Pope Pius XII: He Was Indeed “Just Among the Nations”

Yad Vashem is a museum in Israel honoring non-Jews who helped save Jews during the Holocaust. In the interest of strengthening bonds of friendship between Catholics and Jews, I am submitting a request for Yad Vashem to honor Pope Pius XII and I am sending it to the museum along with historical background information, some of which is reproduced below.

Why This Honor Is Deserved

The historical record shows that Pope Pius XII, through his network of apostolic delegates throughout the world, was able to save the lives of thousands of Jews during the Holocaust. He is thus eminently qualified to obtain the title “Just Among the Nations.”

The museum has a vetting process for the bestowal of this honor. To obtain the title “Just Among the Nations” for Pius XII from Yad Vashem in Israel, two testimonials are needed from people of Jewish extraction who can testify that they knew Jews (or heard about Jews) who were saved by the pope. Their testimony must be notarized. Look for information about where to send these testimonies at the end of the article.

Not only is Pius XII deserving of this honor, but it would be a repudiation of several authors who have made a small fortune trading on misrepresentations of the historical record of Pius’s actions before and during World War II. Sadly, some Jewish organizations continue to state that the Catholic Church did not condemn Hitler, basing their claim on the discredited work of Daniel Goldhagen, John Cornwell, James Carroll and other writers of the past century. Blessedly, though, three Jewish historians — from England, Israel and the USA — have come forward to refute this distorted portrayal of world history: Martin Gilbert, Michael Tagliacozzo, and David Dalin.

A Towering Moral Hero Defamed

As I have pointed out in my own books during the past decade, when Pius XII learned about the Nazi round-up on October 16, 1943, he immediately sent an official, personal protest through the papal Secretary of State Luigi Cardinal Maglione to German Ambassador Ernst von Weizsäcker. This protest was published in the Vatican’s official “Actes.” Why did the pope provide false identification papers to potential victims? Why did he order Vatican buildings, churches, convents and monasteries to open their doors and find hiding places for Jews and other refugees? It is as Israeli Foreign Minister Golda Meir stated: “When fearful martyrdom came to our people in the decade of Nazi terror, the voice of the pope was raised for the victims.” Albert Einstein agreed: “Only the Church stood squarely across the path of Hitler's campaign for suppressing the truth” (Time Magazine, 1940).

How long will honest scholars condone statements by those who defame Pope Pius XII? Today, even hardened detractors of Pius XII generally consider that throughout the Second World War the pope was hailed as a towering moral hero in the face of cataclysmic terror: a man solicitous on behalf of Jews and Gentiles alike who worked tirelessly for peace. Through diplomacy, personal contact with heads of state, and the underground railroad, he protected the Jews and other victims of the Nazis in a way that no other leader with mighty war weapons could provide. His charity and love prevailed.

One wonders why the New York Times heralds books that cast Pope Pius as a racist and hypocrite. Compare New York Times book reviews, editorials and news articles that question Pope Pius's respected reputation with New York Times articles and editorials that praised Pius's efforts on behalf of the Jews. Why not cite the 1943 New York Times editorial? “[T]his Christmas more than ever, the pope is a lonely voice crying out of the silence of a continent.” Pope Pius XII was widely admired.

Yet now the New York Times would have it that the pope was silent in the face of this evil and castigate not only Pius XII but Christianity itself. This reveals an agenda quite apart from seeking truth or redressing historical wrongs. It intentionally ignores the best scholarship. Marc Saperstein, professor of Jewish history and director of the program in Judaic studies at George Washington University, clearly stated in the article “A Medieval and a Modern Pope” that

The suggestion that Christian doctrines or practice led directly to the Nazi death camps is misleading and inappropriate…. The fundamental responsibility for the Holocaust lies with the Nazi perpetrators. Not with Pope Pius XII. Not with the Church. Not with the teachings of the Christian faith.” (The Washington Post, April 1, 1998)

Several years ago in an interview, Sir Martin Gilbert, perhaps the foremost contemporary Jewish historian, noted that “Christians were among the first victims of the Nazis and that the churches took a very powerful stand….” After years of research that began in 1959, Gilbert wrote Never Again: The History of the Holocaust, which contains an extraordinary chapter on Pius XII’s humanitarianism. Here Gilbert thanks the Vatican for what was done to save Jewish lives.

What we have here is another evil — and it is one in the face of which we cannot be silent. It is a smear campaign against Pius XII, mounted by misguided Jews and misinformed Catholics, which has enveloped the media, its real source and target being an intra-Catholic argument about the direction of the Church today. Books, articles and media reports have leveled sweeping attacks while clearly overlooking historical sources and factors. If he had denounced Adolf Hitler more explicitly, the Nazis would have responded with even more ferocity. Personally and through his representatives, Pius XII employed all the means at his disposal to save Jews and other refugees during World War II. As a moral leader and a diplomat forced to limit his words, he privately took action and, despite insurmountable obstacles, saved hundreds of thousands of Jews from the gas chambers. The pope was loved and respected. Of those mourning his death in 1958, Jews — who credited Pius XII with being one of their greatest defenders and benefactors in their hour of greatest need — stood in the forefront.

