Documents refute a professor of Holocaust History.
ROME, January 29, 2003 (ZENIT.org).- Two documents that will soon be published, revealing Pius XII’s preferential aid to the Jews during the years of persecution, refute the thesis according to which the Pope avoided making express reference to the Jewish people.
A professor of Holocaust History at Barnard College in New York, Susan Zuccotti, states in her latest book –«The Vatican and the Holocaust in Italy»– that there is no evidence of an intervention by Pius XII on behalf of the Jews.
In Zuccotti’s words, «Pius XII never used the terms “Jewish” or “race”. The Pope often expressed in general terms his sorrow for the suffering of innocent civilians, but without explicitly alluding to the Jews».
In the face of these grave accusations, the American magazine «Inside The Vatican» will publish in its forthcoming February issue two letters sent by Pius XII in 1940 to Monsignor Giuseppe Maria Palatucci, bishop of Campagna (province of Salerno), where the largest concentration camp in southern Italy was located.
The bishop, in collaboration with his nephew Giovanni –Chief of Police in Fiume–, and with the Holy See, cared for the Jews interned in Campagna.
In letter number 28436 sent by the Vatican on October 2, 1940, the Holy Father donated the sum of three thousand lire and had it written that «this money is intended preferably for those who suffer for reasons of race, and he communicates the Apostolic Blessing, which he imparts with all his heart to Your Excellency and to the flock entrusted to your pastoral care».
In a second letter, number 31514, the Pope gave the sum of ten thousand lire «to be distributed as aid to the interned Jews». The amounts were considerable at that time.
The letters have just been published in Italy in the book «Giovanni Palatucci, the policeman who saved thousands of Jews», edited by the State Police.
The volume tells the story of Giovanni Palatucci, head of the foreigners’ office at the Fiume police headquarters, who should have provided the necessary data to arrest and deport the Jews, but instead hid and saved them.
For his work, Giovanni Palatucci was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to the Dachau camp. After four months of torture, he died there on February 10, 1945, at the age of 35.
When the war ended, at the first World Jewish Conference held in London that same year, the Italian delegate Rafael Danton revealed that Palatucci had brought more than 5,000 Jews to safety.
When emigration was not possible, Giovanni would send the Jews to the concentration camp of Campagna, entrusting them to the protection of his uncle, the local bishop.
On October 9, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, vicar bishop of the diocese of Rome, opened the cause of beatification of Giovanni Palatucci. He was proclaimed by Israel «Righteous Among the Nations» in 1990, and a street in Tel Aviv bears his name, as do many other streets, squares, and parks in numerous Italian cities.
Source: Zenit.org / July 27, 2000
