"As a child of the Jewish people who, by the grace of God, for the past eleven years has also been a child of the Catholic Church, I dare to speak to the Father of Christianity about that which oppresses millions of Germans. For weeks we have seen deeds perpetrated in Germany which mock any sense of justice and humanity, not to mention love of neighbor. For years the leaders of National Socialism have been preaching hatred of the Jews. Now that they have seized the power of government and armed their followers . . . this seed of hatred has germinated. . . . But the responsibility must fall, after all, on those who brought them to this point and it also falls on those who keep silent in the face of such happenings.
Everything that happened and continues to happen on a daily basis originates with a government that calls itself “Christian.” For weeks, not only Jews but also thousands of faithful Catholics in Germany, and, I believe, all over the world, have been waiting and hoping for the Church of Christ to raise its voice to put a stop to this abuse of Christ’s name. Isn’t the effort to destroy Jewish blood an abuse of the holiest humanity of our Savior, of the most blessed Virgin and the apostles? Is not all this diametrically opposed to the conduct of our Lord and Savior, who, even on the cross, still prayed for his persecutors. . . We all, who are faithful children of the Church and who see the conditions in Germany with open eyes, fear the worst for the prestige of the Church, if the silence continues any longer.
At the feet of your Holiness, requesting your apostolic blessing,
Stein’s letter received no answer. In 1942, she was arrested at a Netherlands convent. Later that year, she was murdered at Auschwitz. The Church did not release her letter publicly until 2003.
" When Dr. Eduardo Senatro, the correspondent of L'Osservatore Romano in Berlin, asked Pius XII whether he would not protest the extermination of the Jews, the Pope is reported to have answered, 'Dear friend, do not forget that millions of Catholics serve in the German armies. Shall I bring them into conflicts of conscience?' The Pope knew that the German Catholics were not prepared to suffer martyrdom for their Church; still less were they willing to incur the wrath of their Nazi rulers for the sake of the Jews whom their own bishops for years had castigated as a harmful influence in German life. In the final analysis, then, as Poliakov has also concluded, "the Vatican's silence only reflected the deep feeling of the Catholic masses of Europe" – those of Germany and eastern Europe in particular. – The failure of the Pope was a measure of the Church's failure to convert her gospel of brotherly love and human dignity into living reality."
[The Catholic Church and Nazi Germany" by Guenter Lewy, p. 304]
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One of the principal reasons given by the Vatican for the silence of the Pope Pius XII was that "the Holy See did not want to jeopardize its neutrality". But Pius XII himself exposed the problem with that argument as Lewy points out:
"Pius XII broke his policy of strict neutrality during World War II to express concern over the German violation of the neutrality of Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg in May 1940. When some German Catholics criticized him for this action, the Pope wrote the German bishops that neutrality was not synonymous 'with indifference and apathy where moral and humane considerations demanded a candid word.' All things told, did not the murder of several million Jews demand a similarly 'candid word'? [Lewy, p. 305]
Would that the Roman Catholic Church had indeed been "neutral". That would have been bad enough. But the truth is that the Catholic Church was far from neutral where the attempted extermination of the entire Jewish population of the world was concerned.
Most people have no idea that the leadership of the Nazi regime was a virtual Catholic men's group, a virtual chapter of the Knights of Columbus or Knights of Malta. If you don't believe me, check out http://JesusWouldBeFurious.Org/NaziLeadership.html, where I offer plenty of support for that disturbing indictment.
