PUIT=COMMENTARY

The Ger Tzedek In Jewish Tradition

Continued from Page 2

and moral, with the mother
faith.
Even though Judaism opens
the door to proselytes, it must
long remain the religion of a
minority, keeping the great
ideals before the eyes of
mankind. Just because Judaism
teaches that every good man, ir-
respective of his beliefs, is sav-
ed and has a share in the world
to come, it follows that to be a
good Jew signifies something
ethically higher than being a
good man. Jews must be
prepared to defend their
heritage at the cost of their lives,
as in the past, and to sacrifice
their material wealth. Many a
potential martyr becomes indif-
ferent to the ideals for which he
would offer his life in time of
persecution. The world has
need of a minority of idealists, it
has been asserted.

Pope Pius XII.
Defended
in Restored Data

Pope Pius XII is constantly men-
tioned among those who were either too
slow or altogether negligent in efforts
to rescue Jews during the years of the
Nazi horrors. An article datelined
Rome, by Agostino Bono, in the
Michigan Catholic, contains valuable
data exonerating him, contending that
he had important roles in anti-
Hitlerian plots.
The Jesuit Fr. Robert Graham, the
Vatican historian, is quoted in the Bono
article stating that at the beginning of
World War II "Pope Pius XII took a
terrible risk in conspiring with German
generals in a plan to overthrow Hitler."
The plot was aimed at ending the ex-
isting conflict and at attaining peace.
It is explained in the article that the
generals' plan was to negotiate a peace,
"but they eventually got 'cold feet' and
dropped the plan."
The Michigan Catholic article by
Agostino Bono has sufficient historical
importance worthy of retention in the
records relating to Pius XII and the
Vatican in relation to the war and the
Nazi crimes. While the facts now releas-
ed for general knowledge of the occur-
rences that directly involved reactions
to Adolf Hitler by the German military
leaders do not refer to the crimes
against the Jews, the search for peace
was a resistance task not to be ignored,
The Bono article makes known the
following facts:

At the request of the
generals the pope secretly
relayed the plan to the British
government, said Fr. Graham.
A leading figure in the plot
was ex-army chief of staff Gen.
Ludwig Beck, who resigned in
early 1938 in a disagreement
with Hitler over the dictator's
expansionist policy, according
to historians.
"It was an unfriendly act by
the Pope against Hitler," which
if discovered by the Nazi leader
would have been disastrous for

40

FRIDAY, JULY 3, 1987

the Catholic Church, Fr.
Graham said.
The Pope did it "for the
cause of peace," he added. "If it
worked, 20 million people
wouldn't have died."
The plot, developed in 1939
and early 1940 prior to the Ger-
man invasion of France, called
for Hitler's arrest and a takeover
of the German government, he
- said.
The papal involvement in the
coup planning first came to
public light in 1945 at the
Nuremberg trials of German of-
ficials accused of war crimes, Fr.
Graham said. The plot and Pope
Pius' role in it was mentioned
during the trials, he said.
In an interview with Na-
tional Catholic News Service, Fr.
Graham said he agreed with the
comments on the episode con-
tained in a recently published
book, Britain and the Vatican
During the Second World War,
by British historian Owen
Chadwick.
In the book, Chadwick says
that "never in all history had a
Pope engaged so delicately in a
conspiracy to overthrow a
tyrant by forcer
The book cites British
Foreign Office documents
which indicate the Pope relayed
the German generals' message
and information about who the
generals were to British Am-
bassador to the Holy See D'Ar-
cy Godolphin Osborne.
"There's no question that the
Pope did this," said Fr. Graham,
who interviewed individuals the
generals used as emissaries to
the Pope.
After first hearing of the
plan, "the Pope throught about
it and agreed the next day," said
Fr. Graham.
Documentation of Pope Pius'
action has existed for many ,
years, but many give it no
credence because the evidence
goes against their image of the
Pope as refusing to publicly
criticize Hitler, said Fr. Graham.
There was no coup because
"the German generals got cold
feet and they never acted;' said
Fr. Graham, who has written ex-
tensively about the church in
World War II, basing his work
on Vatican documents.
"Meanwhile the Pope had
been compromised" because he
relayed the message, Fr.
Graham said.
"If Hitler would have found
that out, the information would
have scandalized German
Catholics, risking a schism;' he
added.
It also would have risked the
credibility and status of the
Vatican as a neutral state during
the war, he said.
As a result the Pope and the
Vatican had to keep this infor-
mation secret during the con-
flict, the historian said.
"In 1946, the Pope typed out

