Do you think there can be forgiveness for admitting to complicity in the Holocaust by Catholics?

Question

Given that the Holocaust is one of the worst if not the worst crime against Humanity ever, thanks to Christ....

Answer 1

I don't know but it's amusing to see catholics and christians try to disavow the undeniable fact that Hitler was a christian, and that the Nazi party was not only founded on christian values, but supported and encouraged by the catholic church.

Answer 2

I think that those who participated in the Holocaust, as long as they are genuinely sorry for their actions, should be forgiven. Because you have to consider, a lot of the people involved were given a choice: Either they kill Jews, or they get killed themselves. Now put yourself in that situation. A lot of people will do anything to protect themselves even if it means hurting others. Yes, the Holocaust was a horrible, horrible time. And those who were involved because they wanted to be obviously do not deserve forgiveness. But at the Nuremburg trials, the words "We were only following orders" rang loudly. Some of the people involved honestly just did not have any choice. They did what they were told, or they died. And I think it is unfair to blame those people, as most of us would probably do the same thing. Survival is the most basic human instinct.

Answer 3

Those who complied with the holocaust did so because they took the path of least resistance they felt was for their own best self-preservation at the time. It was a difficult time for all parties involved. I think they all did what they thought was "right" at the time.

Sooner or later, they all would have been done away with as well. There are VERY few people who fit the aryan race. Those who cooperated with the nazis, but didn't fit the aryan mold didn't recognize that they would have been among the next to die as well.

To Lilmissy...Hitler was, in fact, a Catholic. He was threatened with excommunication by the pope at the time because he executed Catholic priests during the invasion of Poland.

Answer 4

Don't get the sins of Christ's followers confused with the man himself.

What Christians may have done is not the same as what Christ did.

And I think you should check your history. There were MANY groups of people at fault for the Holocaust. Don't try to blame it all on one man who lived almost 2,000 years before this occured!

But to answer your question- yes I think that their can be forgiveness. Everyone makes mistakes and the confession of them and asking for forgiveness is the first step in making it better.

Are you so faultless? You seem awfully willing to "..cast the first stone", you know?

Answer 5

Many Catholics were killed in the Holocaust as well. You might read about St. Maximilian Kolbe. http://www.consecration.com

The German SS were stationed in many Churches to listen to what the Priests and Ministers were saying.

You might read about Father Alfred Delp SJ. A sad story..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Delp

The 20th century was a horrible bloody time. You might read about Stalin and his camps too.

How horrible! Those poor people.

A Catholic

http://www.vatican.va

Answer 6

Canadian athiest;you ever hear of a thing called propaganda?
Did it ever occur to you that both the Catholic church and Nazi party were using each other for their own agendas?

Hitler was a firm believer in social darwinism(the master race theory)
He was an atheist and a believer in survival of the fittest,might is right-not very Christian ideals are they?
You'd better do more research,the nazi party was inspired also on pagan values with love for the land being one of its major tenets

Answer 7

The Catholic Church as an institution and industry looked upon the Holocaust with ambivalence.

Polish Catholics in the ghettos of Warsaw actually HELPED Jewish families hide in their homes, relocate to safe places and settle in other countries through the forging of false documentation such as passports, visas and resettlement papers.

Answer 8

Just like the Nazis, apology or not, every Catholic who conspired or participated in the Holocaust should be held accountable. They have always been entirely too darn smug about it.

Answer 9

I learned a long time ago not to try to outguess God. What He forgives and Who He forgives I believe is His domain and not mine. He may forgive the soldier for killing other human beings and condemn me to hell for paying some tax that was used in the war machinery.
Heck, if it wasn't for Hitler and Hirohito we may never have become a world power as soon as we did.

Answer 10

Many people say they are Christian, but that does not make them so. What you're saying is like saying "Can we forgive Germany for the Holocaust?" when the whole of Germany was not in agreement with the treatment of the Jews. Many German citizens were either placed in the camps for helping Jews or fled the country because of what was happening, so you can't say because some Germans wanted it that all Germans should be held accountable.

Most of Hitler's Nazi group were not Christian anyway and above that most of them were gay despite the fact that Hitler hated gays. And that is the main reason behind the "Night of Broken Glass", it was during this time that Hitler ordered some of his most influencial supporters to be murdered because they were gay.

Now, just because Hitler said he was Catholic does not mean he was and there is more evidence that he was most certainly not even a Christian. He was 'Catholic' because Germany was a Catholic country and to come into power it was best to appease the people, but he was never really a Catholic. His mission was to get rid of the Catholic Church and the Catholics in the areas he controlled eventually and he had started that in the last stages before his panic at the end of the war.

He was shutting down Catholic schools, publications, stores and some churches and was moving in on the Catholics when he was defeated.

You cannot say the Holocaust was caused by, supported by or ran by Catholics when Catholics were being persecuted as well. 2 to 3 million Catholics were put to death along side the Jews and even more were kept in the camps, they were there because they were Catholic.

In Russia, when Russia was tied with Germany for a short while, they were taking Catholics into the streets and shooting them dead while sending Jews to Germany. Priests and nuns were forced to watch as their congregations were killed before they were finally tortured and killed.

Forgiveness towards Catholics? We were part of their persecution and we died along side our Jewish brothers and sisters by Hitler's hands, not Catholics. If anyone needs to beg forgiveness, it would be Hitler, but I don't think he would.

You say that as if it were the Catholic Church supporting Hilter and therefore condemn all Catholics to the same thinking, but just because someone is Catholic and does something wrong does not mean it represents all Catholics.

Pope Pius XII refused to sign the Allies treaty because they refused to punish Russia's atrocities since Russia was now supporting the Allies sides. The Allies didn't want to lose Russia's support and so they decided to 'overlook' the things that had been done by Stalin in order to gain his help. The Pope refused because as a religious leader he said he could not turn a blind eye to one atrocity to stop another, he would not sign it if they were going to let Russia go free.

This is the reason he is called 'Hitler's Pope' because he refused to allow Russia to go scott free from it's own murders of Jews and other people.

But despite his refusal to sign the treaty, his actions saved over 800,000 Jews from the Nazis during the war. Should he need forgiveness from that? The U.S. only took in 10,000 Jews even after they knew what was really happening in Germany. The Pope's efforts to save Jewish people were the most successful ones ever used during WWII and many are indebted to his works.

What people do not understand, is he had to weigh the consequences of each action he did. Most said he was silent and therefore in agreement with Hitler, but that is not the case. By being silent at times, he saved more lives than he would if had spoken out and the times he did speak out, he was certainly not in agreement with Hitler.

He wrote many documents and asked for help from others constantly only to be denied or ignored. Yet those people are never blamed for the Holocaust despite their silence.

He gave the World Jewish Congress 15 grand to save 200 Jews from death and he spoke out at their askance and did what he could to save the Jews. He couldn't intercede during the Dutch Reformed Church Protest though because if he had, 200,000 people would've died instead of 40,000. That a hard choice to make and he had to.

You must also remember that these people were judging as best as they could at the time it was happening. They couldn't look back over it and decide what they should've done differently and the Pope did as much as he could to help those in need. Many Catholics were part of the stops made to save Jews, look at Schindler's List, and many were behind the forged documents, the housing holds, the visas and the transportation used to get them out of the hands of the Nazi's.

Truly look into the Holocaust, visit the museam and you'll see the truth of the matter.

For more information, read these:

http://www.catholicleague.org/pius/realstory.htm
http://www.catholicleague.org/pius/piusxii.html
http://www.catholicleague.org/research/judeo-catholic.htm