas day, 1942 praised Pius as "a lonely voice crying out of the silence of a continent";
--The scurrilous lie that Pius somehow quietly abetted the Final Solution began with Rolf Hochhuth's 1962 play THE DEPTURY, which is a total fabrication. One does not need to be a psychologist to understand why a German playwright might do this; it's called guilt transference;
--Finally, apropos of the Vatican's 1933 concordat with the Nazi government, which Pius XI signed with great misgiving: The Vatican throughout history has had to sign concordats with goverments of which it disapproves; the Church has a fundaental duty to serve Catholics wherever they may be and it must have a MODUS OPERANDI with all governments, even (or especially) bad ones. The German concordat guaranteed Catholic marriages, protected Catholic education and allowed the creation of new dioceses; it was not meant to endorse the Nazi government, which the Church condemned on many occasions.
That is a simple outline of the case. The Church's record was not perfect, but how many other institutions did this much?
(A version of this memorandum by George Sim Johnston originally appeared in CRISIS magazine.)