As the survivors of the Holocaust leave us, it is up to each and every individual to do his and her part in educating the public of the horrors, depravity, and evil the Nazis unleashed upon this earth.
As Anti-Semitism grows in America and around the world this endeavor assumes an even greater importance and priority. It is Anti-Semitism that led to the Holocaust. It is Anti-Semitism in all its forms, guises, and manifestations that led Man to push people into cattle cars and later suffocate them with Zyklon B gas. The barbarism and torture perpetrated by the Nazis brought the human race to its lowest level in the history of the world. It was assembly line genocide on a scale made possible by a highly technologically advanced society.
There were many who could have done much more but did not. One such individual was Pope Pius XII. Even the New York Times which was shamefully negligent in its coverage of the Holocaust in World War II entitled a recent article on Pope Pius XII, “New reasons to doubt the Pope during the ‘40s sought to save Jews.”
Even former Presidential Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders wrote at age 11 in the Yad Vashem guestbook, “Why didn’t somebody do something?” When Jews were slaughtered in Auschwitz the world was sinfully silent. Pope Pius XII had the power to do something but did very little if anything.
The Vatican on March 2nd opened up its sealed archives from the Pope Pius’ XII years. Dr. David Kertzer of Brown University who won a Pulitzer Prize for his work, “The Pope and Mussolini: The secret history of Pope Pius XI and the rise of Fascism in Europe” described some of the pages in the trove of documents as “steeped in Anti-Semitic language.”
He further wrote in his recent article in The Atlantic that the memoranda from the archives prove that Pope Pius XII purposefully stayed quiet on October 16,1943 as 1259 of Rome’s Jews were rounded up by the Gestapo and deported to Auschwitz. He could have saved them but did not.
On Sept. 21, 1945 the Secretary General of the World Jewish Congress Leon Kubowitzki asked Pope Pius XII to issue a public declaration denouncing Anti-Semitism. He said, “We will consider it.” In the end he did nothing.
On March 10th 1946 the Chief Rabbi of Palestine, Rabbi Isaac Herzog asked Pope Pius XII to help in locating the missing orphans of the Holocaust that were in the homes of Catholic families. He called it a “rather delicate problem”. Very little if anything was done to return Jewish children to their people. Most grew up as Catholics and never made it back.
In regards to making Pope Pius XII a Saint, the present day Pope, Pope Francis said, “The cause for Pius XII is open. However, there has been no miracle, and if there are no miracles, it is not yet possible to go ahead.” In releasing the heretofore sealed documents Pope Francis said, “The Church is not afraid of history.”
History will show that Pope Pius XII was far from a Saint. The archives recently released make it clearer than ever that Pope Pius XII should not even be considered any longer for this distinction.