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Title: Under His Very Windows: The Vatican and the Holocaust in Italy by Susan Zuccotti ISBN: 0-300-09310-1 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: 01 March, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.6 (10 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A well researched and clearly articulated point of view
Comment: This book is extremely useful as a contribution to the ongoing debate as to the moral imperatives, which existed upon Pope Pius XII to speak out against what remains the most catastrophic occurrence in human memory namely the holocaust. The book primarily focuses on the Italian situation and the relationship between the Vatican and the Italian State during the 1930's as well as the war. Again and again the author points out her view of the Vatican's distinction between racial and religious policies introduced against the Jewish people in Italy. The Fascist government introduced racial laws, which striped the Jewish people of their civil and human rights while the church, in the author's view at least acquiesced these provisions on the basis that they believed that the Jewish People were traditional opponents of Christianity.
Throughout the book the author quotes examples of how the Vatican could have been more forceful in its condemnation not simply of the Holocaust but of the ever-worsening conditions of the Jewish people in Europe from 1935 onwards. The crescendo of criticism reaches its high point in the chapter dealing with the round up of roman Jews in October 1943. The silence of Pius in this instance is the very essence of the authors thesis that the Pope for what ever reason failed the moral test not simply in terms of speaking out but of personally intervening to stop the barbarity Under His Very Windows as it were.
The author does of course place papal defences like for example, the possibility that speaking out would have made the suffering of others worse alongside her own criticisms. However I have to say that the book is quite scathing of Pope Pius's role and attitude throughout the war. This is not to say that the book is biased or of no value it certainly is both in its content and ease of understanding, its just that with any emotive subject of this magnitude those for and against make their own case more strongly and on this subject its difficult not to have or develop a view based on what we believe are moral imperatives.
Rating: 4
Summary: A meticulously-researched and balanced account
Comment: Pope Pius XII has often been criticized for his silence during the extermination of European Jewry during World War II. In his defense, some have alleged that the pope was doing a great deal to help the Jews but that his efforts were necessarily behind the scenes. This meticulously researched and balanced book examines exactly what the pope, his advisers, and his assistants at the Vatican Secretariat of State did to help the Jews of Italy. It finds that they did very little.The book begins by discussing prewar Vatican and Jesuit publications, in which Zuccotti uncovers a hitherto little-known prevalence of anti-Jewish sentiment. These publications, along with archival documents, indicate that Vatican protests against Italian anti-Jewish laws were limited to measures affecting converts and Jews in mixed marriages with Catholics, as was help with emigration; the papal nuncio's visits to foreign Jews in Italian internment camps did not differ from those to non-Jews and in no way eased their material discomfort; and interventions by diplomats of the Holy See for Jews threatened with deportation were rare, always polite, and seldom decisive. Above all, Zuccotti finds no evidence of a papal directive to church institutions to shelter Jews and much evidence to suggest that the pope remained uninvolved. The notion that Pius XII was outstandingly benevolent and helpful to Jews behind the scenes proves to be a myth.
Rating: 5
Summary: Read this book first: best review of the subject so far!
Comment: Having read several recent books on this subject, I find that an author's bias is reflected in his/her writing more on this issue than perhaps on any other. This is particularly striking in the recent Rychlak book ("Hitler, the War, and the Pope") which is unabashed propaganda, veiled thinly or not at all. Even the more objective Cornwell book ("Hitler's Pope"), although it supports the opposite side of the debate, has occasional undertones of prejudice.
In contrast to these and some other authors, Zuccotti presents her arguments by giving fair consideration to both sides of the issue. Her fine scholarship is evident throughout this entire study, which is meticulously annotated and documented, but her writing is directed to general readers of history, rather than to her professional peers. The book makes for very enjoyable reading on this painfully tragic subject.
Anyone who is interested in reading about Eugenio Pacelli (Pope Pius XII) and his efforts--or lack thereof--to reduce or even address the persecution of European Jews before and during World War II should begin with this book.
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Title: Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII by John Cornwell ISBN: 0140296271 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 03 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Italians and the Holocaust: Persecution, Rescue, and Survival by Susan Zuccotti, Furio Colombo ISBN: 0803299117 Publisher: Univ of Nebraska Pr Pub. Date: February, 1996 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Catholic Church and Nazi Germany by Guenter Lewy ISBN: 0306809311 Publisher: DaCapo Press Pub. Date: February, 2000 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Pius XII and the Holocaust: Understanding the Controversy by Jose M. Sanchez ISBN: 081321081X Publisher: Catholic Univ of Amer Pr Pub. Date: February, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930-1965: by Michael Phayer ISBN: 0253214718 Publisher: Indiana University Press Pub. Date: 01 July, 2001 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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