Vatican And The Holocaust
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The Holocaust is considered today to be one of the most widely discussed topics in both international history and American history. The hows and whys of this atrocity still continue to be dissected by historians, and new books surface discussing and hypothesizing old topics. One of the continued topics of this event in history is how other people aside from the Jews reacted and what they did to either help stall Adolf Hitlers final solution, or perpetuate the cycle of the destruction of the Jewish, the Gypsy, and of course the Communists.
The purpose of this research is to examine the Vaticans noninterference policy in the face of Hitlers Final Solution, the name given to the Nazi policy of extermination of the Jews. The plan of the research will be to set forth the historical context in which the question of Vatican culpability in the Holocaust arises. In particular, the origins of Christian-Jewish schism. Then moving on to the papacys policies towards Nazi Germany during Pius XIIs. Ending with what Catholicism did to help thwart the Fuhrers Final Solution.
The anti-Semitism that occurred during the Nazis reign over most of Europe is not something unique to that particular region, or even particular time period. Anti-Semitism had been a driving force throughout religious history. Nor was it particular to just the Nazis, they did not start this policy of hatred, they simply stoked the fires that made it possible. A fire that the Church had started hundreds of years ago.
Throughout religious history there has been a major schism between the Catholic church and the Jews. This schism can be traced back to the first century, in which the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity on his death bed, trying to unite the Roman Empire under one certified state religion. Thus was the beginning of the literal and theological war between Judaism and Christianity.
The act of Constantine converting gave Christianity its status as a legitimate monotheistic religion, propelling it to one of the fastest growing world religions known to mankind. Because of the story of Jesus being crucified by the Jewish people, there was automatic animosity and slandering by both sides.
One of those acts of slandering was known as “blood libel,” which was the first known instance of anti-Semitism during the middle ages. The first recorded history of this practice took place in the writings of Apion, who claimed the Jews sacrificed Greek victims in the Temple. While there are no existent records of the blood libel against the Jews it still became a common accusation.
This was perpetuated again in the 17th Century by Sister Anne Katherina Emmerich, a German Catholic nun who in her biography spoke of a elderly Jewish woman who confessed to her on her death bed that the blood libel was “true” and that Jews “did steal Christian children for sacrifice on Passover.” The myth came from a skewing of facts on the story of Passover, where in which the Jews would place a mark of blood on the doorway as to not have their first born sacrificed.
Blood libel resurfaced again during the Holocaust in the form of propaganda. The print media of the church in Poland and the private sector built up a laundry list of grievances against the Jews. The Franciscan press, above all their Maly Dziennik, Polands largest circulated daily
newspaper, identified the Jews with the term “blood libel.” Catholic priest Stanislaw Trzeciak wrote about the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which discussed “blood libel” in detail, even after the Protocols were exposed as fabricated plagiarism. These Protocols continued to be popular in Poland even after they were exposed.
While “blood libel” was a much perpetuated myth, the belief that the Jews were considered “Christ-killers” was another common one. According to John Michael Phayer, the Catholic newspapers “nurtured both myths” equally. The Vatican did not take these rumors with a grain of salt, but did nothing to stop them either. Leaving its people to continue to believe in the anti-Semitism that was perpetuated by Christianity. The Jesuit journal “Civita4 Catholica”, published at the Vatican press claimed the Jews were still “Christ-killers” and practiced ritual murder as late as 1942.
The two most responsible for the movement of this myth in Nazi Germany became Heinrich Himmler and Ernst Kaltenbrunner who plotted to use ritual murder to coerce the Catholic citizens of Germany into furthered anti-Semitism. Himmler wrote to Kaltenbrunner, the chief of the Reich Main Office for Security, instructing him to spread ritual murder propaganda in Hungary so that it would be easier to extract their Jews.
While in some places the ritual murder myth held very little water, In places such as Austria it became very real. There was still unofficial religious devotion towards the myth, in the form of Oberammergau Passion Play in Bavaria which showed the Jews slaughtering children as martyrs for their cause.
This kind of anti-Semitism was prevalent in war time Germany and other surrounding countries, but not everyone bought into the Nazis propaganda. The German Catholic press continued to ignore Hitlers anti-Semitic epitaph Mien Kampf. The same press that published articles stating that “assimilated Jews” were threatening the cultural and social well being of the entire world, also in published articles stating the importance of Judaism in the terms of Christian theology as well as denouncing anti-Semitism. There was more than a slight bit of contradiction found in publications such as Stimmen ber Zeit.
The historical debate begins here with the involvement of papal policy in regards to the rising of fascism in Italy and Mussolinis anti-Jewish measures which were in direct conflict with the Lateran Treaty. On the eve of the tenth anniversary of the Lateran Treaty there was a speech being prepared, a conciliatory speech after a series of aggressive polemics speaking out
against the treatment of the Jews by Mussolini. After a back and forth debate between the Vatican and Mussolini there was a truce to be had on the eve of this festival. The formal polemic was never to be uttered by Pius XI, his death came swiftly. Mussolini sent a personal telegram to Pacelli, later to be named Pius XII stating his sadness at the Popes demise. Stating: “the disappearance of the Pope of Conciliation has thrown not only the Church, but the whole Italian
nation into mourning. Interpreting sentiments of the Italian people, I send Your Eminence and the Sacred College the heartfelt condolences of the Fascist Government and my own personal ones.”
The statement was a