Jerusalem – Under Pressure of Vatican Israel Memorial Softens View Of WWII Pope

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    FILE - In this Saturday, April 12, 2007 file photo, part of a display wartime Pope Pius XII is seen in the museum at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. Israel's national Holocaust memorial has toned down its account of Pope Pius XII's controversial conduct during World War II, following a diplomatic flap with the Vatican. A wall panel at the Yad Vashem memorial inaugurated Sunday, July 1, 2012 still says the wartime pontiff did not do enough on behalf of Europe's Jews. (AP Photo/Kevin Frayer, File)Jerusalem – Israel’s national Holocaust memorial has toned down its account of Pope Pius XII’s conduct toward the massacre of Jews during of World War II, following a long diplomatic dispute with the Vatican.

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    Critics have long contended that Pius, who was pope from 1939 to 1958, could have done more to stop the Holocaust, when 6 million Jews were killed. Before his election as pope, he also served as the Vatican’s No. 2 and before that as the papal envoy to Germany.

    Given his deep involvement in the Vatican’s diplomatic affairs with the Nazis, what Pius did or didn’t do during the war has become the single most divisive issue in Vatican-Jewish relations.

    A wall panel at the Yad Vashem memorial installed on Sunday still lists occasions when the wartime pontiff did not protest the slaughter of Europe’s Jews. But it also offers the views of defenders who say the church’s “neutrality” helped to save lives.

    “This is an update to reflect research that has been done in the recent years and presents a more complex picture than previously presented,” Yad Vashem said in a statement.

    The papal envoy in Israel, Antonio Franco, welcomed what he called “the positive evolution.”

    “For the Holy See, for the church, it’s a step forward in the sense that it evolves from the straight condemnation to the evaluation,” including the position of the pontiff’s backers, he said.

    In 2007, Franco threatened to skip that year’s annual Holocaust remembrance day ceremony at Yad Vashem to protest the panel’s old text. He eventually relented, but the dispute frayed delicate ties between the Vatican and Israel, as well as the Vatican’s image among Jews the world over, many of whom are similarly critical of Pius.

    The Vatican insists Pius used quiet diplomacy, and that speaking out more publicly and critically against the Nazis would have resulted in more Jewish deaths. Critics argue he could have and should have said and done more.

    The old text at Yad Vashem, headlined, “Pope Pius XII,” refers to the “controversy” surrounding the pontiff’s conduct, but offered only criticism.

    The new text, headlined, “The Vatican,” retains the criticism, but it adds his supporters’ position that Pius’ silence in condemning the murder of Jews was not a moral failure but a tactic that prevented harsher measures against church institutions, enabling church officials to carry out secret rescue missions.

    For years, Yad Vashem has urged the Vatican to open its wartime archives to historians, but Franco said that is years away. “Only when all material is available will a clearer picture emerge,” the memorial said.

    The controversy over Pius’ conduct has grown hotter over Vatican efforts to beatify him. Jewish leaders have asked the Vatican to freeze steps toward his sainthood until the complete set of Vatican archives is opened to scholars.

    Pius’ supporters argue that many of the documents are already available.

    The contention over Pius lingers after half a century of dramatic advances in relations between Catholics and Jews. In 1965, the Vatican rejected 2,000 years of Catholic teachings that Jews were collectively responsible for the death of Christ.

    And after decades of reluctance, the Vatican recognized Israel in 1993, followed up by Pope John Paul II’s official visit to Israel in 2000, which included a stop at Yad Vashem. The current pope, Pope Benedict XVI, visited in 2009.


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    32 Comments
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    Avreich1
    Avreich1
    11 years ago

    Until the Vatican can produce irrefutable and concrete proof of Pius’ wartime activities there will always be niggling doubts about his attitude towards the Jews.

    bennym
    bennym
    11 years ago

    What chutzpah. They demand that everyone treat him well, but they can’t release all archives yet. If you have nothing to hide why will it take years to open the archives?

    11 years ago

    while the pope was a rasha, the Israeli leadership and american Jewish leadership during the shoah were so deafeningly silent that they have o credibility to judge.

    HaNavon
    HaNavon
    11 years ago

    What?!?!

