From the Brisbane Times
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POPE PIUS XII, the controversial wartime pontiff, may have saved thousands of Jewish lives by secretly securing visas so they could escape Nazi Germany, a historian says.
Pope Pius, who was labelled ''Hitler's Pope'' [now this is derogatory! The nutcase who wrote this is an ex priest who went to the same literary school as Dan Brown majoring in conspiracy theories.] because of his silence during the Holocaust, may have arranged the exodus of about 200,000 Jews from Germany just three weeks after Kristallnacht, when thousands of Jews were rounded up and sent to concentration camps. [Now this is the more important part in this paragraph rather than that stupid label!]
The claim was made by Dr Michael Hesemann, a German historian carrying out research in the Vatican archives for the Pave the Way Foundation, a US inter-faith group. [it is composed more of Jews who are fair-minded!]
He said that Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli - the future Pius XII - wrote to Catholic archbishops around the world to urge them to apply for visas for ''non-Aryan Catholics'' and Jewish converts to Christianity who wanted to leave Germany.
Elliot Hershberg, the chairman of the Pave the Way Foundation, said: ''We believe that many Jews who were successful in leaving Europe may not have had any idea that their visas and travel documents were obtained through these Vatican efforts. [Possibly descendants or relatives of these survivors are now Pius haters! Possibly.]
''Everything we have found thus far seems to indicate the known negative perception of Pope Pius XII is wrong.'' [We know that already. CNN and NYT need to know this.]
Pius XII was criticised for failing to explicitly denounce the Holocaust or the Nazi regime or to excommunicate Hitler. [What the?!@%#$^& That demon stopped going to Mass or receiving the sacraments at an early age and is even engaged in witchcraft and divination! The Nazis fed on the occult!]
Dr Hesemann says that additional evidence suggests that the visas would have been given to ordinary Jews desperate to escape persecution.
''The fact that this letter speaks of 'converted Jews' and 'non-Aryan' Catholics indeed seems to be a cover,'' he said.
The appeal from Cardinal Pacelli, then the Vatican's secretary of state, was dated November 30, 1938 - 20 days after Kristallnacht, the ''night of broken glass''.
Cardinal Pacelli was able to ask for the visas because the 1933 concordat he signed with the Nazis provided protection for Jews who converted. [Pacelli is really a diplomat and a statesman!]
In December, Pope Benedict XVI placed Pius one step closer to sainthood when he declared him ''venerable'', meaning he lived a life of ''heroic virtue''. Two miracles are needed to canonise him as a saint and the Vatican is investigating at least one.
***
As I have posted before, the burden of proof is on the side of the Pius XII haters.
Here's the deal:
We Pius XII supporters will find evidence that the pope did something to save the Jews.
Now you Pius hater prove to the world that Pius did NOTHING to save the Jews as you always say.
The blog of a group of Filipino Catholics and their frank commentary on anything that affects their lives as a citizen of the Philippines and as a Roman Catholics.
I do not think the point is that some people say the pope did nothing. He definitely did do something. The question is whether he did the right things, whether he did enough of it, and whether it was what someone in his position should have done.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the article above, for the layman, sometimes it’s hard to know what things actually mean. After all, one cannot be an expert on everything, so we must rely on others whom we trust. The problem of course is that even when we read information from trusted sources we may be misled. For instance, a recent article on Zenit discusses some documents recently found by Michael Hesemann from Pave the Way Foundation. I think there is a problem of interpretation in the way these documents are evaluated. In the past Mr. Hesemann also presented findings of documents in a misleading way, as he implied the Catholic Church had always been opposed to the Nazi Party. Even though it’s true the Church banned membership into the party prior to 1933, after Hitler came to power and the Vatican signed an agreement with Nazi Germany that same year the Church lifted the ban. This detail, and the fact that millions of Catholics subsequently became members of the Nazi Party and wholeheartedly supported it and its policies seems to have been conveniently overlooked in Mr. Hesemann’s reporting. See “Paving the way to disinformation” (http://www.sixmillioncrucifixions.com/blog/?p=212).
The new documents recently found were letters sent by the Vatican Secretary of State and later Pope Pius XII Cardinal Pacelli in 1938 to several nunciatures and apostolic delegations. In these letters, Cardinal Pacelli requested visas for “ebrei convertiti” (converted Jews), and “non-Aryan Catholics”. This of course sounds good, but not as good as Mr. Hesemann would like us to think.
(Article continues here: http://www.sixmillioncrucifixions.com/blog/?p=251)
Gabriel Wilensky
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The key word in the headline of this article is "may". The contents of Dr Hesemann's claims do not bear close scrutiny.
ReplyDeleteA couple of points. The language used, "non-Aryan" was Nazi legal terminology which was also used by the Holy See in its communication with the Reich government. No surprise there - it was standard diplomatic practice to use the language employed by the government you were writing to. What is surprising is that Hesemann appears not to know this.
Forced emigration was Nazi policy from 1933 until the (northern) summer of 1941 when the German government moved from emigration to extermination.
And the documents Hesemann claims to have found. We have a bit of a problem there.
It would be helpful to know more about these documents. They sound very much like two documents that are found in Volume 6 of Actes et Documents du Sainte Siege relatifs a la Seconde Guerre Mondiale. These documents have been available since 1972.
ADSS 6, pp 48-49: 9 January 1939: Cardinal Pacelli wrote in the name of Pope Pius XI asking for assistance for the formation of assistance committees to help non-Aryan Catholics.
ADSS 6, pp 49-50: 30 November 1938: Cardinal Pacelli wrote in the name of Pope Pius XI to the Nuncios in Ireland, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Costa Rica, the Apostolic Delegates in the USA, Australia, Lebanon, Egypt, French Indo-China, Belgian Congo and Turkey, asking them to do all they can to help converted Jews forced to leave Germany and Italy.
Now to the figure of 200,000. I am curious as to where this number came from. I posted these comments below on my blog "Paul on Pius".
Based on the population statistics the figure 200,000 seems improbable in part because the total number of Jews who left Germany and Austria in November-December 1938 (and probably before the last pre-war census conducted in May 1939) amounted to c113,000. Even if these were all non-Aryan Christians, the figure falls well below 200,000.
Lastly, Eugenio Pacelli was Cardinal Secretary of State to Pope Pius XI, therefore he was an executor of policy not the creator. The documents were written by Pacelli in the name of Pius XI and contain the Pope's instructions not Pacelli's. I am not suggesting that Pacelli would have disagreed with Pius, he would not, but let's be clear about what the texts say, not what some imagine they say.
I can't accept your deal - since I fall into both camps! And that worries me too. So much of the "debate" on Pius has descended into a slanging match between polarised views. None of this is helpful. Eugenio Pacelli was human, he made mistakes and some of thsoe mistakes were terrible. He also did some pretty good things. Let's wait for the archives for the war to be opened in 2013 or 2014. In the meantime let's read the historians who have worked in the archives. I suggest Hubert Wolf (2010) Pope and Devil. It is supberb.
Feel free to comment on my blog: http://paulonpius.blogspot.com/
Great points! What I am most against the whole Pius XII debate was how quick most Jews and almost all of the mainstream media has vilified Pius and implicitly, the Church.
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting my blog. I will visit your blogs.