Pope Pius XII's response to the Holocaust remains controversial. Historians question why he did not more forcefully condemn the Nazi persecution and extermination of Jews. While some Catholic clergy sheltered Jews, others turned them away or only admitted them if they converted. The document discusses these issues and historian David Kertzer's criticism that Pius XII could have done more to help Jews and speak out against the Nazis. It also explores possible reasons why Hitler chose not to directly threaten the Pope or Vatican neutrality.

2. The major questions raised about the wartime policies of Pope Pius XII were:
Why did the pope say so little when the Nazis were committing brutal atrocities,
both against Jews and also Catholics in Poland?
Why did the pope not protest more forcefully against the persecution of the Jews?
In our main videos on Pope Pius XII, in David Kertzer’s book, The Pope At War, we
reflected on:
• How the Axis Powers blitzkrieged across Europe in the early years of the war,
when many expected Germany to quickly defeat England and win the war.
• How in the Allies turned the tide in the last years of the war, when Hitler’s
German Army occupied Rome for nine long months.

3. https://youtu.be/L1bkOQNrlzg

4. https://youtu.be/pjMa3JdjW48

5. When Mussolini was removed from power, the Italian armed forces collapsed,
permitting the Nazi Germans to invade from the north. Two weeks after capturing
Rome, the Nazis started rounding up the Italian Jews to send them to the death
camps.
Many Jews had escaped the initial roundup, some simply hid out in friends’ houses,
suspecting something was up. But now many Jews sought refuge. How eager was
Pope Pius XII to shelter the Jews? After researching the archives of this pope,
Kertzer is less accommodating to the pope than he was in his prior book, The Pope
and Mussolini. As could be expected, some monasteries and convents turned away
the desperate Jews, sending them to their deaths; others would admit them only if
they agreed to be baptized; while some virtuous clergy hid as many Jews as they
could. The Vatican newspaper, for once, broke its silence, complaining about how
Jews who were baptized Catholics were also rounded up for the concentration
camps. Regarding the thousands of Jews sent to their deaths, Pope Pius XII judged
that it was best to say nothing.

6. Miami Beach Holocaust Memorial

8. My major criticism of Kertzer is he may have been a bit too harsh on Pope Pius XII
and his policy towards the Jews, and that he buried an important fact in the
footnotes that should have been included in the text. Kertzer’s assertion is plausible
that very few Jews found refuge in the religious houses within the Vatican City itself,
and the pope was discouraging these Vatican houses from providing refuge, though
he did not turn out the few Jews that were discovered. This makes sense, he did not
want to unduly provoke the Germans into violating the neutrality of Vatican City.
But the footnotes discuss a conversation between the American envoy and a
cardinal that 180 religious houses outside of the Vatican sheltered over 6,000 Jews
but cautioned against publicizing this fact while the Germans remained in Italy. The
pope must have verbally approved, and perhaps even verbally encouraged, and
must have been aware of this level of assistance to the Jews.

9. Polish prisoners in
Dachau toast their
liberation from the
camp, which
included the Priest
Barracks of Dachau.

10. Miami Beach Holocaust Memorial

11. Perhaps Kertzer was not too harsh on Pope Pius XII. In June
1945, less than a month after Germany’s defeat, in a public
speech, the pope justified the signing of the Concordat
with Hitler, described the suffering of many Catholics and
clergy in Germany and in Poland, and denounced Nazism.
Missing from this speech of Pope Pius XII was any mention
of the millions of Jews who were massacred in the Nazi
death camps. Why this oversight, after the war was over,
when his remarks could no longer endanger either Jews or
Christians?

12. Miami Beach Holocaust Memorial

14. WHY DID HITLER RESPECT THE NEUTRALITY OF VATICAN CITY?
We wonder why Hitler, when the Nazis occupied Rome, didn’t simply march into
the Vatican and arrest or at least intimidate the pope? Perhaps he respected the
fearlessness of the pope, as he knew that Pope Pius XII could not be easily
intimidated. In his secret talks, Pope Pius XII would not budge from his demands.
Historians often forget that Hitler’s hatred of the Jews was more than ideological.
The Final Solution, the extermination of all the Jews, was the major purpose of his
life, this evil aim was what he lived for. Otherwise, why would the Nazis ship Jews
to the death camps, tying up valuable trains, up to the very end of the war? To
Hitler, gassing Jews was more important than winning the war, and those who
sheltered the Jews were themselves often shipped to the death camps, as were
many who publicly objected to the Nazi persecution of the Jews, like the martyr
Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

15. Why Did Hitler Respect the
Neutrality of Vatican City?

16. https://youtu.be/O-YtC9qGWPI

17. Perhaps Hitler wanted to keep the
support of the German Catholics.
Kertzer reports, “Hitler suspected,
wrongly, that the Vatican had played a
key role in the king’s decision to replace
Mussolini, and he railed against the
pope and the Holy See. Goebbels, his
propaganda chief, helped persuade him
that taking any action against either the
pope or the Vatican would be unwise,
for it would undercut their claim to be
defending Christian Europe from the
Jews and the Communist hordes.”

