The ANNOTICO Report

Overwhelming  Numbers of the Jewish Community, in the 60 plus years since WWII have heaped thanks and praise on Pope Pius XII for his Concern and Assistance to the Jews in their difficult years during WWII.

Recently a disinformation smear campaign has been mounted by misguided Jews, that according to Rabbi David Dalin are being used in what is really an intra-Catholic argument about the direction of the Church today. The Holocaust is simply the biggest club available for liberal Catholics to use against traditional Catholics in their attempt to bash the papacy and thereby to smash traditional Catholic teaching….”

The List of Pope Pius XII supporters include, but are not limited to: Chief Rabbi Alexander Safran, of Bucharest, Rumania, The Jewish Advocate in Boston, Jewish chaplain of the Fifth American Army, Dr. Joseph Nathan, representing the Hebrew Commission, Reuben Resnick, American Director of the Committee to Help Jews in Italy, Abramo Giacobbe Isaia Levi, Senator of the Kingdom of Italy, Jewish scholar Jen? Levai,  Moshe Sharett, Israeli Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog, Jewish scholar Pinchas E. Lapide, Albert Einstein, U.S. Army Chaplain Morris Kertzer, Rabbi Andr? Zaoui, Rabbi David de Sola Pool, chairman of the! National Jewish Welfare Board, Jewish historian and scholar Richard Breitman, Jan Hermann and Dr. Max Pereles, from the Ferramonti-Tarsia detention camp, Marc Saperstein, professor of Jewish history and director of the program in Judaic studies at George Washington University,  Historian and Holocaust survivor, Michael Tagliacozzo, Jewish scholar Jen? Levai, AND a  petition signed by twenty thousand Jewish refugees from Central Europe.

Perhaps the greatest Testimony was Hitler himself who consistently complained that  Pope Pius XII  was “a mouthpiece of the Jewish war criminals.”

1. When the Germans occupied Italy, the grounds of the Vatican as well as the churches in Rome under its jurisdiction, considered neutral territory by international law, were thrown open to the Jews by order of the Pope as a sanctuary.  Any Jew from any country who could manage to reach the Vatican was admitted without questions and thereby removed from Nazi jurisdiction.

2. The protection of Jews was effected through the internationally recognized neutrality of the Vatican used by the Papal Nuncios in other countries who freely issued “protective passports” to Jews threatened by the Nazis, thus placing them under the jurisdiction of the Vatican.

3. Catholic monasteries and convents in France, Belgium, Italy, and other countries of Europe, opened their doors and became well known as hiding places for entire Jewish families, particularly for children. This was a fundamental policy Pope Pius maintained throughout the Nazi occupation of Europe in the face of great dangers.

4. Thousands of Jewish refugees were smuggled out from Nazi-occupied countries by an underground movement organized for that purpose by members of the Catholic clergy with the knowledge and authority of the Vatican. The many outspoken statements issued by the Pope himself and by archbishops and bishops denouncing the inhumanity of specific acts of Nazi persecution of the Jews were the only rays of light ! in the dark night of Nazism.

The Pope was an enemy of racism and totalitarianism. On January 26, 1940, The Jewish Advocate in Boston reported: “The Vatican Radio this week broadcast an outspoken denunciation of German atrocities in Nazi [occupied] Poland, declaring they affronted the moral conscience of mankind.” This broadcast confirme! d the media reports about Nazi atrocities, previously dismissed as Allied propaganda. Broadcasting in German in April 1943, Vatican Radio protested a long list of Nazi horrors, including “an unprecedented enslavement of human freedom, the deportation of thousands for forced labor, and the killing of innocent and guilty alike.”

Additional Testimonials: On April 7, 1944, Chief Rabbi Alexander Safran, of Bucharest, Rumania, presented the following statement to Monsignor Andrea Cassulo, Papal Nuncio to Rumania: “In the most difficult hours which we Jews of Rumania have passed through, the generous assistance of the Holy See was decisive and salutary.&nb! sp; 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 Rumania will never forget these facts of historic importance.”

An American newspaper carried the story of the Thanksgiving service in Rome’s Jewish Temple that was heard over the radio (July 30, 1944). 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 refugees and thousands of Jewish refugees would have undoubtedly perished before Rome was liberated.” (L’Osservatore Romano, July 30, 1944).

At the end of World War II, Dr. Joseph Nathan, representing the Hebrew Commission, addressed the Jewish community, expressing 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.” (L’Osservatore Romano, September 8, 1945).

The following petition was presented to Pope Pius XII in the summer of 1945 by twenty thousand 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.”

Reuben Resnick, American Director of the Committee to Help Jews in Italy, 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” (L’Osservatore Romano, January 5, 1946).

