In a
dreadful August 16, 2010, article in the perpetually anti-Catholic
Boston Globe, the paper failed to correct high-profile Holocaust
survivor Elie Wiesel when he falsely claimed that Pope Pius XII "did
nothing to protest" the persecution of Jews "under the windows of the
Vatican" during World War II.
Wiesel's claim is simply untrue. In fact, it was rebutted by the
Globe (of all places) in a posting just last year. In
a June 19, 2009, item by Michael Paulson, the paper quoted Israeli
ambassador
Mordechay Lewy:
"It is wrong to look for any affinity between [Pius] and the
Nazis.
"It is also wrong to say that he didn’t save Jews. Everybody
who knows the history of those who were saved among Roman Jewry
knows that they hid in the church, they hid in Roman monasteries, in
the Vatican itself people were hidden."
In addition, we know from Michael Tagliacozzo, "the foremost survivor
on the October 1943 Nazi roundup of Rome's Jews" and "a survivor of the
raid himself, " said Pius' actions helped rescue 80 percent of Rome's
Jews. Rabbi David Dalin quotes Tagliacozzo in his excellent book, The
Myth of Hitler's Pope.
"Pope Pacelli was the only one who intervened to impede the deportation
of Jews on October 16, 1943, and he did very much to hide and save
thousands of us." (Dalin, p. 83)
Finally, it is worth noting what the New York Times wrote in a
December 25, 1941, editorial. (Boy, the paper has changed!)
The voice of Pius XII is a lonely voice in the silence and
darkness enveloping Europe this Christmas... he is about the only ruler
left on the Continent of Europe who dares to raise his voice at all...
the Pope put himself squarely against Hitlerism... he left no doubt that
the Nazi aims are also irreconcilable with his own conception of a
Christian peace.
Wiesel's claim about Pope Pius XII is simply false. He certainly owes Catholics
a correction and an apology.
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Some resources for Mr. Wiesel and any others who are interested in
the truth:
Ta-da!