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Pius XII and the Jews
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Pius XII and the Jews Throughout history, the Papacy has played a strategic and vital role in world events. The excommunication of Elizabeth I of England led to the final secession of the Anglican Church from the Catholic Church and led to England gaining control of the world’s sea routes, which ultimately led to the founding of America.# The power and influence possessed by this chosen man has shaped in many aspects the world as we know it. The pope attempts to use this power to shape the world into a better place for mankind, but sometimes he fails. A failure of Pope Pius XII, pope during World War II, cost the lives of millions upon millions of Jews. Why did Pope Pius XII fail to speak out and denounce the liquidation of European Jews by the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler in hopes of discouraging Hitler and the Third Reich from moving forward with the extermination? Pleas for the pope’s public denouncement of Hitler during the war have been well documented. Many people felt that the pope, being the most powerful religious figure in the world, would have been able to persuade people in the favor of the Jews. Many of the world’s most powerful and influential figures during World War II requested for the pope to speak out. Even though the pope had helped to save a couple thousand Jews in Rome, in private, by allowing for them to stay in Catholic churches, his public denunciation of the Nazis could have helped to save millions of Jews. One plea came from Hungary and called for the pope to denounce Hitler and to tell of his support for Christians who stood in resistance of the movement of the Hungarian Jews from Hungary to concentration camps. It came on January 2, 1943, from Wladislaw Raczkiewicz, President of the Polish government, who was in exile. He wrote that his people “do not ask so much for material or diplomatic help, because they know their possibilities for receiving such help are slim, but they implore that a voice be raised to show clearly and plainly where the evil lies and to condemn those in the service of evil. If these people can be reinforced in their conviction that divine law knows no compromise and that it stands above any human consideration of the moment, they will, I am sure, find the strength to resist.”# This plea came only nine days after the pope’s Christmas Message in which he hinted to the actions of the Germans but never said specifically who was committing the acts and that it should cease. The passage in question reads “humanity owes this vow to hundreds of thousands of people who through no fault of their own and solely because of their nation or their race, have been condemned to death or progressive extinction.”# This is the closest the pope came in his address in reference to the Jews. But, as one may read, never was Hitler, Nazis, or Jews mentioned in this excerpt. The Pope had made the vague statement in hope that it would silence his critics. The Pope devoted only one or two sentences of a lengthy speech to one of the most pressing and disgusting acts of World War II. This is the only documented negative public mention of the events transpiring in Europe that the pope made the entire time during the war. Pius stated later that he felt he had been very clear in his meaning. In an interview with Harold Tittman# shortly afterwards, Tittman wrote “ The pope gave me the impression that he was sincere in believing that he had spoken therein clearly enough to satisfy all those who had been insisting in the past that he utter some word of condemnation of the Nazi atrocities, and he seemed surprised when I told him that there were some who did not share his belief.”# How could the pope not realize how unclear his message had been? Also, the pope merely mentions the fact that people were being killed. Not once did he say who was responsible, nor did he even mention a single word denouncing the parties responsible for the actions. Many of the pope’s close friends and confidants have stated that the pope spoke against the Third Reich in private.
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