    It is a well documented fact that he was complicit in the deaths of countless Jews, who were turned away from the church doors throughout Europe!
    Only the Jewish children were allowed in, never to be seen by their surviving Jewish family again. They were systematically brainwashed into believing in Catholicism!
    This was all done will the advice and help of this evil monster.

    Buchwalter
    Buchwalter
    11 years ago

    I cannot judge Pope Pius during the war because I was in concentration camp however in 1945 these 2 bishops in Rome , Catholic of course set up the ratline. One an Austrian named Alois Hudal he is on the internet and the other a Croatian named Draganovic. These two were responsible for the escape to South America of the worst Croatian and German war criminals. Hudal , aN aUSTRIAN, facilitated the escape of Mengele,Eichman and Brunner and many others. Draganovic helped escape Ustashi, Croats war criminals. Thhe American Jewish leadership considered nuisance certainly many died after the liberation due to lack of medical care. The distributors of the “help” were the AJDC. Today the Shoah is a big item and everyone is in line to take money from Germany

    Avreich1
    Avreich1
    11 years ago

    I was in Rome a few weeks ago, and I made it my business to visit the shul in the old Ghetto.

    There is a fine Jewish museum in the basement of the shul (well worth a visit) where, among many other items and exhibits a film depicting the history of the Jews of Rome is shown.

    All fine and laudable stuff – apart from the appalling story of the then Chief Rabbi of Rome, Israel Zolli, and his family, all of whom were offered refuge in the Vatican.

    Immediately after the liberation of the city of Rome this “fine Jew”, together with his entire family, made a full, unconditional and total conversion to Roman Catholicism.

    As if this was not a sufficient insult to his followers – and to his G-d – Israel Zolli changed his name to ‘Eugenio’, in honor of the Pope who had given him shelter and sustenance during the Nazi occupation. Zolli was employed at the State University in Rome and at the Pontifical Biblical Institute. He died in Rome, aged 74, in 1956.

    Admittedly the Zollis were a tiny minority of all Roman Jews, but their story is a blot on their history.

    Avreich1
    Avreich1
    11 years ago

    I found a couple of quotations from the former Chief Rabbi of Rome, Israel (Eugenio) Zolli:

    “Conversion consists in responding to a call from God. A man is not converted at the time he chooses, but at the hour when he receives God’s call. When the call is heard, he who receives it has only one thing to do: obey. Paul is ‘converted’. Did he abandon the God of Israel? Did he cease to love Israel? It would be absurd to think so. But then? The convert is who feels impelled by an irresistible force to leave a pre-established order and seek his own proper way. It would be easier to continue along the road he was on.”

    and

    “In the Old Testament, Justice is carried out by one man towards another… We do good for good received; we do harm for harm we have suffered at the hands of another. Not to do injury for injury is, in a certain fashion, to fall short of justice.’ What a contrast with the Gospel: Love your enemies… pray for them, or even Jesus’ last words on the cross: ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing!’ All this stupefied me. The New Testament is, in fact, an altogether new Testament”.

    And today, all we are worried about is our kids going OTD!

    11 years ago

    what is the porpose of this display to sick the truth lets start home stifen weis in usa and president rosewelth himself and yichok grinboum why do we have to start up with the catholic church it is just acantiunation for the last 1600 years but ouher brothers in usa in israel our liberal friends in the free world where were thay…there is 14milion yews arand the world israel ;please don:t sick more enemis HACHOMIM HASHIRI BDIVREICHEM,,,,,,,,,,,

    Member
    11 years ago

    Three things to say here.
    1. The pope is a fraud
    2. The Papacy is inhumane
    3. The christian saints are not orthodox if they are murderers.

    So if they want us to tone it down, we have every right to tone it up when they do things like making an evil rasha into a saint.

    Guess what, Israel prays too.

    flabergasted
    flabergasted
    11 years ago

    Who cares, let the church beatify him. How will this affect us in any way?

    11 years ago

    Shredready:

    I suggest you read David Wyman and Anna Porter. The Zionist establishment was more interested in setting up international opinion in favor of a Jewish state than they were in saving Jews. Even Dan Kurzman, in his hagiographic biography of Ben Gurion, admits that he did very little.

    sandymoos
    sandymoos
    11 years ago

    “But it also offers the views of defenders who say the church’s “neutrality” helped to save lives.” Six million lost: how many saved?