Pius XII and the Holocaust: Understanding the Controversy

Rating:
Summary: Pius without the Hagiography
Review: Jose Sanchez's Pius XII and the Holocaust is an excellent, scholarly presentation and summaryof the arguments surrounding the papacy of Eugenio Pacelli. Sanchez has meticulously reviewed and revisited much of the source material used by defenders and critics of Pius. His narrative is dispassionate and calm, always allowing the sources to speak for themselves. He cites the major historians from all camps and clearly sets out their arguments with some comments as to the helpfulness of their claims. At no point does he do other than that which he set out to do - namely allow the arguments space to be presented as clearly as possible. Sanchez leaves it to the reader to make up their own mind. For those who seek a "final word" or are waiting for the discovery of a "smoking gun", Sanchez will disappoint. I believe the greatest strength of this work is providing the historian along with the general reader with a very useful handbook with which to navigate the continual stream of material about Pope Pius. On subjects such as papal rhetoric and interpreting Vatican-speak, Sanchez does a great service. Discussing the relationship of Pacelli and the Nazi regime is another example of skillful historical analysis. It is not the last word or treatise on the subject, but it is a timely call to order on a subject that has more often than not been marred by polemic and name-calling among those who should know better.

Rating:
Summary: Deconstructing Poor Scholarship
Review: Jose Snachez has accomplished what no other modern author has been able to on the topic of Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust. Sanchez has provided his readers with an overall presentation of bth side of the argument. He has done a great deal of research al the while diplaying no particular preference or sense of favoritism.

He is to be commended for this, for I believe that he has done the very best in describing the events that surround this slender and frail individual.

Istrongly reccommend this work to anyone who would like to discover more of what actually took place in the years before, during and after the Holocaust. Sanchez writes in such a way as to avoid much technical language making his work accessible to readers of all ages and backgrounds.

Rating:
Summary: A Fair and Just Treatment
Review: Jose Snachez has accomplished what no other modern author has been able to on the topic of Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust. Sanchez has provided his readers with an overall presentation of bth side of the argument. He has done a great deal of research al the while diplaying no particular preference or sense of favoritism.

He is to be commended for this, for I believe that he has done the very best in describing the events that surround this slender and frail individual.

Istrongly reccommend this work to anyone who would like to discover more of what actually took place in the years before, during and after the Holocaust. Sanchez writes in such a way as to avoid much technical language making his work accessible to readers of all ages and backgrounds.

Rating:
Summary: Concise Overview of the Controversy
Review: One of these days I plan on reading some of the numerous books that have come out pro and con concerning Pius XII and the Jewish holocaust. Since I don't have the time now, I was pleasantly surprised to come across this book by Prof. Jose Sanchez. Prof. Sanchez provides a readable background to the controversy, discussing the sources available, the books that have been written, and the arguments that have been made. This book is somewhat favorable to Pius XII, but not uncritically so.

Even though I'm reasonably well-read in history, I learned a lot. For example, the Vatican's intelligence ability is not necessarily the best in the world, contrary to what you would imagine given the large number of Catholic priests. Also, I've read dozens of times that Pius XII (while Secretary of State) wrote Pius XI's anti-Nazi Mit Breneder Sorge, when in fact he only made some edits.

The best part of the book is that it puts Pius XII's actions in historical context. It's important to realize that contrary to what some people believe, the Roman Catholic Church is not an all-powerful institution whose members walk lock-step in agreement with the Pope. As Prof. Sanchez notes, the Vatican had tried for years to stop the enactment of anti-clerical legislation, with limited success. Indeed, this only made the church look weaker in the eyes of politicians.

One thing that is interesting is how much times have changed, probably because of television. Pius XII was admired for being aloof with an almost regal air to him. On the other hand, John Paul II has inaugurated a "show biz" papacy, much to the consternation of many traditionalist catholics.

Rating:
Summary: Concise Overview of the Controversy
Review: One of these days I plan on reading some of the numerous books that have come out pro and con concerning Pius XII and the Jewish holocaust. Since I don't have the time now, I was pleasantly surprised to come across this book by Prof. Jose Sanchez. Prof. Sanchez provides a readable background to the controversy, discussing the sources available, the books that have been written, and the arguments that have been made. This book is somewhat favorable to Pius XII, but not uncritically so.

