Pope Pius XII and the Jews

Few people know the extent to which the Catholic Church, under the orders of Pope Pius XII, worked to save Jews during World War II. The Diocese of Assisi saved every Jew within its borders during the war through a network of clergy and citizens. In 1943, thousands of refugees fled to Assisi, including 300 Jews. Immediately, Bishop Giuseppe Nicolini of Assisi formed a working committee to safeguard Jews by placing them in convents and monasteries. Everything possible was done to help — including the provision of food, clothes and the hiding of religious Jewish objects. In fact, Bishop Nicolini placed these sacred objects in the basement of his own residence and walled it up with his own hands. The Brizi family helped create false identity papers for the Jews with a pedal-operated printing press. They did everything they could to help Jews at the risk of their own lives. Luigi Brizi even added seals of various Southern Italian regions to give his documents greater authenticity. Jews were given different last names and new places of birth in the south of Italy.

Yet the question keeps coming up: Had Pope Pius XII actually done all that he could to save Jews during World War II? After years of researching this issue with a team of international scholars, including pouring through 76,000 documents from archives around the world on matters related to Pope Pius XII, it was concluded that the Pontiff may have done more than any other person to save Jews. Searching the The New York Times and The Palestine Post from 1939 to 1958 on Pius XII and the Jews, there was not one negative article. Then in 1963, Operation Seat 12 began. This was the Russian operation to destroy the reputation of Pope Pius XII because Khrushchev and Stalin hated him and the Catholic Church. The operation’s fabricated stories about Pope Pius XII changed public opinion with regards to this particular Pope toward the negative. It was the worst character assassination of the 20th century. Growing up Jewish, the worst character flaw you can have is ingratitude. This Russian disinformation campaign robbed the Jewish people of the dignity of showing gratitude to the man who actually saved — according to the Jewish historians who lived through the war — 847,000 Jewish lives; all of whom were saved by the Catholic Church under the pontificate of Pope Pius XII. A surprising discovery was called ‘Pacelli’s list’: 2,800 names of Jewish people who were writing to the Pope directly during World War II. These letters came to the secretary of state and were all responded to. The Vatican’s Secretariat of State wrote letters to bishops throughout Europe telling them that they had to do whatever they could to support the Jews and do it with the maximum of secrecy. These were direct instructions of Eugenio Pacelli, while still a Cardinal. Jews were brought to Spain and Portugal to escape. This was done personally by bishops and nuncios, sometimes in collaboration with Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits, nuns or laypeople of goodwill. It was also discovered that 17 babies were born in the Pope’s own bed.