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Pius XH and the Holocaust: Understanding the Controversy. By Jose M. Sanchez. (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press. 2002.Pp. ix, 197. $39.95 cloth; $19.95 paperback.)
The first criticism of the silence of Pope Pius XII when confronted by the atrocities of the Holocaust was contained in the 1963 German stage production of Rolf Hochhuth's play, The Deputy. Since that date, critics and defenders of Pius XII have debated the explanation of his behavior, and this debate has recently been given new life by the 1999 publication of Hitler's Pope by the British author, John Cornwell. The present study by Jose M. Sanchez is an examination of the historical writing on Pius XII and the Holocaust, and, as such, it deconstructs and evaluates the argviments of the pope's critics and defenders.
From a review of the literature on the silence of Pius XII, Sanchez assesses the value of the available sources, and outlines what we know about what the pope knew of the Holocaust and was likely to have believed. Sanchez also attempts to provide clarification by...