Overwhelming Documentary Evidence

When Eugenio Pacelli was elected to the papacy on March 2, 1939, Jewish newspapers in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Jerusalem welcomed his election. When Italy’s anti-Semitic laws went into effect, Pius XII responded by appointing several displaced Jewish scholars to posts in the Vatican library. The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle (March 29, 1940), concluded that the pope’s actions showed “his disapproval of the dastardly anti-Semitic decrees.” The Vatican protested the deportations of Jews.

After the Allies liberated Rome in June 1944, Pius XII protested the deportations of Hungarian Jews. The American Israelite (July 27, 1944) stated: “With Rome liberated, it has been determined, indeed, that 7,000 of Italy’s 40,000 Jews owe their lives to the Vatican.” In the summer of 1945, twenty thousand Jewish refugees from Central Europe presented the following petition to Pope Pius XII: “Allow us to ask the great honor of being able to thank, personally, His Holiness for the generosity he has shown us when we were being persecuted during the terrible period of Nazi-Fascism.”

Pius XII was sympathetic to Zionism and the creation of a Jewish state, both before and after he was pontiff. On July 30, 1944, Pius XII told the newly-appointed high commissioner for Palestine “of his intention not to interfere with the Jewish aspiration to create a national State in Palestine, saying that he was animated with great sympathy for the Jews” (The Tablet of London, Oct. 25, 1958). And in 1945, during a meeting with Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, Pius XII told his Jewish audience approvingly: “Soon, you will have a Jewish state” (The Jerusalem Post, October 10, 1958).

Testimonials abound. In 1985, Cardinal Pietro Palazzini was honored by Israel’s Yad Vashem as a “Righteous Gentile.” He explicitly stated that Pius XII ordered him to save Jews. I interviewed him in 1995. His testimony is also clearly expressed in his memoirs, Il clero e l’occupazione di Roma (1995).

The pope’s peace efforts, his denunciation of Nazism, his defense of the Jewish people, have been clearly documented. Recently Rabbi David Dalin stated that “to deny the legitimacy of the collective gratitude of Jews to Pius XII is tantamount to denying their memory and experience of the Holocaust itself, as well as to denying the credibility of their personal testimony and judgment about the pope’s role in rescuing hundreds of thousands of Jews from certain death at the hands of the Nazis.”

It is very significant that Pope Pius XII had the nearly unanimous praise of all his contemporaries, a fact mostly ignored by his detractors. Among countless other Jewish authorities, Pius XII received praise from Moshe Sharett, Israeli Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog, and Pinchas Lapide.

Testimonials of survivors of the Holocaust also make it perfectly clear that the pope was not anti-Semitic or indifferent to the fate of the Jews, and that he did everything possible to help them. In a letter to me, dated June 18, 1997, historian and Holocaust survivor Michael Tagliacozzo clearly expressed his sentiments:

Pacelli was the only one who intervened to impede the deportation of Jews on October 16, 1943, and he did very much to hide and save thousands of us. It was no small matter that he ordered the opening of cloistered convents. Without him, many of our own would not be alive.

Again on August 8, 2004, Tagliacozzo reiterated his convictions:

[E]ven if gratitude was expressed directly to the institutions who protected them, the merit goes to Pope Pacelli who, on October 16, 1943, gave orders to open the doors of the parishes, convents and monasteries to save the Jews from deportation.

In the 60-plus years since World War II, overwhelming numbers of Jews have heaped thanks and praise on Pope Pius XII for his concern and assistance to the Jews in their difficult years. Recently, three Jews have come to the defense of Pius XII: the aforementioned Rabbi David Dalin, professor of history at Ave Maria University; Historian Sir Martin Gilbert whose books have contributed immensely to the history of the Holocaust; and Michael Tagliacozzo, historian and Holocaust survivor. Perhaps the greatest testimony was Hitler himself who consistently complained of the opposition of Pope Pius XII. The truth of the matter is that Pope Pius XII condemned Hitler and protested [his actions] more than 60 times. Politically the pope could do nothing; however, in a humanitarian effort to save the lives of Jews and other victims of Nazism, he did more than any other world leader.

It is for these reasons — and I have barely touched on the historical documentation — that I will make my appeal to Yad Vashem to honor Pope Pius XII with the title “Just Among the Nations.” I am using the vehicle of this article to publish my need for the two testimonials from people of Jewish extraction who can testify that they knew Jews (or heard about Jews) who were saved by the pope. Please mail your notarized testimonial to Sr. Margherita Marchione, 455 Western Avenue, Morristown, NJ 07960, or send it by FAX 973-539-9327. Thank you for every effort made to clear the name and honor the memory of a truly great Catholic hero of the 20th century — Pope Pius XII.

© Copyright 2006 Catholic Exchange

Margherita Marchione, Ph.D., is the author of Yours Is a Precious Witness: Memoirs of Jews and Catholics in Wartime Italy (1997); Pius XII: Architect for Peace (2002); and Shepherd of Souls: A Pictorial Life of Pius XII (2002). More of her books, including Man of Peace (2003, Paulist Press), The Fighting Nun: My Story (Cornwell Books, New York/London, 2000), Pope Pius XII (Ancora Press, Milan, 2003) and Bilingual Italian-English and Spanish-English Coloring Books can be found at the the Paulist Press website.

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