The Pope's Jews

June 25, 2012
Sometimes referred to as “Hitler’s Pope,” Pope Pius XII has long been accused by Jews and Christians of standing by silently while Hitler killed millions of Jews. Drawing upon Vatican archival material available to only a few scholars (the rest of the archive will not be opened till 2020) and interviews with survivors and Vatican insiders, Thomas (Gideon’s Spies) firmly challenges this long-standing view. Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli learned of the Nazi threat to the Jews and devised a plan for their well-being. Any Vatican denunciation of the Nazi tyranny would, he believed, provoke more Nazi reprisals against the Jews. But, according to Thomas, he continued working behind the scenes to save as many Jews as possible; he instructed his archbishops to apply for visas for “non-Aryan Catholics” to help Jews escape. Once installed as Pope Pius XII, Pacelli urged archbishops to condemn Nazi crimes against Jews and authorized cardinals to issue baptismal certificates for their protection. After his death, Golda Meir praised Pius for raising his voice for the victims. Because Thomas’s argument goes against many historians’ view of Pius XII, his book will ignite a contentious debate about the interpretation of his evidence and Pius’s role during the Holocaust.

August 1, 2012
A defense of the pope who got a bad rap for his public silence on Jewish persecution in Rome during World War II. While reading prolific English writer Thomas' (Operation Exodus: From the Nazi Death Camps to the Promised Land, 2010, etc.) dramatized account of Pius XII's backroom dealing to help the Jews, readers come away with the impression that the new pope was endowed with a mission by the moribund Pius XI on his deathbed to campaign against anti-Semitism and subsequently pursued little else during the duration of the war. Yet Pius XII deliberately resolved that "there must be no public denunciation by the church" of Nazi persecution, supposedly to work more effectively behind the scenes for Jews to escape and also to sustain the tenuous Vatican neutrality. In his episodic, fast-paced narrative, Thomas cuts among scenes involving an array of international characters who were agitating against the Nazis during the war years, such as the leaders of Rome's ancient Jewish ghetto, British and American diplomats, members of the anti-fascist resistance, spies and helpful Vatican priests. Events move at a breakneck pace, from Mussolini's embrace of Nazi Germany, bombing by the Americans, the Abwehr director Wilhelm Canaris' courting of the pope for a secret assassination plot of Hitler, and Hitler's own crazy plot to abduct the pope. The plot culminated in the extortion of gold from the Jewish community and the horrific Gestapo roundup of thousands of Jews in October 1943. And still the pope remained silent. Thomas offers secondhand accounts such as by Pius' devoted Bavarian housekeeper Sister Pascalina Lehnert, and though many illustrious voices have defended the pope's record, it is not all entirely convincing. A valiant but not fully successful attempt to rehabilitate the reputation of "Hitler's pope."

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August 1, 2012

The Vatican's "strategy of silence" during World War II has been debated for over half a century. Did Pope Pius XII do enough to assist Europe's Jews during the Holocaust? Thomas (Gideon's Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad) offers evidence, based on primary sources (albeit with no endnotes) that the pope did work to protect the Jews, but did so with his clergy in secret, ultimately saving well over 700,000 Jews. Although he was venerated by Jewish leaders, e.g., Golda Meir and those on the Jewish World Council, in the postwar era, Pope Pius XII's legacy has since suffered from accusations that he remained neutral out of fear of German and Italian retribution, and to protect Catholics, thus sacrificing Jews in the process (see, for example, John Cornwell's Hitler's Pope). Using archival materials and survivor interviews, Thomas develops a fuller portrait of the pope, Rome's Jews, and other personages involved in this drama. VERDICT Many may find fault with the pope's decision to "keep silent" and not single out by name the Nazis or their crimes; however, Thomas is convincing in his revelations about the pope's secret work and relays how complex and sensitive these issues were for everyone involved at the time. Any World War II history buff or Holocaust researcher will find this book an important balance to existing historical scholarship.--Maria C. Bagshaw, Elgin Comm. Coll. Lib., IL

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September 1, 2012
The reputation of Pius XII, pope from 1939 to 1958, has been subjected to criticism for the pontiff's alleged silence about the Holocaust. The best-known Pius-bashing title is Hitler's Pope, by John Cornwell (1999). In this rebuttal to Cornwell and other critics, Thomas recounts the period of maximum danger for the Vatican during WWII, from September 1943 to June 1944, when German forces occupied Rome, and Hitler sought to kidnap the pope. He also tried to capture the city's Jewish population, an operation that largely fizzled from the Nazi point of view, with most Jews eluding the dragnet (although about 1,200 did not). How the rest were saved is Thomas' main case for Pius, which he makes by narrating activities of local Jewish leaders, Vatican prelates, and German officers. When the SS sprang its trap, thousands of Jews had received shelter in Rome's churches, convents, and the Vatican itself. Suggesting that Pius was responsible for this, Thomas presents an earnest defense while sketching Rome's menacing atmosphere during the Nazi occupation. Pair this title with Ralph McInerney's Defamation of Pius XII (2001).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)