Pius XII and the Holocaust: A Reader

Fine condition color illustrated softcover wraps. Includes Dedication; Preface by Virgil C. Blum, S.J.; Appendix A: The Priests of Dachau by William J. O'Malley, S.J.; Appendix B: Priests of the Holocaust, by William J. O'Malley, S.J.; and Appendix C: The Christmas Editorials. "As I write these words, Christians and Jews are quietly marking the fiftieth anniversary of Kristallnacht, regarded by many as the opening scene in the tragedy we have come to call the Holocaust. We, both Christians and Jews, cannot reverse the course of time and undo the horror of those dark days which saw the senseless destruction of millions of human beings. But we can learn many lessons from the record of that tagic period of history. The Holocaust was a shared horror in wihich millions of Christians and Jews perished. And while it was truly a shared calamity, we must acknowledge that although not all the victims were Jews, and the Jews were indeed its victims. The past can be a great teacher for those of us who are willing to take the time to seek out the truths which it hides and the lessons that are there to be learned. This small book attempts to manifest some of thosetruths with particular regard to one man who has been much maligned by those who would choose to make him a scapegoat for the failings of nations and diplomats and countless others who through indifference or inaction saw the Holocaust lossed on the world. The two authors we have chosen to help set the record straight are men of impeccable credentials and eminently qualified to serve as our guides in this study. Father Robert A. Graham, S.J. is a scholar in the fields of internatinal affairs and Vatican history. The late Dr. Joseph L. Lichten was a Polish diplomat who experienced first-hand the brutal destruction of his homeland and the senseless killing of his Jewish brothers and sisters. " - from the Preface. "A great injustice has been done to the memory of Pope Pius XII. An even greater wound has been administered to history. The controversy over the wartime role of the Pope is riddled with misrepresentations and falsehoods, expressed too often in bitter tones that surprise and disappoint those who perhaps mistakenly believed an era of detente and a mutual desire for understading had arisen. I hope and pray that this book. will begin to restore the good name of Pope Pius XII in the hearts and minds of the Jewish people he served so nobly during the Second World War." - from How to Manufacture a Legend by Robert A. Graham, S.J. "An indictment has been brought down on Pope Pius XII, and by extension on the Catholic Church, of criminal implication in the extermination of some six million Jews during World War II. What is the case against Pius XII? In brief, that as head of one of the most powerful moral forces on earth he committed an unspeakable sin of omission by not issuing a formal statement condemning the Nazis' genocidal slaughter of the Jews, and that his silence was motivated by reasons considered in modern times as base: political exigency, economic interests, and personal ambition. What is the case for him? That in relation to the insane behavior of the Nazis, from overlords to self styled cogs like Eichmann, he did everything humanly possible to save lives and alleviate suffering among the Jews: that a formal statement would have provoked the Nazis to brutal retaliation, and would substantially have thwarted further Catholic action on behalf of Jews. .Pius XII wrote on June 2, 1943: "Every word that We addressed to the responsible authorities and every one of OUr public declarations had to be seriously weighed and considered in the interest of the persecuted themselves in order nt to make their situation unwittingly even more difficult and unbearable." - from A Question of Judgment: Pius XII and the Jews, the 1963 monograph by the late Dr. Joseph Lichten, then head of the Intercultural Affairs Department of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith.…