Yours Is a Precious Witness: Memoirs of Jews and Catholics in Wartime Italy

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Summary: The Mixed Legacy of the Vatican during the Holocaust
Review: A good part of this book is inspirational. The book documents how many Italian Catholics acted to help and protect Jews in Italy. Their sacrifices and courage should never be underestimated. Nazi-controlled police and government prohibited hiding or assisting Jews with penalties ranging from imprisonement to death. Risking not only their own but family lives, Italian Catholics including those in the Vaticans protected Jews. The number and percentage of Jews killed in Italy was less than that in many other countries.

That said, Marchione takes the sacrifices of individual Catholics in Italy to argue that the Church vigorously opposed the persecution of Jews and acted to prevent the Holocaust. Few could agree. Important accords were signed between the Church and Fascist Italy and even Nazi Germany. Cardinal Coughlin espoused a vigorous anti-semitic message in the 1930's in the United States without any opposition or condemnation.
Coughlin identified Jews with international banking and communism and said they were themselves themselves responsible for Hitler's moves against them. Few German priests spoke out against Hitler.

German Catholics were an integral part of Nazi Germany. German Catholics helped burn Jewish synagogues, arrest Jews for deportation to concentration camps, and arrange for their extermination. These German Catholics largely followed church dogma going to church on Sunday after they had helped kill Jews
during the week, they attended Christenings after burning down temples and arresting 9 year old boys and girls. They did partly from venal motives and partly because they knew no better, for the Church failed to clearly condemn Hitler and Nazism, preferring to issue ambiguous and delicately worded statements for internal use. German Catholics by and large did not have abortions or divorce for they followed church dogma; they helped kill Jews for their church did not condemn this.

Clear Pope Pius could have done something important. He could have clearly and unequivocally announced that the horrible campaigns against Jews such as Kristtalnacht were wrong. As the head of a large religion whose members followed his dictates, he had the ability to stop Nazism. Had he told his members that persecuting and killing Jews was wrong and would lead to excommunication, many German Catholics would likely have followed those instruction. Pius's reign will be remembered as one of cowardice and complacency, with the death of millions of women, children, and men as result.

The discussion of Pope Pius does tend to dispell the notion he was an anti-semite (see the misleadingly titled book Hitler's Pope). Otherwise, why would he have helped the Jews in Italy. Instead, it shows he was a cowardly man, of no high moral principle, who would do what he could so long as it would not rock the boat.

His limited actions can be contrasted with others in the Church who did far more with far less power. When they helped Jews escape, their legacy is one of strength, courage, and self-sacrifice, and it is important to memorialize that. Like the range of human behavior during World II, ranging from the heartless killing to tremendous sacrifice, the actions of those in the Church spanned the gamut.



Rating:
Summary: Not a very compelling book.
Review: After reading "Hitler's Pope" I was interested in a counterpoise. This book doesn't serve the purpose. It is a poorly assembled collection of anecdotal evidence of Italian compassion and actually does a disservice to the case for Pius' silence.

Rating:
Summary: Marchione Does It Again
Review: All of Marchione's books on Pius XII are the sort of straight forward, fact filled, indisputable studies Catholic haters like to suppress. I've seen no editorial reviews of this unusual contribution to setting the record straight. The book is filled with personal stories, told by Jews and Catholics who were there. If you want a more traditional approach to the matter, try Marchione's "Pope Pius XII:Architect of Peace" and her scholarly "Consensus & Controversy".
If you like memoirs and first hand accounts, also read Chief Rabbi of Rome during the Nazi occupation Eugenio Zolli's "Before the Dawn", republished recently as "Why I Became A Catholic".

Rating:
Summary: An eye opening book for all concerned about the Holocaust.
Review: Like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, Pius XII, the Vatican, and the Catholic Church, cry out to the world; "There is no need for us to defend ourselves before you in this matter!" (Deuteronomy 3) The scorching flames of revisionists and those who have made Pius XII a scapegoat for others failures can not destroy the living and documented record of the man who saved more Jews than all the Churches and rescue organizations combined. When Pius's public words only brought about more suffering and death, this great diplomat quietly went into action and threw open the doors and treasury of the Church. Written with the help of the memory of the Jews who suffered in Italy, and those who worked in diplomatic circles at the time,one quickly sees that actions do speak louder than words. Let what others have shamefully done to the memory of this great man be a lesson to others who truely want to learn from history. For no one did more to stop the Holocaust, including Shindler and Wallenberg, and yet no one has been more unjustly blamed than this, the loneliest of voices from World War II, and the greatest of all the righteous gentiles.

Rating:
Summary: Marchione Does It Again
Review: The book clearly documents how Pius XII and Italian Catholics saved thousands of Jewish lives. This is a tribute to the heroic efforts of the Vatican to save Jews. No "silence" here.

Rating:
Summary: Truth at last
Review: The book clearly documents how Pius XII and Italian Catholics saved thousands of Jewish lives. This is a tribute to the heroic efforts of the Vatican to save Jews. No "silence" here.

Rating:
Summary: Documents, please
Review: The strength of the book is simply its evidence: thousands of documents (letters, newspaper reports, chancery reports, diplomatic cables) showing the heroic efforts of Pius XII to save persecuted Jews and Christians during World War II. No silence here---only determined diplomatic and humanitarian charity.

Rating:
Summary: Documents, please
Review: The strength of the book is simply its evidence: thousands of documents (letters, newspaper reports, chancery reports, diplomatic cables) showing the heroic efforts of Pius XII to save persecuted Jews and Christians during World War II. No silence here---only determined diplomatic and humanitarian charity.

Rating:
Summary: CONFIRMED AGAIN!
Review: This book's strongest feature is its quotes from documents written during and immediately after the war. The ones after the war were written mostly by Jews. It confirmed again that the mainstream media like the New York Times are liars or abysmally stupid. Moe than 50 years after the events they seem to know it better than those who lived at the time. A must read!