How Did Pope Pius XII Combat The Holocaust?
World War II was a contentious period in the history of Europe. By 1942 most of Europe was under a totalitarian regime (from Franco’s Spain to Stalin’s Russia), experiencing the most conscious effort to eradicate a race of people in history, the Holocaust. A spectator of this carnage was the Catholic Church, whose leadership remained 'silent' towards atrocities of the Holocaust throughout the entirety of the Second World War. Pope Pius XII chose to combat the Nazis through quiet diplomacy, never explicitly condemning the Nazi’s treatment and massacre of the European Jews. This policy of 'silence' was prompted by many factors, which he believed were necessary to protect the European Jews and Catholics. Pius XII believed that if he condemned
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Pius XII first petitioned the Brazilian government to permit the immigration of Jewish-Catholics families into their country. The Pope and General Getulio Vargas agreed that the Brazilian government would issue 3000 entry visas to mainly German Jewish-Catholics so that they could escape persecution. The Vatican issued 1000 visas, while the Brazilian government, due to its reservations about the authenticity of the Jewish conversion to Catholicism refused to issue the 2000 visas it had promised. The true scope of Pius XII’s attempts at protecting the Jews in Rome can be seen in the actions of the Vatican during the Nazi occupation of Rome. In occupied Rome, Catholic organizations aided the Jewish community, helping them come up with 50 kilograms of gold, where Pius XII himself offered monetary aid. In addition to the monetary assistance, the Catholic religious community in Rome also provided the Jews refuge in churches, monasteries and private estates scattered throughout the city, an attempt, which resulted with approximately 10,000 Jews surviving the war. Likewise, Fr. Benoit a Catholic Bishop living in the south of France also aided the Jews residing in France, providing them with food, shelter, identity papers and travel visas, which allowed them passage to Spain, Switzerland, or Italy, unoccupied countries. Despite Pope Pius XII public ‘silence’, the efforts of the entire Catholic Church showed that the plight of the Jews did not go
Pius XII first petitioned the Brazilian government to permit the immigration of Jewish-Catholics families into their country. The Pope and General Getulio Vargas agreed that the Brazilian government would issue 3000 entry visas to mainly German Jewish-Catholics so that they could escape persecution. The Vatican issued 1000 visas, while the Brazilian government, due to its reservations about the authenticity of the Jewish conversion to Catholicism refused to issue the 2000 visas it had promised. The true scope of Pius XII’s attempts at protecting the Jews in Rome can be seen in the actions of the Vatican during the Nazi occupation of Rome. In occupied Rome, Catholic organizations aided the Jewish community, helping them come up with 50 kilograms of gold, where Pius XII himself offered monetary aid. In addition to the monetary assistance, the Catholic religious community in Rome also provided the Jews refuge in churches, monasteries and private estates scattered throughout the city, an attempt, which resulted with approximately 10,000 Jews surviving the war. Likewise, Fr. Benoit a Catholic Bishop living in the south of France also aided the Jews residing in France, providing them with food, shelter, identity papers and travel visas, which allowed them passage to Spain, Switzerland, or Italy, unoccupied countries. Despite Pope Pius XII public ‘silence’, the efforts of the entire Catholic Church showed that the plight of the Jews did not go