Pius XII, the Holocaust, and the Cold War

Front Cover
Indiana University Press, 2008 - Biography & Autobiography - 333 pages

Using newly available material from the U.S. National Archives, Michael Phayer sheds new light on the actions of the Vatican and of the man whom some have mistakenly called "Hitler's Pope." As a new world war loomed, the Vatican believed it had to make a choice between communism and Nazism. Reluctantly, both Pius XII and his predecessor chose the Nazis as the lesser of two evils. In the balance rested the genocide of European Jews. As difficult as his wartime behavior is to accept, perhaps nothing demonstrates Pius's fear of communism more than his misguided and unethical attempt to thwart its growth in South America by abetting the escape of Nazis and Ustaši war criminals. The story of these Vatican "ratlines" adds another facet to the complex picture of Pius XII and the Holocaust.

Contents

The Genocides of Polish Catholics and Polish Jews
17
Genocide Decried
42
Pius XII Reverses Course
65
5
85
6
134
7
160
The Origin of the Vatican Ratlines
173
Bishop Hudals Ratline
195
War Criminal Murderer
220
12
252
Notes
269
Bibliography
319
Copyright

About the author (2008)

Michael Phayer, a recognized authority on the Catholic Church and the Holocaust, is Emeritus Professor of History at Marquette University and the Ida E. King Distinguished Visiting Scholar of Holocaust Studies at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. He is author of The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930-1965 (IUP, 2000). He lives in Columbia, Maryland.

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