The following review states more accurately and knowledgeably the "full" picture relating to "the Pope and the Nazis "debate.
This book does little to dispel any of the facts already known from other sources. It also misses the point. The legacy of the Catholic Church up and through WWII is not a proud one with respect to Jews. The Church hierarchy from Pope down to individual priests and nuns have had both saints and sinners.
The testimony of many survivors (especially in the Orthodox Jewish world which the author does not come from or know well) is that there were some who helped Jews and some who aided the Nazis. It is well known that papal nuncios, cardinals, priests and nuns in Hungary, Poland and Czechoslavakia often refused to help Jews unless they converted or not at all and some even informed on the Jews to the Nazis. In contrast, Church men and women acted far better or more often in countries like Italy and France (and the fatality rates among Jews confirms this). Several books written by Jews have honored these people and slightly more than 20,000 have been honored as righteous Gentiles at Yad V'Shem in Israel, whose task it is to remember these unique, exemplary and rare individuals (there were 200 million Christians in Europe and only 20,000 to date have been found - do the math and you will see the effect of Christian teachings appears anemic). The Jewish people can and have recognized those few who acted for good.
Post-WWII, the Church did several things that fly in the face of attempts to exonerate the Pope and Church in regards to institutional anti-semitism. It would be naive to disconnect these facts from the Holocaust. It is a matter of record that the Church interceded with the US and other nations to prevent Jews from reaching safety in the Holy Land and to establish the haven now known as the State of Israel. The work of Rabbi Eliyahu Silver, zt"l, to rescue children temporarily entrusted to nunneries and Catholic schools was actively resisted by the same Church men and women. Rabbi Silver, acting on behalf of authorized Jewish Rescue efforts, was able to rescue upwards of 5,000 children the Church refused to return to their decimated people (often having to resort to subterfuge). It is estimated that between 5,000 and 10,000 other children were hidden and never returned to the Jewish people on specious arguements of obviously phoney conversions being real, but really intended to provide cover for these victims of the Holocaust. To this day, there has been official silence in the face of repeated calls to identify these individuals and make them known so that families could be reunited. The search for Hidden Children continues today (and you can visit their web site). It is clear that the tragedy of the Holocaust appears to have been exploited in the case of these children to do what the Church always did - try to convert Jews by fair means or foul. The steadfast non-recognition of the State of Israel (corrected in 1993) also attests to the on-going antipathy of the Church hierarchy to Jews at that time.
There are also on-going international court cases about the Vatican role in the Ustashe regime in Eastern Europe and missing Nazi gold taken from the teeth of Jews from that time. Then there is the scandal of the use of Vatican passports to allow Nazis to flee Europe as late as 1956 avoiding their due justice for their crimes against humanity.
What can be said is that Pius XII is maligned by being called "Hitler's Pope" since he did not act in collusion with the Nazis. Further, that some Jews were rescued, but evidence is that others were not when it was possible. Beyond that the Church acted in ways AFTER the war that did not indicate respect, justice or love for Jews given the scope of the tragedy known as the Holocaust. It took 20 more years before the Church could conclude (and not unanimously) that a new teaching was needed to "purify memory" in the Church leading to Vatican II and begin the still unfinished business of dismantling official anti-semitism.
It has been fairly said in several ecumenical quarters that 2,000 years of Christian anti-semitism and anti-Judaism was not the cause of the Holocaust, but was a necessary pre-condition to prepare the fertile ground within which to grow. Without that, it is likely Hitler would not have been able to rally so many people to act as they did or even refuse to act with humanity. 2,000 years of such inhumanity does not get forgotten among an embattled people today still dealing with the aftermath of the Holocaust as we continue to search for lost relatives, reconnect, and heal from the known losses. The Jewish nation has praised and will continue to praise those few who are the best of the churches. At the same time, lets not forget there were church villains as well who did considerable damage and never faced a judge and jury. Far worse were those more numerous "sons and daughters of the Church" who aided the Nazis, taking their cue from traditional Christian anti-semitism, taught by the Church (teaching of contempt). The Jewish world can and has distinguished between the heros and villains. Can the Christian world honestly do as well? Such is the burden of history for all of us.
In summary then a history of tragic imperfection and some noticeable misdeeds and missed opportunities.
My father helped run a sanatorium in Italy after the war for Holocaust survivors and helped find families for them.
Be assured there were many in the Catholic church who wer less than supportive of his and other similar efforts.
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