Language:
English
Year of publication:
2002
Titel der Quelle:
Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte
Angaben zur Quelle:
15,1 (2002) 238-262
Keywords:
Pius
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Church history 20th century
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
Abstract:
During World War II, the Vatican failed to condemn the Nazi policy of genocide toward the Polish people, even though its first stage involved suppression of the Polish Catholic Church and arrests and executions of Polish clergymen. The silence of Pius XII on such a sensitive issue led to the freezing of relations between the Polish leadership, both clerical and civil (in exile), and the Holy See. The improvement in relations between the Polish Church and the Pope in late 1942-early 1943 was due not to protests made by the Vatican, but to the fact that the mass murder of Jews in Poland ("Aktion Reinhard") in 1942 and the continuing military campaign in the East made the Polish work force indispensable for the German war effort, thus improving Nazi treatment of the Polish Church. Contends that the Pope's silence in the early stage of the genocide of Catholics in 1941-42 led him to remain silent on the genocide of Jews in 1943; the Holy See did not want to seem pro-Jewish.
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