Under His Very Windows: The Vatican and the Holocaust in Italy
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...
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What did Pope Pius XII, his advisers, and his assistants at the Vatican do to help the Jews of Italy during World War II? This meticulously researched and balanced book finds that, despite the persistent myth that the pope worked behind the scenes to help the Jews, he and those around him actually did very little. Susan Zuccotti uncovers no evidence of a papal directive to church institutions to shelter Jews and much evidence that the pope remained uninvolved. Commonweal Zuccotti s conclusion is . . . absolute and thorough.
AcknowledgmentsxiIntroduction1Chapter 1The Vatican and Anti-Semitism8Chapter 2The Vatican and Anti-Semitism in Italy27Chapter 3Italian Anti-Jewish Laws During the Papacy of Pius XI42Chapter 4Italian Anti-Jewish Laws During the Papacy of Pius XII58Chapter 5Refugees and Emigration, 1939-194270Chapter 6Foreign Jews in Italian Internment Camps, 1940-194382Chapter 7What the Pope Knew About the Holocaust93Chapter 8Italian-Occupied Croatia, April 1941-July 1943113Chapter 9Italy and Italian-Occupied France, November 1942-July 1943127Chapter 10The Forty-Five Days: The Vatican, Badoglio, and the Jews137Chapter 11Under the Pope's Very Windows: The Rome Roundup, October 16, 1943150Chapter 12Hiding Before the Roundup, September 8-October 16, 1943171Chapter 13Hiding After the Roundup: Roman Convents, Monasteries, Catholic Hospitals and Schools, October 16-December 1943189Chapter 14Hiding After the Roundup: Vatican Properties, October 16-December 1943202Chapter 15Raids and Reconsideration, December 1943-June 1944215Chapter 16The Vatican and Rescue in the North: Genoa, Turin, and Milan233Chapter 17The Vatican and Rescue in Central Italy: Florence and Assisi251Chapter 18The Vatican, the Patriarch, and the Jews in Venice265Chapter 19The Vatican, the Bishop, and the Jews in Trieste277Chapter 20The Vatican and Jews Arrested in Italy, December 1943-May 1945291Conclusion300Abbreviations327Notes329Index397
\ CommonwealZuccotti’s conclusion is . . . absolute and thorough.\ \ \ \ \ CommonwealZuccotti's conclusion is ... absolute and thorough.\ \ \ Daniel Jonah GoldhagenBased on extensive. . . research. . . [An] important book exposing comforting. . . falsely heroizing fictions about Pius XII, the chuch, and the Holocaust. \ —New Republic\ \ \ \ \ Daniel Jonah GoldhagenBased on extensive. . . research. . . [An] important book exposing comforting. . . falsely heroizing fictions about Pius XII,the chuch,and the Holocaust. \ —New Republic\ \ \ \ \ Jack MilesThe silence of Pius XII. The Catholic rescue of much of Italian Jewry. Susan Zuccotti reconciles the contradiction between the two in a subtle,many-layered history of heroism,cowardice,and tragically,often culpably missed opportunities.\ \ \ \ \ James CarrollA convincing analysis of a tragic history. Zuccotti’s work honors Catholic heroes while making the broad failure of Catholic leaders irrefutably clear. This book sets a new standard,changes the debate,moves this painful question closer to resolution.\ \ \ \ \ Paul BreinesRigorously researched, judiciously argued and lucidly composed.\ —Washington Post Book World\ \ \ \ \ Publishers WeeklyEven before WWII ended in Europe, defenders of Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli), according to the author, were busy manufacturing a myth that the Holy Father directly and indirectly was responsible for saving the lives of "hundreds of thousands" of Jews. Coming both from Jews and Christians, these testimonials seemed to be proof that Pius XII personally intervened in the rescue of Jews from the Shoah, a view supported by the Jesuit Robert Graham, Sister Margherita Marchione, the Catholic League and the current pope, John Paul II. However, a recent spate of books, including John Cornwell's Hitler's Pope and Michael Phayer's The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, have severely damaged the claims of papal intervention. To definitively separate myth from reality, historian Zuccotti's new book, while hindered somewhat by the partial accessibility of Vatican archives to scholars, is an authoritative, balanced and, in the end, devastating indictment of moral failure on the part of the Church as an institution, despite the heroic acts of some of its members. Indeed, Zuccotti clearly delineates a history of anti-Semitism in Italy and the Vatican, including the policies of Pacelli's immediate predecessor, Pope Pius XI, who, despite his "hidden encyclical" denouncing racism, was, she says, publicly timid in the face of fascism and Nazism. Moreover, she maintains that her primary source, the 11-volume Actes et documents du Saint Si ge relatifs la seconde guerre mondiale, a collection selectively put together after the war by the handpicked representatives of the Vatican, is "more than adequate" to determine what the Vatican "actually did to help Jews in Italy, the country where they enjoyed the greatest opportunity to be useful." What emerges is a complex picture: According to this account, Pius XII was informed early on about the massacres taking place on the eastern front, but he publicly condemned neither Nazism nor the persecution of the Jews, nor did he provide refuge. Until scholars are permitted full and unfettered access to the archives, the story of the Vatican's actions during the Holocaust must remain incomplete. And until then, Zuccotti's treatise will stand for many as the the greatest access to the truth available. (Jan.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\ \ \ \ \ Library JournalSince the publication of John Cornwell's Hitler's Pope (LJ 5/15/99) and various Church rebuttals, Pope Pius's activities before and during World War II have been placed under a magnifying glass. The discussion becomes more relevant as the Church contemplates giving Pius sainthood. In this scholarly contribution to the controversy, Zuccotti (Barnard Coll.; The Italians and the Holocaust), a 1988 winner of the National Jewish Book Award, argues that one can judge Pius's attitude by examining his public action--or lack thereof--regarding Italian and especially Roman Jews. She shows how reprehensible it was that nothing was done to help the Jews between Mussolini's fall and the German occupation of Italy in 1943 and that during the roundup of Roman Jews, Pius missed another opportunity to offer Jews refuge. Zuccotti compellingly makes the case that Pius's great fear of communism drove him into the arms of the Nazis and that he had developed a misplaced sympathy for the Germans following his appointment as nuncio to Bavaria. The book suffers from repetitive examples taken from every section of Italy, and the tone seems strident for a scholarly work--though it is hardly surprising, given the passion this topic generates. This important book is recommended for all academic libraries and for public libraries interested in World War II and Roman Catholic history.--Randall L. Schroeder, Wartburg Coll. Lib., Waverly, IA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\ \ \ \ \ Christopher DugganA serious and well-researched book that certainly raises yet more questions about the conduct of the papacy in World War II. \ —New York Times Book Review\ \
