Over the last twenty years or so this has been a common assertion: Pope Pius XII helped Hitler during World War II. He’s even been called “Hitler’s Pope” by a less-than-honest writer that in some ways started the controversy. I’ve written on this topic before in Piux XII and Hitler: Facts, not Fiction, but I just read an excellent passage in Did Jesus Have a Last Name? by Matthew Pinto and Jason Evert. So good I had to post it, in fact:
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As nearly every reputable historian will attest, the suggestion that the Catholic Church did nothing to help Jews escape Nazi oppression during World War II is totally false. This claim is nothing more than popular anti-Catholic propaganda of the worst kind.
Here are the facts: In 1937, Pope Pius XI, responding to the rise of Adolph Hitler’s oppression of the Jews, condemned Nazism in his encyclical letter Mit Brennender Sorge, “With Burning Sorrow.” (Interestingly, this encyclical was written in German – not the traditional Latin – so that its message would be clearly understood by the Nazis.) His successor, Pius XII, took office in 1939 just as World War II was beginning.
By 1940, Nazi Germany had conquered most of Europe and Northern Africa and had allied itself with Italy, which was then led by the dictator Benito Mussolini. As a result, the Vatican, located in the heart of the Italian capital of Rome, found itself isolated and cut off from the rest of the world. However, this did not deter the pope from continuing to speak out against the actions of the Nazis. For example, in his Christmas message of 1941, Pius XII specifically denounced the persecution of the Jewish people, something that many people were denying was occurring. The New York Times praised his message and wrote, “This Christmas more than ever Pope Pius XII is a lonely voice crying out in the silence of a continent . . . When he assails violent occupation of territory, the exile and persecution of human beings for no reason other than race or political opinion . . . the ‘impartial’ judgment is like a verdict in our high court of justice.” In other words, the editors of the New York Times at that time affirmed that the pope was speaking out against Nazi oppression of the Jews.
In addition to official Church statements, the Vatican issued numerous protests directly to Hitler’s government. This fact was attested during the Nuremburg war crimes trials immediately following the war. The Church also quietly took many other actions during this time, all of which helped save thousands of lives. In his book, Three Popes and the Jews, leading Jewish author, historian, and Israeli diplomat Pinchas Lapide estimates that more than 860,000 Jews were saved due to the rescue efforts coordinated by Pope Pius XII.
During the Nazi occupation of Rome, Pius XII helped hide thousands of Jewish refugees in religious houses and in the Vatican itself, and allowed false baptismal certificates to be issued to protect them from being discovered. He also ordered other general relief efforts such as the distribution of food and clothing, as well as the melting down of sacred vessels to use their gold as a ransom for Jews held by the Nazis. The pope did all of this knowing that any defiance of Hitler’s regime would mean immediate and severe retaliation, especially to those who were directly involved in such efforts.
After the war, Israel’s chief rabbi formally thanked the pope for all his efforts in helping rescue so many Jews. The chief rabbi of Rome went a step further – he was baptized into the Catholic faith on February 13, 1945, taking the baptismal name Eugenio (Pius XII’s birth name) to show his gratitude.
When Pius XII died in 1958, Golda Meir, the Israeli delegate to the United Nations, said this about him: “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.” Dr. Raphael Cantoni, a leader in Italy’s Jewish Assistance Committee added, “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.”
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So, far from being “Hitler’s Pope,” Pius XII saved almost 1 million Jewish lives during the Holocaust and spoke out at great personal peril. We owe him thanks, not lies, for his work during that time.
By the way, the book cited, Did Jesus Have a Last Name? is a pretty good Catholic book for teens and other new Catholics. It takes common questions and answers them insightfully – most are theological questions, but some like this were deemed important enough to add.
God bless,
Jay