18. In July 1943 Berlin posted a new ambassador to the Holy See,
Ernst von Weizsacker, who later claimed he had never joined the
Nazi party, and impressed the Vatican officials with his sincerity,
a good Nazi, if there is such a thing. Although he was a
Protestant, he even asked for help in enrolling in a course on
Catholic religious culture when he was originally posted.
Weizsacker, like many diplomats, was as bit of a cheerleader for
the country where he was posted in his discussions with his
government, justifying and smoothing over whatever differences
he encountered with the pope.

19. Hitler greets
the Protestant
Archbishop of
Nuremberg,
Ludwig
Müller, and
Benedictine
Abbott
Albanus
Schachleitner
at the Reich
Party Rally of
1934.

20. During the German
occupation of Rome, Kertzer
states that “Weizsacker sent
Berlin the welcome news that
the pope had decided to say
nothing about the roundup of
Rome’s Jews. Later in the
occupation, Weizsacker said in
a message that “the pope is
working six days a week for
Germany, on the seventh day
he prays for the Allies.”

21. Perhaps Hitler, knowing
he was losing the war,
knowing that the pope
sought to be a
peacemaker, thought
that the pope might still
be useful by easing their
final fates. Kertzer
reports, “In Berlin, the
end was nearing for
Hitler and the men
around him. But his
propaganda minister,
Joseph Goebbels, still
clung to the slender hope
that the Vatican might
play a role to save them.”

22. Another possible reason why Hitler chose to simply
quietly withdraw the German forces from Rome is that
Pope Pius XII tried to avoid making waves during his
pontificate.

23. The speeches of Pope Pius XII were not
remarkable for their inspiring oratory or
clarity. Rather, as Kertzer puts it so
wonderfully, “his sermons were
remarkable for their length and his ability
to scatter nuggets that both sides would
be able to point to as supporting their
cause. While government elites in London,
Rome, and Berlin complained behind
closed doors about the papal phrases they
deemed pleasing to their enemies, both
Axis and Allied governments worked
tirelessly to promote the public impression
that the pope was on their side.”
Pope Pius XII, by Peter McIntyre, around 1941

24. Kertzer reports, “As far as we can tell from
the Vatican archives, Pope Pius XII never
seriously considered excommunicating
either Hitler or Mussolini, who were both
nominally Catholic. But the Nazi leadership
showed some concern he might.”
IMHO, If the pope had excommunicated
Hitler, he would have likely would have
been thrown into a cattle car heading for
Auschwitz when the Nazis occupied Rome.
Pope Pius XII, by Robert Schiess, before 1956

25. With the hindsight available to historians, Kertzer
asks some pointed questions. He asks: “The speed
with which the whole apparatus of Italian Fascism
crumbled when the king deposed Mussolini in mid-
1943, with barely a peep of public protest, shows
how tenuous the Duce’s hold was on the Italian
people in the end. What would have happened if
the pope had denounced Italy’s impending entry
into the war in 1940, and had denounced the
constant use the Fascists were making of church
authority in justifying their demonization of Jews?
How many of the men who murdered Jews or
helped round them up to be sent to their deaths
saw themselves as good Catholics?”

26. Perhaps the best answer to many of these questions is to
simply observe that when the Cardinals selected a new
pope after the passing of Pope Pius XI, they chose to
select a pope that had never been a pastor, a pope that
had been a diplomat all his working career. For all his
faults, and he has many, he was unquestionably the most
able diplomat in the World War II era. You can question
his moral convictions, but he never showed fear when
confronting evil.

27. Hitler and
Cardinal
Pacelli, papal
nuncio to
Germany,
the future
Pope Pius
XII.

28. In other videos we reflected on:
• The secret back-channel setup between Hitler and Pope Pius XII in the
beginning of his pontificate.
• How the experiences of the Catholic Church affected the proceedings
and decrees of the Second Vatican Council, called less than two
decades after the end of the Second World War.
Some of our slides featured photos of the Miami Beach Holocaust
Memorial, you can view these photos at our Flickr page.

29. https://youtu.be/6xdxvchkWyY

31. https://www.flickr.com/photos/193480080@N04/albums/72157719778759885
https://holocaustmemorialmiamibeach.org/

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