On April 5, 1946, the Italian Jewish community sent the following message to His Holiness, 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 t! o lessen the shame and torture and sadness that afflicted millions of human beings.” (L’Osservatore Romano, April 5, 1946).

There were many demonstrations of thanks and gratitude from the Jews saved through the assistance of Church institutions. Abramo Giacobbe Isaia Levi, a man of renowned intellect and a Senator of the Kingdom of Italy until the promulgation of the racial laws, was hidden in a convent during the Nazi occupation of Rome. He and his wife later converted to Christianity. He died in 1949 and, in his will, left a large sum of money to help elderly and impoverished Italian Jews. His beautiful estate in the center of Rome, Villa Levi, was renamed Villa Giorgina, in memory of his young daughter who died prematurely. In his will! he donated it to Pope Pius XII because he had been “preserved from the dangers of evil racial persecution, overthrower of every relationship of human life” and was “grateful for the protection that was provided me in that turbulent period by the Sisters of the Infant Mary.”

Pius XII was not a “silent Pope.” He explicitedly condemned the “wickedness of Hitler” citing Hitler by name, and spoke out about the “fundamental rights of Jews.” The wisdom of his words and actions is supported by the evidence. In his testimony at the Adolf Eichmann Nazi War Crime Trials, Jewish scholar Jen? Levai stated: “Pius XII—the one person who did more than anyone else to halt the dreadful crime and alleviate its consequences—is today made the scapegoat for the failures of others.”

Personally and through his representatives, Pius XII employed all the means at his disposal to save Jews and other refugees during World War II. As a moral leader and a diplomat forced to limit his words, he privately took action and, despite insurmountable obstacles, saved hundreds of thousands of Jews from the gas chambers. The Pope was loved and respected. Of those mourning his death in 1958, Jews—who credited Pius XII with being one of their greatest defenders and benefactors in their hour of greatest need—stood in the forefront.

Throughout World War II, Pius XII so provoked the Nazis that they called him “a mouthpiece of the Jewish war criminals.” Robert Kempner, the American deputy chief of the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal, stated: “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.” All experts who witnessed that era, agree that, if Pius XII had stridently attacked the Nazi leaders, more lives would have been lost.

Pius XII received praise from Moshe Sharett, Israeli Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog, Pinchas Lapide and Albert Einstein who concluded in Time Magazine (December 23, 1940): “Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s campaign for suppressing the truth.” There are expressions of  gratitude, on the part of Jewish chaplains and Holocaust survivors, who give witness to the assistance and compassion of the Pope for the Jews before, during and after the Holocaust.

The Pope’s peace efforts, his  denunciation of Nazism, his defense of the Jewish people, have been clearly documented. Recently Rabbi David Dalin stated that “to deny the legitimacy of the collective gratitude of Jews to Pius XII is tantamount to denying their memory and experience of the Holocaust itself, as well as to denying the credibility of their personal testimony and judgment about the Pope’s role in rescuing hundreds of thousands of Jews from certain death at the hands of the Nazis.”

U.S. Army Chaplain Morris Kertzer addressed four thousand Italian Jews in the Rome synagogue and subsequently sent a report to the United States (June 9, 1944). Who can dismiss the personal testimonials by Jewish chaplains? Rabbi Andr? Zaoui expressed gratitude “for the immense good and incomparable charity that Your Holiness extended generously to the Jews of Italy and especially the children, women and elderly of the community of Rome (June 22, 1944).” Jewish military chaplains have confirmed ! that Catholics in Italy, inspired by papal instruction, did much to rescue and shelter the Jewish victims of Nazi persecution, even providing false passports for them. Rabbi David de Sola Pool, chairman of the National Jewish Welfare Board wrote to the Pope: “We have received reports from our army chaplains in Italy of the aid and protection given... From the bottom of our hearts we send you the assurances of undying gratitude.”
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News of Pope Pius XII’s death on October 9, 1958, was flashed around the world. The following day the New York Times featured many tributes on its front page. Prominent Jews acknowledged Pope Pius XII’s benevolence: U.S. Army Chaplain Morris Kertzer addressed four thousand Italian Jews in the Rome synagogue and subsequently sent a report to the United States (June 9, 1944). Who can dismiss the personal testimonials by Jewish chaplains? Rabbi Andr? Zaoui expressed gratitude “for the immen! se good and incomparable charity that Your Holiness extended generously to the Jews of Italy and especially the children, women and elderly of the community of Rome (June 22, 1944).” Jewish military chaplains have confirmed that Catholics in Italy, inspired by papal instruction, did much to rescue and shelter the Jewish victims of Nazi persecution, even providing false passports for them. Rabbi David de Sola Pool, chairman of the National Jewish Welfare Board “In Rome last year, the Jewish community told me of their deep appreciation of the policy which had been set by the Pontiff for the Vatican during the period of the Nazi-Fascist regi! me, to give shelter and protection to Jews wherever possible.”

