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BOOKS DISCUSSED in this ARTICLE Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII, by John Cornwell, New York: Penguin Books, 2000.
Under His Very Windows: The Vatican and the Holocaust in Italy, by Susan Zuccotti, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000.
The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930-1965, by Michael Phayer, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000.
Hitler, the War, and the Pope, by Ronald J. Rychlak, Columbus, Miss.: Genesis Press, 2000.
IN THE PAST SEVERAL YEARS, at least ten books have been published in the United States which deal with the response of the Roman Catholic Church, and particularly of Pope Pius XII, to the Holocaust. Most (and these have been the ones given favorable reviews in the media and in academia) are highly critical of the Church and the Pope, accusing them of the crimes of silence and passivity in the face of the Nazi killing of the Jews. The first three books listed here are among them. A few (and these have been virtually ignored by the media and academia) defend the Church and the Pope against these accusations and argue that they actively and effectively worked to save the lives of as many Jews as they could; a prominent example of these efforts is Italy, where eighty percent of the Jewish population survived the Holocaust. A comprehensive case for the defense is presented by the fourth book.
What explains this boom, even fad, in denunciations of the Church and the Pope, almost sixty years after the Holocaust itself? One might have thought that the question of their role during those terrible events had been fully decided by the answers that Jewish leaders gave at the time of the Holocaust and immediately thereafter. After all, these leaders had far more direct knowledge and experience about what could be done to save Jews than journalists or academics can have when they are writing about events which occurred when they were children, or not even born. During the 1940s and 1950s, numerous Jewish leaders praised and honored the Church and the Pope for what they had done to save Jews.' But perhaps the current accusers, like professional historians of other long-ago events, have discovered facts or documents which were unknown to Jewish leaders at the...