More News on Pius XII and the Jewish Holocaust

The following comes from Michelle Arnold, writing on the blog www.JimmyAkin.org on 8/22/06

Ransoming Captive Israel

More evidence is surfacing that Venerable Pope Pius XII [slandered in a recent book as "Hitler's Pope"], far from sitting around twiddling his thumbs during the Shoah, was on the front lines of rescue efforts to save Jews from the Nazis. The Tablet, a British Catholic publication somewhat analogous to the American National Catholic Reporter, notes that the diary of an Augustinian nun in Rome during the war chronicles that Jews were hidden in her convent on Pius XII's directive.
"The anonymous author of the journal provides detailed names and dates of more than 10 Jews and non-Jews who were sheltered in the convent from September 1942 to June 1944. One of these was Amalia Viterbo, the Jewish niece of Palmiro Togliatti, one of the creators of the Italian Communist Party and secretary of the Comintern before the Second World War.
"The Augustinian sister writes that the Pope wished to save 'his children [Catholics] as well as Jews' and ordered that monasteries and enclosures should be opened up to those persecuted.
"Later, when the convent superior perceived that the SS were flouting the sanctuary of convent enclosures, she had false identity papers drawn up for her guests."

See below for the full story from the Tablet:

Church in the World 19 August 2006 Italy
"Pius XII hid Jews during war"
by Philip Crispin
The Roman convent of Santi Quattro Coronati sheltered political fugitives and Jews during the Second World War on the direct orders of Pope Pius XII, according to the diary of one of the Augustinian convent's sisters.
According to the Italian daily La Stampa, which has seen the 60-year-old-plus diary, the Pope, who has often been criticised for keeping his counsel during the Holocaust, instructed the mother superior to open, exceptionally, the enclosure of the contemplative order's convent in order to shelter those fleeing the Germans.
The anonymous author of the journal provides detailed names and dates of more than 10 Jews and non-Jews who were sheltered in the convent from September 1942 to June 1944. One of these was Amalia Viterbo, the Jewish niece of Palmiro Togliatti, one of the creators of the Italian Communist Party and secretary of the Comintern before the Second World War.
The Augustinian sister writes that the Pope wished to save "his children as well as Jews" and ordered that monasteries and enclosures should be opened up to those persecuted.
Later, when the convent superior perceived that the SS were flouting the sanctuary of convent enclosures, she had false identity papers drawn up for her guests.
The diary should interest historians who have been at loggerheads for 60 years over the attitude of Pope Pius XII concerning concentration camps and the Holocaust. Many have accused him of complicity through his silence.

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Links to books on the matter:


The Myth of Hitler's Pope: Pope Pius XII and
His Secret War Against Nazi Germany by David G. Dalin (Hardcover - Jul 25, 2005)

Man of Peace: Pope Pius XII Margarita Marchione
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0809142457/sr=8-8/qid=1156260395/ref=sr_1_8/104-6635583-6739153?ie=UTF8