Pius XII and the Jews

More than 60 years after the end of World War II the controversy still rages over the attitude taken by Pope Pius XII with regard to the Nazi persecution of the Jews, culminating in the Holocaust. Most Jews accuse the Pope of doing little or nothing to condemn the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis - a condemnation which is denied by Catholics.

The controversy raised its head again last week when the Papal Nuncio to Israel, Archbishop Franco, threatened to boycott the Holocaust commemoration held at the Yad Vashem museum.

The Archbishop wrote to the museum informing them of his intention and telling them the reason for his planned boycott was the caption appearing under a photo of Pius XII in the museum which said that "even when reports about the murder of the Jews reached the Vatican the Pope did not protest". The caption also accused the Pope, the former Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, of keeping silent in the face of genocide and of maintaining his neutral position except for two appeals which he made about Hungary and Slovakia towards the end of the war.

However the Nuncio changed his mind and attended the ceremony after his letter to the museum was made public. His threat not to attend created reactions and the Archbishop "found himself at the centre of an international controversy". His change of mind was publicly welcomed by the museum which stated that it was "inappropriate to link an issue of historical research with the commemoration of the victims of the Holocaust". The museum chairman wrote to the Nuncio and told him that "they would be pleased to examine any new documentation that may come to light on this issue".

The Nuncio's decision to attend was greatly welcomed by Dr Kessler, executive director for the Study of Catholic-Jewish Relations at Cambridge University. He proposed that Catholic and Jewish scholars put their heads together and find a "more balanced caption" to the photo.

A week before, Dr Kessler had claimed in an article in a Catholic publication that relations between Christians and Jews were deteriorating since Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became Pope, adding that the time was ripe "for the Vatican to regain momentum on Catholic-Jewish relations".

A well known British historian and writer, Sir Martin Gilbert believes that the "misrepresentations of Pope Pius XII's war record in defending the Jews from the Holocaust could probably be resolved if the Vatican opened up its archives dating from 1939."

In a yet to be published interview, Sir Martin, who wrote a biography of Winston Churchill, is reported to have said: "The time has come to do it now and the Vatican shouldn't be afraid if they find one or two things that are jarring...". He is also reported to have said in the interview that he has long been calling on the Vatican to persuade Israel "to open a file on Pius showing just how he helped the Jews".