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Concordat Watch - Germany

The Vatican and the Holocaust The Vatican and the Holocaust

Citing massive evidence, David I. Kertzer concludes that

that for the better part of a century and a half, from the fall of Napoleon to the rise of Hitler, the church not only failed to combat anti-Semitism, but actively, knowingly, purposely contributed to it, lending it authority and respectability while honoring its most active purveyors inside the church and outside.

Popes Benedict XV and Pius XI even encouraged Father Ernest Jouin, the first in France to publish the classic forgery, Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which had been concocted by the Russian police two decades earlier to blame the Jews for the Czar's problems. These two popes were the predecessors of Pius XII who reigned during the Holocaust and into the postwar period. (2 March 1939 - 9 October 1958)

Sainthood doublecross?

Was Israel tricked into supporting sainthood for Hitler’s pope? An Israeli negotiator and a Catholic theologian both maintain that shortly after World War II the Vatican promised to recognise Israel if their diplomats and politicians would defend Pius XII against charges that he had turned his back on the Jews.

Pius XII, concordat negotiator and Holocaust pope

This is a gateway to more than a dozen online articles about the the connections between Hitler, Pius XII and the concordat. “Intended as a shield for the church, the [concordat] lent Hitler international credibility, criminalised Catholic political activity [the Catholic Centrum Party], and demoralised bishops and priests who opposed Nazi rule.” Cardinal Faulhaber called the concordat a “handshake with the papacy”.

Just another neutral state: The Vatican in the Holocaust

This short excerpt from a noted scholar of the Holocaust, Prof. R.S. Landau, depicts the behaviour of the State of the Vatican City as no different from that of any other neutral country anxious to avoid being attacked and to emerge on the winning side.

The Vatican and the Holocaust: A Preliminary Report by the International Catholic-Jewish Historical Commission (2000)

Expected to to examine the Vatican's record of the during the Holocaust, these professional historians were denied access to the Vatican archives. Here are some questions they posed on the basis of the edited, long-published volumes, which is all they were allowed to see. This report infuriated the Vatican.

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