The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930-1965 [Library Binding]

Michael Phayer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2000

Pope Pius XII neither caused the Holocaust nor did it lay within his reach to halt it. Why then is he the center of controversy? Why do writers want to make him either a saint or sinner? Rolf Hochuth demonized Pius XII in his famous play, "The Deputy". Outraged, apologists then rushed to defend the pope, not infrequently overreaching themselves in his justification. Above and beyond this controversy, why does the question of Christianity and the Holocaust still grip us at the beginning of a new century and millennium? One suspects that we who live today in a post-Holocaust world yearn for a champion - a martyr who would have been ready to risk all in defiance of Hitler. No person of stature ever did this - not Pius XII, not anyone else. Throwing the spotlight relentlessly on Pius XII has skewed the question surrounding Catholicism and the Holocaust, depriving us of a record of what the entire church did or did not do. Such a record is provided for the first time in the first half of "The Catholic Church and the Holocaust". European bishops displayed a shocking disparity in their attitudes toward Jews and in their bearing during the Holocaust. On the positive side, the record of those who tried to help Jews is filled with the names of ordinary Christians, people of the pulpit and pews, among them many outstanding women. The Holocaust ended in 1945 but the Catholic Church did not come to terms with the Shoah until 1965. How this occurred is a story worth telling. Those who perpetrated the Holocaust committed suicide at the end of the war, or were tried and executed after it, or vanished into obscurity. But the men and women who resisted the Holocaust lived on after it to help bring an end to the church's equivocal stand on antisemitism. Theirs was a rich heritage that culminated in the Second Vatican Council's affirmation of the permanence of the covenant between God and his Chosen People.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Phayer makes an important addition to the literature of Holocaust studies: he provides evidence that Pope Pius XII (who reigned over the Catholic Church from 1939 to 1958) knew in early 1942 what was happening to Europe's Jews (and to non-Jews in Croatia and Poland)Ayet he remained silent. The pope, he argues, was a Germanophile who had been schooled as a diplomat: treaties (particularly one he'd drafted between Germany and Rome in 1933) and the Communist threat were his main priorities. Protection of Vatican City from Allied or Axis bombs was another. Phayer contends that, had the pope resisted the Nazis and informed his flockAeither overtly or through existing secret channelsAabout what was happening, there would have been many more Catholic rescuers and fewer collaborators than there were. Phayer also details the Church's postwar policies; it played its part in helping Nazis escape justice, he contends, rather than support efforts to force Germany to pay reparations to survivors. Phayer, however, doesn't only describe the years of Pius XII; he contrasts him with Pope Pius XI and Pope John XXIII (who respectively preceded and followed him), and in doing so he makes a forceful point about the difference strong leadership can make. Both Pius XI and John XXIII used their positions of infallibility to openly and publicly encourage cordiality and acceptance of Jews, culminating in the Church's 1965 declaration that the Jews were not responsible for crucifying Jesus. Pius XII, says Phayer, was in contrast a weak leader and a cowardly oneAand the author argues that, given the conditions under which he served, his lack of courage proved devastating.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Marquette University historian Phayer has written about the role of Christian women in challenging Nazi Germany's "final solution." Here, he addresses the current debate over Pope Pius XII's role, partly by insisting the appropriate question is not "What did the pope do?" but "What did the church do?" Phayer broadens the discussion, devoting seven chapters to the Holocaust years and five to the postwar era. The first section considers prewar Catholic attitudes toward Jews; the Vatican's failure to respond to early genocide in Poland and Croatia; priorities that conditioned Pius XII's reaction to the Holocaust; and the responses of European bishops and of Catholics engaged in organized resistance. The second section addresses Vatican resistance to U.S. denazification efforts; priorities that conditioned Pius' postwar actions; interaction between Catholics and Jews after the war; and the rethinking that culminated in the rejection of anti-Semitism at the Second Vatican Council. Phayer's broader focus is valuable but will not likely overcome interest in "What did the pope do?" so long as many within the church are urging rapid canonization of Pius XII. Mary Carroll
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Library Binding: 328 pages
• Publisher: Indiana University Press (September 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0253337259
• ISBN-13: 978-0253337252
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #822,436 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #77 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Catholicism > Popes

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Exceptional Study, September 24, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930-1965 (Library Binding)

