Israel and the Holocaust

Salvation is from the Jews is a book recently advertised through Ignatius Press. In their blurb about the book, they say that Roy H. Schoeman, author, "documents that throughout history attacks on Jews and Judaism have been rooted not in Christianity [Catholicism], but in the most anti-Christian of forces."

This is interesting in the light of the following articles about Catholic blame in Hitler's treatment of the Jews.

(The Vatican had for years had withheld any kind of diplomatic recognition of Israel. This was remedied in 1994.)

According to the ORLANDO SENTINEL, 10/26/94, "...the Vatican...established a form of diplomatic relationship with the Palestinian Liberation Organization" (on 10/25/94).

"But in setting up what it called 'permanent and official' relations with the PLO, the Vatican withheld gestures that might be deemed by Israel to constitute recognition of a Palestinian state.... "Under the agreement, the PLO will set up an office accredited to the Vatican while representatives of Pope John Paul II will maintain contacts with the PLO through the Vatican's embassy in Tunis, rather than with Palestinian officials in Palestinian-administered Gaza Strip or Jericho."

From the Associated Press, 5/27/94. "Vatican City. The Vatican distanced itself Thursday from a document drafted by German and Polish bishops that acknowledges the Roman Catholic Church fostered centuries of anti-Semitism and failed to stop the Holocaust. "The document, according to reports from Israel, would go well beyond any statements the Vatican has made in recent decades, recommending 'an express confession...of co-responsibility and guilt for the Holocaust.'"

An article in a September Our Sunday Visitor not only tries to exonerate Pope Pius XII from holocaust guilt, it stated that the Pope was instrumental in saving thousands of Jews from death

You can a variety of historians about the holocaust and get a variety of facts. It is undoubtedly true, however, that the Roman Catholic Church has a history of anti-semitism.

From THE ORLANDO SENTINEL 11/1/97 p. A-13. "Pope John Paul II on Friday blamed centuries of anti-Jewish prejudice for `deadening' Christian resistence to the Nazi persecution of Jews - but steered clear of blaming the church itself.

". . . the pontiff stopped short of confronting the issue of alleged church complicity in the Holocaust - through silence or inaction, as some critics charge.

". . . After the French church last month apologized for remaining silent during the persecution and deportation of Jews by the pro-Nazi Vichy regime, there was speculation John Paul might do the same for the church as a whole.

". . . prejudices `helped in deadening consciences, so that when the wave of persecutions inspired by a pagan anti-Semitism flooded Europe . . . the spiritual resistence was weak' the pope said.

On March 19, 1998, a front-page headline in THE RECORD, the diocesan magazine for Louisville, KY stated, "Church repents for inaction against Nazis."

This is one of many reports concerning the document "We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah [Holocaust]."

THE RECORD reports, "The document, released March 16, says centuries of anti-Jewish attitudes in the church may have contributed to Christians' lack of spiritual and concrete resistance to the Nazi policies, which left some 6 million Jews dead.

`For Christians, this heavy burden of conscience of their brothers and sisters during the Second World War must be a call to penitence. We deeply regret the errors and failures of those sons and daughters of the church,' it says."

"We Remember..." denies that the "anti-Semitic ideology of the Nazi regime" was linked to "centuries of mistrust and hostility toward Jews in Christian [Catholic] environments."

Jewish leaders viewed the document with mixed emotions. Many greeted it as a step forward in Jewish-Catholic relations, a number felt it was still lacking. Central to this controversy was the role of Pope Puis XII. Some exonerated him from blame, saying he did all that was diplomatically possible.

Rabbi Yisreal Lau, holocaust survivor remarked, "To say that Pius XII is not guilty, I can't accept that." A number of Jewish leaders maintain that Pope Pius XII could have used his moral authority to greater advantage.

Since the history of what really happened is at the mercy of historians, we will probably never know the whole truth. It is of interest to note, however, that there was a concordat signed between the Roman Catholic Church and the Nazis which gives cause to believe that, at least at the beginning of World War II, the Pope was favorably disposed toward the Nazi regime.

This does not mean that the Pope agreed with Hitler's Jewish policies, but it does seem to indicate that Hitler was at least spurred on by the anti-Semitism that had been nurtured through Europe as a direct result of Roman Catholic Jewish prejudices.