Michael Phayer The Catholic Church and the Holocaust 1930 1965 1 Catholic Attitudes toward Jews Before the Holocaust What was Pius XI s attitude toward fascism and racism in the last years of his pontificate Characterize Mit brennender Sorge 1937 What was the attitude of Pius XII right after his election in 1939 How important was opposition to racism and anti semitism to Pius XII How strong was anti semitism among central European Catholics in the 20s and 30s How does religious anti semitism differ from racial anti semitism How might you say that Jacques Maritain was prophetic How prevalent was anti semitism among the German bishops between 1933 and 1939 How fateful was it that Pius XII became pope just before the beginning of World War II 2 Genocide Before the Holocaust Poland 1939 What were the Nazis intentions toward the Catholic Poles How were they treated by the Germans 1939 42 Why did German treatment of Poles improve beginning in 1942 Describe Pius XII s reaction to the pleas of the Polish bishops Did the Poles have the right o feel totally abandoned 3 Genocide Before the Holocaust Croatia 1941 Pavelic and the Ustasha Party in Croatia Catholic Fascists Describe their policy toward Jews and Serbs living in Croatia Archbishop Stepinac appears to disapprove of the Ustasha and chastises their leaders What was the Vatican s attitude in 1941 Vatican s position it wants the Croatian Catholic state to succeed but disapproves of the slaughter they knew what was happening however the Vatican never speaks out but acts discreetly quietly and through diplomacy 4 The Holocaust and the Priorities of Pope Pius XII Define the Holocaust When did it start preliminary in Russia summer 1941 Wannsee decision taken in January 1942 1941 the Vatican and its nuncio in Berlin Orsenigo resist finding out about the murder of Jews There can be no reasonable doubt that the Vatican was fully aware of the German campaign to murder Jews by 1942 at the latest and yet the pope did little to nothing 1 Pius XII tries to keep the news about the Holocaust under wraps his resistance to the demands of the insistent German bishop Preysing who wanted the pope to break off diplomatic relations with Germany that he speak out on the issue The bottom line Pius feared Communism above all other threats and he wanted a strong non Nazi Germany to survive after the war to oppose Marxist expansion He thought he could promote this end through diplomacy while not speaking out about the Holocaust and run the danger of alienating the German Nazi government Another top priority of the pope protection of the city of Rome against all threats especially the possibility of Allied bombardment While Roman Jews were carted off to Germany for death in October 1943 he was obsessed with the possibility of destruction in Rome and didn t do as much as he could have for the arrested Jews Sum Pius priorities are the well being of the Church resistance to the Communists preservation of the city of Rome intact the fate of the Jews is pretty far down the line Since Pius was a diplomat by profession he preferred to operate quietly behind the scenes rather than make dramatic public declarations 5 In the Eye of the Storm German Bishops and the Holocaust Bishop Preysing as the German bishop who wanted to do something about the Holocaust Through Margarete Sommer the Germans bishops already knew about the Holocaust in February 1942 German bishops were reluctant to speak out partly because of their fear of breaking the Concordat of 1933 that forbade the German Church to be involved in politics but mainly because they were patriotic and did not want to speak out against the Nazis while Germany was at war Preysing essentially failed in his campaign to get the pope to put pressure on the German bishops he wrote to the pope about 15 times and all the pope would do was to give the German bishops permission to do something individually on their own initiative Although some individual German bishops spoke out modestly against the genocide the German bishops never mustered the courage to speak out with force to raise the conscience of Catholics Catholics were not informed by their Church of the crimes of their government 6 European Bishops and the Holocaust The record of the pope and of his diplomatic service the nuncios was mixed in dealing with the Jewish question there were some effective interventions but many distressing failures due in large part to inaction and lethargy 2 In Croatia Archbishop Stepinac did speak out against the Ustasha government usually to little effect the Italians were mostly responsible for saving some Jews he got little help from the Vatican that did not want to undermine the possible success of this Catholic government The Germans were determined to deport and murder the Jews in Slovakia The Vatican used diplomacy to try to delay and minimize the deportations they had some success in protecting the Jews who had converted to Christianity largely because of Vatican and local protests there was a lull in the deportation of Jews in 1943 and 1944 but the rest of the Jews in Slovakia were deported at the end of the war At no time did the Vatican or the Slovakian bishops protest In occupied France a minority of bishops spoke out valiantly against the deportation of Jews they were not encouraged to do so by the pope When an archbishop in Holland spoke out the Nazis responded by arresting all Dutch Jews converted to Christianity this event has been used by defenders of Pius XII to show that it was more effective to operate quietly through diplomacy Italy the Vatican played a modest role in efforts to help Italian Jews The famous events in Rome of October 1943 The pope did nothing to warn the Jews about the planned round up although he knew about it German diplomats in Rome and not Vatican officials were responsible for putting pressure on the German government not to do it it was done anyhow the Vatican sat on its hands The Vatican made no protest to the Germans either before or after the round up No doubt however that thousands of Jews were hidden in Vatican buildings until the Germans evacuated Rome in June 1944 the pope must have at least known about and tacitly approved of these efforts 1944 45 in Hungary The reaction of the Catholic Church was a patchwork quilt the usual lethargic pope who acts too late and too little afraid of anything beyond timid diplomacy papal Nuncio Rota is the hero acting aggressively to save Jews local