What did TRUE Christians do during the Holocaust? Compare Corrie Tenbaum with Pope "Pius" XII?

Question

While some Catholics zealously killed Jews during WWII, others, like the "Holy" Father of the time, Pope Pius XII, "remained silent."

Now consider protestants like Corrie Tenbaum and her family who risked their lives to hide Jews.

Do Catholics REALLY expect us to believe that Pius was more godly because of a temporal title not even recognized in the Bible? Even more so than someone who risked their life for another?

tsk tsk tsk... RCC hubris at its best.

Deuce; We're talking about the POPE... he didn't have no jesuits or nothing in any territory???

Answer 1

"remained silent" is not a trait of rope-a-dope popes. He is well documented, as are his rantings in favor of Hitler's third reich. Of course his big wheels here in the states are easily documented as well.
www.1335.com ROME WATCH

She's breathing her last few breaths, and she's going out struggling, taking as many as she can with her.

Answer 2

No serious scholar contests the evidence that Pius XII took direct and indirect measures to save Jews from the Nazi death machine.

At the start of World War II, Pope Pius XII’s first encyclical was so anti-Hitler that the Royal Air Force and the French air force dropped 88,000 copies of it over Germany. Here is a link to the Summi Pontificatus: Encyclical of Pope Pius XII on the Unity of Human Society, October 20, 1939: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_20101939_summi-pontificatus_en.html

Unfortunately the Soviet Union and others had been trying to convince the world that the Catholic Church was pro-Nazi since the death of Pope Pius in 1958. Here are some sources:
+ The KGB made corrupting the Church a priority: http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YTUzYmJhMGQ5Y2UxOWUzNDUyNWUwODJiOTEzYjY4NzI=
+ The KGB campaign against Pius XII: http://www.the-tidings.com/2007/021607/difference.htm
+ Pius XII and the Jews: http://web.archive.org/web/20010919100700/http://www.weeklystandard.com/magazine/mag_6_23_01/dalin_bkart_6_23_01.asp
+ http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine/a/ww2jews.html

See also "The Myth of Hitler’s Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews From the Nazis" by Rabbi David G. Dalin which has compiled further overwhelming proof of Pope Pius XII"s friendship for the Jews beginning long before he became pope.

With love in Christ.

Answer 3

Dietrich Bonhoeffer is yet another to consider. He was amazing. He went against many of the rest of the German theologians and considered non-action == culpability. Even though on a personal level a pacificist, he considered the evil of hitler a superseding argument he was will to and did die for his resistance.

Answer 4

Can't you be a true Christian and still make bad decisions? What planet are we on?

Some Protestants also did not do anything to fight Hitler. For example, Pastor D. Bonhoeffer fought Hitler, was arrested, and killed, but Pastor K. Barth fled to the US.

Different strokes for different folks.

Answer 5

The Jehovah's Witnesses on either side on the war were neutral, a lot of Jehovah's Witnesses were IN the camps for that reason.

Answer 6

I think that protestants should stop spreading crap about the RCC to cover up their own inadequacies.
Instead, spend your time learning from the links I have provided.
It will help you out here and in life in general.

Answer 7

You must realize that few outside of German-controlled territory knew the scale of the Holocaust.

Answer 8

I don't know how many Nazi's were Catholic. I'm sure some were, or thought they were. Hitler was apparently raised Catholic but he did not follow the Catholic faith.

A little known fact is that 3 million Catholics were killed in concentration camps too. Many Catholics especially priests, were targeted by the Nazis. Pope Pius XII was actually one of the only high level persons to speak out against the Nazis and yet he is being villified by haters of Catholicism
Pope Pius XII saved 800,000 Jewish lives, hiding Jews in monasteries, convents, and inside the Vatican itself; that he got to the Jews money for travel; that he issued fake baptismal certificates so they could pass as Christian; that he was praised by Jews at the end of the war (by everyone from Golda Meir to the Communist Albert Einstein) as a "righteous gentile"; that his was called by the New York Times the only voice among the silence on the topic of the Jewish persecutions; that the Chief Rabbi of Rome was so impressed by this Pope's holiness and heroism toward his fellow Hebrews that he took his name when he converted to Catholicism.

Ludwig Mueller country's Reich Bishop of the Protestant Church Appointed By Hitler
Many German Christians at first openly welcomed Hitler’s Nazi party to power as a historic moment of Christ’s work on earth through and for the Aryan "Volk.

Silent night! Holy night!
All is calm, and all is bright
Only the Chancellor steadfast in fight
Watches o’er Germany by day and by night
Always caring for us.
Silent night! Holy night!
All is calm, and all is bright
Adolf Hitler is Germany’s wealth
Brings us greatness, favour and health
Oh give us Germans all power!