Religious and political leaders praised Pope Pius XII: President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Vice President Richard Nixon sent their personal condolences. Former President Truman wrote: “I’m sorry to hear of the passing of Pope Pius XII, whom I considered the greatest statesman in the Vatican in 200 years.” Former President Hoover stated: “The world has lost a great man.  I have reasons to know the breadth of his spiritual leadership. This world has been better for his having lived in it.”

After four decades locked in Israeli archives the prison diaries of Adolf Eichmann, one of the architects of Hitler's "Final Solution" for the Jews, were released in June 2000. They reveal that the Vatican vigorously protested and obstructed the deportation of Rome's Jews (October 16, 1943). Soon after, in July 2000, Jewish historian and scholar Richard Breitman revealed that newly released American intelligence shows that "Hitler distrusted the Holy See because it hid Jews" and that when an internal Nazi suggestion was raised to try to force the Vatican to join Germany in an anti-Communist crusade, "the proposal was rejected becau! se the majority knew that Pius XII would never leave Rome, and that the Vatican was on the side of the Allies."

Several months later, in November 2000, Nicolaus Kunkel, a German officer who personally witnessed the Nazi roundup of Rome's Jews, gave an interview revealing that, despite their neutral status, Pope Pius XII and Vatican City were targeted for capture by the Nazis because of anti-Nazi activity. In an interview with L'Osservatore Romano (January 24, 2001), Kunkel says Pius XII was engaged in a life-and-death struggle with the Nazis to save Rome's Jews.
Documents reveal that Jan Hermann and Dr. Max Pereles, from the Ferramonti-Tarsia detention camp, went to the Vatican October 29, 1944, to thank Pope Pius XII. They gave him a letter which read in part: “While our brothers were hunted, imprisoned and threatened with death in almost every country in Europe, because they belonged to the Jewish people, Your Holiness …fearlessly raised his universally respected voice, in the face of our powerful enemies, in order to defend openly our rights to the dignity of man. …When we were threatened with deportation to Poland, in 1942, Your Holiness extended a fatherly ! hand to protect us, and stopped the transfer of the Jews interned in Italy, thereby saving us from almost certain death.”

It is time to right the injustice toward Pope Pius XII, who saved more Jews than any other person, including Oskar Schindler and Raoul Wallenberg. His diplomacy and humanitarian works made him a champion of peace, of compassion, and of human dignity. This story has now been documented in my book, Last Hope for POWs: Letters to Pius XII (1939-1946), to be released by Paulist Press (Spring, 2006).

According to The Jewish Chronicle (London, October 11, 1963), Israelis defended the name of Pope Pius XII: “Unable to cure the sickness of an entire civilization, and unwilling to bear the brunt of Hitler’s fury, the Pope, unlike many far mightier than he, alleviated, relieved, retrieved, appealed, petitioned, and saved as best he could by his own lights. Who, but a prophet or a martyr, could have done much more?”

Pius XII had agreed with the Jewish World Congress, the World Council of Churches, and the International Red Cross to avoid provocation. He was not a cold, “silent” Pope. The wisdom of his words and actions is supported by the evidence. He was concerned that a public condemnation would result in retaliation and the loss of more lives. His silence accompanied a powerful action in defense of the Jews: he opened the very doors of the Vatican for thousands of Jews to hide there and in Rome’s 155 ecclesiastical institutions. In obedience to the Pope’s directives, Jews and other refugees were saved by priests and ! religious women in convents and monasteries. In Italy, 85% of the Jews were saved and, throughout Europe, according to Jewish scholar Pinchas E. Lapide, over 860,000 were saved from certain death: “This figure exceeds by far those saved by all other rescue organizations combined. Moreover, this achievement stands in startling contrast to the unpardonable foot-dragging and hypocritical lip-service of those outside Hitler’s reach, who certainly disposed of far greater means to rescue Jews including the International Red Cross and the Western democracies in general.”

Pius XII’s words were the brave words of a diplomat who put focus on “those who are responsible.” He lodged 60 protests on behalf of Jews. The Vatican Radio speeches, and messages in the Vatican newspaper, provoked the Nazis to call him “a mouthpiece of the Jewish war criminals.” The March 14, 1940 New York Times stated in large, bold print: “Pope is Emphatic About Just Peace: Jews Rights Defended.”