This recent work on the Holocaust is an important addition to the ongoing debate about the role of the Catholic Church and the papacy under Pope Pius XII during World War II. Unlike other recent works, there is an objectivity and balance to Phayer's attempt to understand and explain the role of the Church during the Holocaust. Rooted in archival and secondary research, Phayer serves as an historical corrective at times to Cornwell's HITLER'S POPE. This work is comprehensive in scope as it deals with the nature of genocide in Europe and the failure of the papacy at times to confront this evil. Not only does the author concern himself here with the Nazi persecution of the Jews, but also with incidents of genocide in Croatia by a pro-Catholic government against the Serbs. More importantly, the scope of the work extends beyond the Vatican to examine the positions of European Catholic clergy confronting the Holocaust. The reader is faced with the stories of heroic rescuers of Jews as well as the anti-Semtism and/or indifference of others. Phayer's examination of the roles of several Catholic women is also significant, as the results of their courageous work would positively influence a later generation of German Catholc clergy after the war. This work is to be commended also for concluding its study with the development of the Catholic document NOSTRA AETATE toward the Jewish community in the era of Vatican Council II. In sum, this is a work that is noteworthy for its research and disturbing for its frank criticism of Catholic Church leadership during the Holocaust. It should be required reading for classes on the Holocaust.

25 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The definitive story, May 16, 2002

By 

William W. Bakken (Lancaster, Pa. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930-1965: (Paperback)

This book removed itself from all of the hype, defensiveness and trash talking that seems to surround this topic. Michael Phayer approached the topic systematically and objectively and in so doing has produced a book that for me seems to be the definitive work on this subject. A must read for anyone interested in the history of Pius XII and the Holocaust.

30 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The truth will set you free, March 5, 2001

By 

Paul O'Shea - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930-1965 (Library Binding)

Michael Phayer has a long and proven academic record in Holocaust studies. This work is no exception, indeed it may well be one of the most significant works on the Holocaust to be written in the last 25 years. Setting parameters for examining the role of the Catholic Church that extends beyond the customary years 1933 to 1945, Phayer creates a context that helps the reader understand the complex issued surrounding the papacies of Pius XI and Pius XII. At the end of the day, Pius XII was faced with a situation that he had seen developing for many years. Intelligent, articulate and devouted to serving the Church, Pacelli was also autocratic and filled with a sense of the importance of his office that failed to recognise the changing political realities of the 1930s through to the 1950s.

Bolshevism, rampant nationalism, pseudo-scientific racism and the rule of the Dictators faced the Popes during the inter-war years. Fearing Bolshevism as the greater evil than Fascism, both Pius XI and XII did the proverbial "deal with the devil", unwittingly allied themselves to Fascism, and reaped the whirlwind. Compromise after compromise eroded the Church's ability at the top to act decisively. Quibbles over canon law and mixed Catholic-Jewish marriages as people were arrested and beaten point to a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of Nazism and Fascism in general. When the trains began to roll east, Pius appears to have stuck his head in the sand and wished the whole thing would go away.

Phayer demonstrates convincingly Pius's longing to be seen as the great peacemaker in Europe. Nothing could stand in the way of achieving this dream, not even a public condemnation of a killing and bloodletting unparalleled in human history. Papal apologists have spent so much time explainging away the "silence" of Pius XII they have forgotten the essence of the office the all too human Pacelli held: to feed the sheep.

Pius XII and the Church structure of the 1930s through to Vatican II proved itself unable and often unwilling to recognise the need for dialogue with the world. It took the peasant simplicity and infectious humanity of Angelo Roncalli to cut through the moribund Vatican systems and the equally moribund and death-giving antisemitic theology of the Church to create an opportunity for confronting the past truthfully. It would not spell the end of the church to admit that Pius XII made some serious errors of judgement during his papacy. To continue to deny the pope's moral culpability is to deny the increasing body of archival material that tells a different story to that posed by Pacelli's defenders. Phayer's book makes a serious judgement about the reigns of Pius XI and Pius XII but does so without malice, and avoids the sweeping generaliztions that characterised much of John Cornwell's Hitler's Pope.

Phayer's book is a product of meticulous research and patient piecing together of historical evidence from a variety of sources, including the Vatican. It is balanced and fair. It is essential reading for any student of contemporary Catholic history and theology as well as for the student of the Holocaust.