An official blessing by Protestant pastors across Germany on Easter Sunday, 16 April 1933, ensured the Protestant support of Nazism: A state that once again rules in God's name can count not only on our applause but also on enthusiastic and active cooperation from the church. With joy and thanks we see how this new state rejects blasphmey, attacks immorality, promotes discipline and order with a firm hand, demands awe before God, works to keep marriage sacred and our youth spiritually instructed, brings honour back to fathers of families, ensures that love of people and fatherland is no longer mocked, but burns in a thousand hearts . . . We can only plead with our fellow worshippers to do all they can to help these new productive forces in our land reach a complete and unimpeded .

The Deutsche Christen, or German Christian Church.
Christ was re-interpreted as the Nietzchean 'superman', an Aryan of the highest order and not a Jew, and Paul was dismissed as irrelevant Hitler was infallible: Revealed God's Will for Germany Christ is Seen as a German Messiah leading back into the Volk Germans are born to Struggle; the battles, earthly and divine are reinterpreted in terms of kulturkampf. Concepts of the Cross and Sacrifice are mixed with the concept of Struggle
We see Luther is doing fine here we are all in lock step.

Julius Leutherser gushed, "Christ has come to us through Hitler. Through his honesty, his faith and his idealism, the Redeemer found us

Oswald J. Smith (Pastor of the People's Church in Toronto), Every true Christian is for Hitler.

In Munich Protestant pastorss celebrated Hitler's birthday with the passing of the collection plate and, with swastikass stitched to their robes, they marched in the 1933 May Day Parade for National Labour. A report on the Nazi Rule the following month by two pastors was most favourable: "Guilt for the Nov 1918 crimes, whose stain prevented God from blessing our people, is now atoned. Leadership of the state safely resides in the hands of those who wish to make Germany great and strong again. Many (in the church) must now feel ashamed that they held themselves cautiously aloof while others strove and struggled at great personal cost for the national awakening."

Luther Declared National Hero

Kyrstal Nacht Hum A little celebration on Luther’s birthday

23,000 protestant cults
Skin heads
KKK
Puritans religious freedom for themselves early American history Its amazing to read their Laws and some of the printed stories of their atrocities.

THE LIST GOES ON AND ON LIKE THE ENIGISER BUNNY AND THE EYES REMAIN CLOSED.

Answer 9

Pastor Billy says: this is an extreme ignorance of history. All of this anti-Catholic defamation of Pope Pius started back in the 1960's with a theatrical play before than holding this idea was completely ludicrous especially when you consider the numerous Jewish sources which praise the actions of Pius XII and the Catholic Church at the time. I would bet you aren't even aware of the conversion of the head rabbi of Rome rabbi Zolli who btw took the baptismal name of Pius XII.

before jumping to conclusions posted by anti-Catholics and uneducated atheist Jews I suggest you actually spend time studying at a good reference library, all this recent talk and anti-Catholic books being published are going to be proven wrong.

PS. Did you know Golda Meir as foreign minister of Israel stood before the United Nations and praised Pius XII . This was proof enough for me.

I'll return with several references.

addendum: At Pope Pius XII death in 1958, Golda Meir sent an eloquent message: "We share in the grief of humanity. When fearful martyrdom came to our people in the decade of Nazi terror, the voice of the pope was raised for its victims. The life of our times was enriched by a voice speaking out about great moral truths above the tumult of daily conflict. We mourn a great servant of peace." Like these heroic witnesses of the Holocaust we must all respond openly and seek the ideal of sainthood, regardless of our different races, religions and ethnic backgrounds. We must have love for one another, hope in the integrity of future generations, and faith in the Almighty Father of us all.

The Myth of Hitler's Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews from the Nazis is a book written by Rabbi David G. Dalin and published in 2005.

Rabbi Dalin first documents how popes through history have defended the Jews, and refuted attacks like the blood libel.

Then he gets to the main part of the book: defending the reputation of the late Pope Pius XII by presenting extensive documentation culled from Church and State archives throughout Europe. Rabbi Dalin suggests that Yad Vashem should honor Pope Pius XII as a "Righteous Gentile", and documents that Pius was praised by all the leading Jews of his day for his role in saving more Jews than Schindler. Pius's admirers included Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog of Israel, Israeli Prime Ministers Golda Meir and Moshe Sharett, and Israel's first president Chaim Weizmann. Conversely, the Nazis detested the pope.

Dalin writes:

"anti-papal polemics of ex-seminarians like Garry Wills and John Cornwell (author of Hitler's Pope), of ex-priests like James Carroll, and or other lapsed or angry liberal Catholics exploit the tragedy of the Jewish people during the Holocaust to foster their own political agenda of forcing changes on the Catholic Church today."

Answer 10

Jehovah's Witnesses were also being persecuted in Germany.