Pius XII and the Second World War: According to the Archives of the Vatican

After so much bashing of the Pope's reaction/response/responsibility for the holocaust, most of it simply a front for anti-Catholic Romaphobia, this book is a welcome find. The text is based upon the Vatican archives, by someone who has spent many years working with the originals, of the role of the Pope in the time of the War, collected and written in response to Rolph Hochhuth's 1963 antipapal claims that he ignored the plight of the Jews. The evidence demonstrates that Pope Pius did a great deal to influence European governments behind the scenes, and also attempted to rescue large numbers of Jews in Europe, but that his efforts went largely ignored or simply drowned in a sea of diplomatic storms. Hardly an acquiescence and clearly not a co-conspirator.

What the Vatican Archives Really Say About Pope Pius XII This is adapted from my review published in the New Oxford Review (February 2000). The author working with three other Jesuit scholars conducted research in the Vatican archives and helped produce 11 volumes of documents with the French title, Actes et documents du Saint Siege relatifs a la Seconde Guerre Mondiale (Actes). In the introduction to his book, Father Blet observes that these 11 volumes have often "escaped the attention of many who speak and write about the Holy See during the war." Indeed, of 677 citations in John Cornwell's Hitler's Pope, only 21 cite the Actes. Blet's near-exclusive use of primary sources is very impressive, and it gives his arguments substantial credibility. The Actes along with published collections of diplomatic documents from the United States, Great Britain, Germany, and Italy provide a clear and balanced portrait of Pope Pius XII during World War II. Blet shows that the Vatican consistently opposed the persecutions and deportations of Jews in many Nazi-occupied and Axis countries. In Slovakia, which was headed by an anti-Semitic Catholic priest, the Vatican officially protested the anti-Jewish laws and deportations. Vatican Secretary of State Luigi Cardinal Maglione frequently instructed the Vatican's diplomatic representatives in Slovakia, Romania, Croatia, Italy, and even Germany to intervene on behalf of endangered Jews. On October 30, 1941, Cardinal Maglione encouraged the papal nuncio in France to intervene with the Vichy regime in order to soften the application of the anti-Semitic laws. The nuncio's protest against the deportations of French Jews in August 1942 received international attention. Blet also refutes the myth that the Vatican did nothing to stop the arrests of Roman Jews in October 1943. As soon as Pius XII heard of the arrests, he had Cardinal Maglione make a strong protest with the German Ambassador. The Pope also ordered Bishop Alois Hudal, the rector of the German Catholic Church in Rome, to protest the arrests with the German Military Governor of Rome. Along with these protests, thousands of Jews found shelter in Catholic convents, monasteries, and the Vatican itself. In response to the deportations of Hungarian Jews in June 1944, the Pope personally addressed an open telegram to Hungarian Regent Nicholas Horthy, and urged him to spare "so many unfortunate people" from "further afflictions and sorrows." The Holy Father's intervention along with those of the Red Cross, the King of Sweden, and President Franklin Roosevelt brought a temporary halt to the deportations. When the deportations resumed in October, the papal nuncio in Hungary, acting on orders from Rome, continued to make protests.(Unfortunately, Blet omits other Vatican interventions on behalf of Jews in Bulgaria, Albania, Greece, Poland, Lithuania, and even Japan.) Important Jewish leaders and organizations such as Chief Rabbi Miroslav Freiberger of Zagreb, Cro

This is a good book to read, and presents the reader with data from which to accurately judge Pope Pius XII--prudent, wanting to be sure he did more good than harm, but with 20-20 hindsight, probably too cautious. But that he was not striving for the good of as many as possible is beyond dispute. A carefully documented work.

This is a sober, well-documented study of the efforts of Pius XII to save thousands of Jewish lives. At last we have primary sources: diplomatic cables, autograph letters, which show Pius's efforts to save innocent lives from the horrors of Nazism. This humanitarian and diplomatic crusade merits wider knowledge. A true work of scholarship.

Pierre Blet's work is a major historical work that brings much needed balance to our perspective of Pope Pius XII's activities during World War II. Although considerably shorter than Cornwell's book, this brevity results from allowing the facts speak for themselves -- Cornwell's overwrought analysis of what the "facts mean" is avoided. This work relies extensively on the Vatican's historical records from this troubled period, and thus avoids the assumptions and inferences that mar other,less balanced works on this subject. Blet makes it abundantly clear that Pius XII was an informed and eloquent foe of Nazism, and directed Church activity in furtherance of saving innocent Jewish lives from what he deemed to be the unmitigated evil of Nazism. Moreover, Blet demonstrates that Puis XII's careful public statements denouncing anti-Semitism resulted not from cowardice, but from a firm belief that more pointed statements from him possessed the capacity to further inflame Nazi violence against Jews. Moreover, from Blet's work, it is clear that, in the context of that time, Hitler clearly understood that Pius XII's statements were directed at him and his government, and that he considered Pius XII an outspoken foe of the Nazi movement. After Blet's work, hopefully scholarship on this subject will focus on whether Pius's strategies were best under the circumstances, and not whether Pius was personally indifferent to the plight of the Jews. This work makes it clear that Pius XII was deeply affected by the plight of the Jews, and believed he was acting prudently in their defense. Perhaps that point may be debated, but the debate over Pius's prudence, Blet makes clear, should exclude any insinuation that Pius did not care. In the end, the Catholic Church acted to save 860,000 Jewish lives from the clutches of Hitler, whose aggressive and frightful reign was ended only by the combined and sustained sacrifices of the world's greatest military powers. Blet makes you wonder how much blame can attach, under the circumstances, to the leader of an unarmed pacifist state surrounded by hostile Fascist powers.