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Pope Pius XII

tation of Jews was a high priori-
ty for the German occupying
power. Of the thirty-seven thou-
sand Jews who suddenly found
themselves in danger, only a few
hundred managed to escape
over the mountain passes to
Switzerland. In Italy itself,
several thousand found refuge
in Catholic homes and
institutions.
The Pope also helped the
Jewish community in Rome that
September, offering whatever
amount of gold might be need-
ed towards the fifty kilogram-
mes of gold demanded by the
Nazis, which the community
could not raise in full on its own.
At the same time, at the
Capuchin convent on the Via
Siciliano, Father Benoit, under
the name of Father Benedetti,
saved large numbers of Jews by
providing them with false iden-
tification papers. In this work
he was helped by the staffs of
the Swiss, Hungarian, Ruma-
nian and French Embassies in
Rome and also by a number of
Italians — among them the 'mar-
shal of Rome, Mario di Marco, a
high official of the police, who
was later tortured by the
Gestapo but did not disclose
what he knew.

on his own machine and cor-
rected in his own hand" an arti-
cle for the Vatican newspaper,
L'Osservatore Romano, on his
role in the conspiracy, said Fr.
Graham.
The article, not attributed to
the Pope, answered a
Czechoslovakan Communist
newspaper which said the
evidence of papal contact with
the generals was proof of
Vatican collaboration with the
Nazi regime, Fr. Graham said.
The manuscript of the article
Such is an unforgettable and in-
is in the Vatican archives.
erasable record.
The article says the Pope
Yet, failures to assist in rescuing
transmitted "some questions
Jews and peoples from other faiths will
from these (German) circles to
constantly be deplored.
other belligerent parties on the
The ecumenical tasks, the emerging
scope of the war and conditions
Catholic-Jewish
cooperative friend-
for peace."
ships, must be encouraged and
The story of the Pope's in-
strengthened.
volvement with the generals
Yet the denigrating obstacles will
was also supported by Italy's
ever
meet with objections.
foreign minister, Giulio Andreot-
The Vatican failures towards easing
ti, 68, who said he knew Am-
the road toward an Israeli accord can-
bassador Osborne.
not be ignored. The antagonism toward
In a front-page article in the
Israel's capital status in Jerusalem will
May 17 Rome newspaper H Tem-
never be respected.
po, Andreotti said the Pope had
In his rebuking comment on the
most of the evidence in his
Pope's invitation to the arch-criminal
possession regarding the plot
Austrian president who is constantly
hidden once the Germans oc-
referred to in American newspaper
cupied Rome for fear they
editorials as "the liar," Dr. Marc Tanen-
would also enter the Vatican.
baum, director of international rela-
The Michigan Catholic article tions of the American Jewish Commit-

creates renewed interest in Pope Pius
XII and the Vatican and the treatment
accorded them in the historical
Holocaust records. In The Holocaust: A

History of the Jews of Europe During the
Second World War, (Henry Holt

Publishing Co.), Martin. Gilbert has
several very positive references to Pius
XII. Aid provided for Italian Jews is in-
dicated by Gilbert whose valuably
researched Holocaust history presents
the following account of help in aiding
rescue efforts:

On 16 September 1943, less
than seven weeks after the fall of
Mussolini, as German forces oc-
cupied all but the southern tip
of Italy, the first twenty-four
Jews had been deported from
Merano, in northern Italy, to
Birkenau. Even though Allied
forces, fighting in the south of
Italy, were forcing the Germans
back towards Rome, the depor-

tee, recalled:

Would that there had been
such effective criticism of the
Vatican Concordat with Adolf
Hitler in July 1933. Had the
Vatican, Cardinal Pacelli (later
Pius XII), and the German
Catholic Center Party withheld
support from Hitler between
1930 and 1933, it is not in-
conceivable that Nazism would
not have come to power and the
world could have been spared
its vast destruction.
The danger of giving Kurt
Waldheim symbolic absolution
of his Nazi past through this
"photo opportunity" with the
people is that it will broadcast
a frightening message around
the globe.
That image may well suggest
that every former Nazi, criminal,
murderer, or terrorist, need