Even though I'm reasonably well-read in history, I learned a lot. For example, the Vatican's intelligence ability is not necessarily the best in the world, contrary to what you would imagine given the large number of Catholic priests. Also, I've read dozens of times that Pius XII (while Secretary of State) wrote Pius XI's anti-Nazi Mit Breneder Sorge, when in fact he only made some edits.

The best part of the book is that it puts Pius XII's actions in historical context. It's important to realize that contrary to what some people believe, the Roman Catholic Church is not an all-powerful institution whose members walk lock-step in agreement with the Pope. As Prof. Sanchez notes, the Vatican had tried for years to stop the enactment of anti-clerical legislation, with limited success. Indeed, this only made the church look weaker in the eyes of politicians.

One thing that is interesting is how much times have changed, probably because of television. Pius XII was admired for being aloof with an almost regal air to him. On the other hand, John Paul II has inaugurated a "show biz" papacy, much to the consternation of many traditionalist catholics.

Rating:
Summary: Deconstructing Poor Scholarship
Review: The first criticism of the silence of Pope Pius XII when confronted by the atrocities of the Holocaust was contained in the 1963 German stage production of Rolf Hochhuth's play, The Deputy. Since that date, critics and defenders of Pius XII have debated the explanation of his behavior, and this debate has recently been given new life by the 1999 publication of Hitler's Pope by the British author, John Cornwell. The present study by José M. Sánchez is an examination of the historical writing on Pius XII and the Holocaust, and, as such, it deconstructs and evaluates the arguments of the pope's critics and defenders.

From a review of the literature on the silence of Pius XII, Sanchez assesses the value of the available sources, and outlines what we know about what the pope knew of the Holocaust and was likely to have believed. Sanchez also attempts to provide clarification by contextualizing the public wartime statements of the pope. His main conclusion is that Pius XII could never adequately resolve the dilemma between being the Vicar of Christ on earth and being the institutional head of the Roman Catholic Church. For Pius, moral and institutional priorities were hopelessly intertwined and never really clarified in his own mind. This lack of clarity, contends Sánchez, is what has given rise to the debate, since the inconsistencies of the papal utterances can be used to support many explanations for his behavior.

In the body of the book, Sánchez evaluates the explanations which have been advanced for Pius' silence. Based on the available evidence, Sánchez dismisses as the least likely reasons for the silence the arguments that Pius XII was an anti-Semite, that he was primarily concerned about preserving the security of the Vatican City State, that he had a personal fear of being incarcerated by Hitler, and that he was fearful lest Rome should be destroyed. While deeming it to be a more significant argument, Sánchez also dismisses the likelihood that the pope feared Bolshevism more than Nazism and that Pius was hoping for a German victory on the eastern front.

The reasons that Sánchez puts forward as significant explanations for the pope's silence include a concern to preserve the German Concordat of 1933 and the protection it offered to the German Catholic community; the pope's reluctance to create a crisis of conscience for German Catholics by forcing them to choose between Hitler and their church; the traditional caution of Vatican diplomacy and the papal desire to act as a mediator to help end the war. While these reasons are all important, even more significant, claims Sánchez, was the documented desire of Pius XII to do no harm to the victims of Nazi persecution through his belief that any public protest would only have made matters worse.

The book is a balanced and judicious study of the evidence and the arguments in the debate over the silence of Pius XII. Sánchez is scrupulously fair in his presentation, being concerned that too many writers on the subject start from a preconceived position and do not allow their arguments to be guided by the evidence. Nevertheless, this book really does not add much to our knowledge of this issue, based as it is on familiar secondary sources and the published Vatican documents.

Sánchez exemplifies a dispassionate approach to this historical problem, although he unfairly implies that the recent study by Michael Phayer, The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, imposes unwarranted criticism on Pius XII. Sánchez' book is marred by a couple of minor errors, such as the assertion that the Secret Archives of the Vatican works under a seventy-five-year rule for the opening of its collections (p. 28), when the experience of the past twenty-five years is that the archives are opened, rather, at the discretion of the reigning pope. Sánchez also claims that the Vatican representative in wartime Croatia, Abbot Marcone, had the title of "apostolic minister" (p. 160), when the correct title was "apostolic delegate."

Nevertheless, this book is a useful source for understanding the issues in the debate over Pius XII.

Peter C. Kent