Contemporary Jews Praised Pius XII For His Work Saving Jews

Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor:

Here are several comments on John P. Connolly's series on Pope Pius XII on Sept. 22-24.

Contemporary Jews praised Pius XII for his work in saving Jews Mr. Connolly twice repeated the hollow statement, made by uninformed critics of Pius XII, that he didn't do enough to help Jews. Here are some examples of contemporary Jews showering praises on Pius XII:

*The Israeli government planted 800,000 trees in a forest near Jerusalem to commemorate the 800,000 Jews they estimated Pope Pius XII saved from Hitler. *The Chief Rabbi of Rome became Catholic and took Eugenio, the first name of Pius XII, as his Christian name because he was so inspired by the Pontiff's work in saving Jews from the Nazis.

*Dr. Jeno Levai, an eminent Jewish historian, said that during the 1930's while serving as Vatican secretary of state, then Cardinal Pacelli lodged no less than 60 protests on behalf of the Jews and as Pius XII "did more than anyone else to halt the crime (the Holocaust) and alleviate its consequences."

*Leo Kubwitsky, then-secretary general of the World Jewish Congress, had a private audience which was rare even for Catholics. He gave the pope a huge sum of money for "charity works" and expressed his gratitude for his "work in support of persecuted Jews". Pius XII decided that "the sum should go exclusively to needy persons of Jewish origin".

*Albert Einstein praised Pius XII for encouraging German bishops to denounce Hitler's inhumane policies.

*Pinchas Lapide, Israeli diplomat and scholar, said, "The Catholic Church under the pontificate of Pius XII was instrumental in saving the lives of as many as 860,000 Jews from certain death at Nazi hands."

*Father Pierre Blet, one of four experts appointed by Pope Paul VI to compile the Holy See's Acts and Documents of the Second World War, said that at least three of the twelve volumes contain "all the official documents in which the Jewish communities, the rabbis of half the world, and other refugees thank Pius XII and the Catholic Church for all the help and work in their favor.

To say that Pius XII was anti-Semitic in the face of the foregoing sampling of Jewish sentiment betrays an irrational or bigoted mind which is a perfect segue to the bias of John Cornwell.

Mr. Connolly repeatedly cited John Cornwell, author of the totally biased book with the provocative title, "Hitler's Pope," as a source for commentary on the wartime activities of Pope Pius XII. The only thing Mr. Cornwell provides substantial evidence of through most of his career is anti-Catholic bigotry.

In his book, Thief in the Night (1989), Mr. Cornwell described Pius XII as "an emaciated, large-eyed demigod" and as "somebody totally remote from experience", showing his disdain for Pius XII.

In The Hiding Places of God (1991), Mr. Cornwell wrote of his experience in the Catholic seminary he attended, "I took delight in attempting to undermine the beliefs of my fellow seminarians with what I regarded as clever arguments; I quarreled with the lecturers in class and flagrantly ignored the rules of the house." He further declared that human beings are "morally, psychologically, and materially better off without a belief in God."

Mr. Cornwell resumed his attack on Pius XII in Hitler's Pope and even denounced Pope John Paul II. Mr. Cornwell continued his attack on Pope John Paul II in his work, Breaking Faith.

In promoting "Hitler's Pope", Mr. Cornwell made several outlandish claims about his preparation for his book. He said he spent months on end in a dungeon-like room with special access to secret archives due to his previous writings of defending the Church. What nonsense!

Cornwell later admitted that the archives he saw were not secret and they covered the period from 1912-1922. They contained nothing about Pius XII, who became Pope in 1938 and nothing about Hitler and the Holocaust. Cornwell spent less than 3 weeks studying those archives. A Catholic-Jewish study group suspended its work in 2001 until it can study the archives Cornwell falsely claims he studied.

Cornwell's Hitler's Pope ignored the many testimonials of leading Jews on behalf of Pius XII's wartime work on behalf of Jews, and he does not mention the pope's outstanding record of support for Jews prior to becoming pope. He ignored the many works that describe Pius' heroic work during the war which Jews lauded. He does not mention that Hitler in 1943 ordered the leveling of the Vatican with "blood and fire" and the kidnapping of Pius XII in reprisal for his assistance to Jews and opposition of the Nazi regime.

Mr. Cornwell is a discredited critic of Pius XII. Ronald J. Rychalk, professor of law at the University of Mississippi, and Rabbi David G. Dalin, professor of History and Political Science at Ave Maria University, refuted Mr. Cornwell's errors in their respective works, Hitler The War and the Pope and The Myth of Hitler's Pope. It is unfortunate that Mr. Connolly used Cornwell as a source when there are many who provide accurate commentary about Pius XII.

Mr. Connolly did not mention the effusive praise of Jews for Pius XII to the empty comment that "he didn't do enough."

Golda Meir, future Israeli Prime Minister and then Israeli representative to the United Nations, spoke on the floor of the General Assembly on the death of PiusXII in 1958: "During the ten years of Nazi terror, when our people went through the horrors of martyrdom, the Pope raised his voice to condemn the persecutors and commiserate with the victims."

Not mentioned by Mr. Connolly, but just five years later the 1963 play, "The Deputy" by German playwright Rolf Hochhuth, charged that Pius XII maintained an icy, cynical and uncaring silence during the Holocaust. He was portrayed as a cigarette-smoking dandy with Nazi leanings, more interested in Vatican investments than human lives.

This play, without any historical or critical analysis of the wartime Vatican activities, struck a responsive chord among anti-Catholic bigots. (Hochhuth also authored a play charging Winston Churchill with complicity in a murder. No one paid much attention to that effort.) It was later learned that Hochhuth's "Deputy" was encouraged by communists who hated the Pope for his anti-communist efforts.

"The Deputy", although anti-Pius XII propaganda without any basis in fact, over time changed Pius XII's image from a hero to Jews to a villain to many. Propaganda repeated often enough becomes reality to many willing to assume it is true.

The climate was antagonistic toward Pius XII, so when the erroneous "Hitler's Pope" was published it was welcomed by many academics and the media as a factual work.

Unfortunately, those with ulterior motives have turned one of the greatest benefactors of Jews into a controversial figure, temporarily, but with time the truth of Pius XII's heroic action on behalf of Jews will be reasserted.

John Naughton Silver Spring, Md.