It is irresponsible to deprive future generations of contemporary historical assessments and judgments that together comprise part of the true record of the Holocaust era. On the question of Pope Pius XII’s alleged silence, British researcher Sir Martin Gilbert stated, “So the test for Pacelli was when the Gestapo came to Rome in 1943 to round up Jews. And the Catholic Church, on his direct authority, immediately dispersed as many Jews as they could.” His book, Never Again: The History of the Holocaust (Universe Publishers, 2000) contains an extraordinary chapter on Pope Pius XII’s protection of refugees and victims! of persecution. This was one of the finest examples of Christian charity Pius XII explicitly condemned (March 30, 1941) “the wickedness of Hitler. In an editorial published in 1941, The New York Times praised the Pope for having “put himself squarely against Hitlerism.”

Today the anti-papal polemics of ex-seminarians like Gary Wills [Papal Sin], and John Cornwell, [Hitler’s Pope], of ex-priests like James Carroll [Constantine’s Sword], and/or other lapsed or angry liberal Catholics have exploited the tragedy of the Jewish people during the Holocaust to foster their own political agenda of forcing changes on the Catholic Church. Re! garding these writers and the attacks on the pope and the Catholic Church, Rabbi David Dalin stated: “These are really an intra-Catholic argument about the direction of the Church today. The Holocaust is simply the biggest club available for liberal Catholics to use against traditional Catholics in their attempt to bash the papacy and thereby to smash traditional Catholic teaching….”

Rabbi Dalin has joined the myriad of writers, contemporary and past, who have acknowledged not only the Pope’s condemnation of anti-Semitism but also the assistance given to Jews and other refugees. In The Myth of Hitler’s Pope, Rabbi Dalin suggests that “as we approach the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Pius XII, it would be both historically just and morally appropriate for Yad Vashem to posthumously recognize and honor Pius XII as one of the ‘righteous among the nations.’ ”

Today, Eugenio Pacelli continues to be vilified, judged, praised, and defended. Regarding his posthumous reputation, much of what is widely accepted as true about his life is tinged with the biases of people with a grudge to settle against the Catholic Church.

 Popes, Cardinals and Bishops have consistently praised Pope Pius XII for his heroic leadership, his peace-making efforts and his commitment as the defender and protector of the victims of war and hatred which drenched Europe in blood during World War II. He was a moral beacon to mankind. His voice was heard around the world. It was the “Voice” of a tireless world leader whose contribution to humanity during the Holocaust is incontrovertible. It is time for Catholics to refute the careless innuendoes and unfounded accusations that have been leveled against Pope Pius XII whose aspirations toward truth and goodness and his ext! raordinary World War II achievements are one of the great events of our times.

It is very significant that Pope Pius XII had the nearly unanimous praise of all his contemporaries, a fact mostly ignored by his detractors. Most importantly, not one of the charges against him holds up under careful analysis. He does not appeal to modern sensibilities largely because he was always teaching the Gospel and Catholic doctrine to a world deafened by nationalism and the drums of war. There is absolutely no evidence that Pope Pius XII did anything wrong or stupid; there is overwhelming evidence that he did virtually everything right, and that he acted only after the most careful and penetrating analysis of every possibility and after fervent prayer.

Testimonials of survivors of the Holocaust also make it perfectly clear that the Pope was not anti-Semitic or indifferent to the fate of the Jews and that he did everything possible to help them. In a letter to me, dated June 18, 1997, historian and Holocaust survivor, Michael Tagliacozzo, clearly expressed his sentiments: “In my study of the conditions of the Jews (The Roman Community during the Nightmare of the Swastika, November 1963), I pointed out the generous and vast activity of the Church in favor of the victims. I learned how great was Pope Pacelli’s paternal solicitude. No honest person can discount his merits …. Pacelli was the only one who intervened to impede the deportation of Jews on October 16, 1943, and he did very much to hid! e and save thousands of us. It was no small matter that he ordered the opening of cloistered convents. Without him, many of our own would not be alive.”

Again, August 8, 2004, he reiterated his convictions: “Any apology on the actions of Pius XII must be considered superfluous. This is clear to all men of good will and is entrusted above all to the memory of those Jews, now living, who have not forgotten the efforts and solicitude of Pope Pacelli…. One must add the countless expressions of gratitude of those whose lives were saved in the religious houses in Rome, Assisi and elsewhere. Even if gratitude was expressed directly to the Institutions who protected them, the merit goes to Pope Pacelli who, on October 16, 1943, gave orders to open the doors of the ! parishes, convents and monasteries to save the Jews from deportation.”

Marc Saperstein, professor of Jewish history and director of the program in Judaic studies at George Washington University, clearly stated in an article, “A Medieval and a Modern Pope” (The Washington Post, April 1, 1998): “The suggestion that Christian doctrines or practice led directly to the Nazi death camps is misleading and inappropriate. ... 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 wit! h the church. Not with the teachings of the Christian faith.”