Giulia Spagna
S00019825
IR 389
Professor George Irani
Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust Pope Pius XII was elected as pontificate of the Vatican in 1939, an extremely turbulent period in Europe. The reign of Pope Pius XII saw the rise of Nazi Germany, the Second World War and the disastrous holocaust. Once the war had ended various discussions emerged, many asking themselves how such an atrocity had not been prevented; many began looking at the role of foreign countries in preventing the death of 11 million people, 6 million of them being Jews. A sovereign state which was expected to take a crucial stance is the Vatican. The Vatican as a spiritual institution with strong temporal power was expected to rise up and condemn the Nazi regime.
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The most serious and most debated charge made by Hochhuth was that Pope Pius XII remained silent throughout the genocide of European Jews by the Nazis, and thus portrays Pope Pius XII of being a silent accomplice of the most horrific crime of the century (Conway,105). Through research I have come along many theories when looking and the Vatican’s role in the Holocaust, some argue the institution was successful in saving the lives of thousands of Jews, while on the other hand some go all the way to arguing that Pope Pius XII was in fact a pro Nazi and anti-Semitic. In recent years there have been various accusations towards the Vatican of either helping the Nazi regime or keeping silent and giving the green light to the Nazis. This research paper will look at the role of the Vatican during the holocaust from the Vatican’s perspective regarding its silence, as well as looking at how despite popular belief various actions were taken by Pope Pius XII in helping European Jews escape from …show more content…
Without any doubt the reign of Pope Pius XII was during an extremely difficult period in European history, the burden of responsibilities which the Pope had to carry were very heavy and would cause controversies. Pope Pius XII did not publically and explicitly condemn what was being done by the Nazis however “all the Pope’s speeches, his letter and the reports of his interviews throughout the war make it clear that the weighing up of such considerations, the careful balancing of one factor against another, the countering demands of his spiritual and of his temporal roles, the need to take some action and the impossibility of predicting what action would serve the cause of the church best” (Conway,
During the Holocaust many Catholics feared for their lives. Matthew E. Bunson, the author, explains that Catholics had a very hard time during the Holocaust due to them being sent off to concentration camps and dieing in those conditions. Many Catholics lied about not believing in God so they wouldn’t be punished to a severe extent. Many Catholics got caught lying and were either sent to a camp or sent to torture chambers. The church was a target for Nazis.
Religion has always been controversial, throughout history there have been hundreds of wars fought over religion. World War II may not have been solely based off of religion, but it had a major part in the war. During World War II Jews and other ethnic groups throughout Europe were harshly persecuted by Nazi Germany. Elie Wiesel, a Hungarian Jew and holocaust survivor recount the tragedy, he endured during the holocaust in his memoir, Night. With only 109 pages, Wiesel manages to write about almost every horror he faced, one of the worst being his loss of faith.
The Holocaust. A short, unimaginable period, of just over twelve years, where almost 6 million Jews were murdered by the German nazis. Overall, 17 million victims were killed and thousands were forced to work in inhumane conditions and live in concentration camps. Elie Wiesel, a victim of the Holocaust, having been deported at the age of 12, is one of the few survivors who lived to tell their story. He has written many books and given many speeches about his experience, but they all convey a similar message, that we as a population, cannot remain silent but to stand up for the indifferences and the horrendous events of this world.
Hayes looks at how the Nazi regime's attitude of Jews changed over time, moving from persecution and exclusion to ghettoization and eventually extermination. He points out that the choice to pursue total destruction was the outcome of a complicated interaction of forces rather than being premeditated. Also, Hayes examines Nazi ideology, particularly its anti-Semitic viewpoints, and how they acted as a catalyst for the determination to exterminate European Jews. He contends that this worldview gave Nazis the framework they needed to view Jews as a menace below human status that needed to be eliminated. Next, the chapter dives into the impact of Nazi bureaucracy.
Introduction: During the Holocaust, many people suffered from the despicable actions of others. These actions were influenced by hatred, intolerance, and anti-semitic views of people. The result of such actions were the deaths of millions during the Holocaust, a devastating genocide aimed to eliminate Jews. In this tragic event, people, both initiators and bystanders, played major roles that allowed the Holocaust to continue. Bystanders during this dreadful disaster did not stand up against the Nazis and their collaborators.
The German workmen took a lively interest in this spectacle” (105) display that the common public were cruel because they ignored Jewish persecution and even mocked it in a sense. They were bystanders. This relates to the theme because it shows how inaction can be worse than beating; because the people did not help the Jews, they forced them to endure the Holocaust. This is truly
Historiography of the Holocaust Historiography essentially is “the history of history”. It looks into what historians have said about a given historically relevant event or topic, how their interpretations have changed over time and where, what and why are the disagreements between the historians. This paper tries to look into these aspects for the topic the Holocaust and explain how knowledge of the historiography of any given event is important in understanding the event itself. The Intentionalist historians like Lucy Dawidowicz see Hitler as a strong leader believe that the Holocaust was something that Hitler had planned for years Structuralist perspective Keywords Holocaust; Hitler; Jews; Intentionalism; Structuralism; Revisionism; Holocaust Denial THE HOLOCAUST
As Wiesel gives his speech before receiving his Nobel Peace Prize, he places responsibility on the people who witnesses the Holocaust yet remained silent when he states, “Who would allow such crimes to be committed? How could the world remain silent?” Millions of Jews were burned, beaten, and starved for years without people talking about it. Mothers, sons, uncles, sisters, children, lives all silenced because people were either afraid or ignorant. In addition to the community outside of these horrific places there were also citizens in these countries who also continued to watch in muteness, some also contributing to the suffering of the Jews.
Many Germans, during WWII had started to take on the ideology of Hitler – that Jewish citizens in Germany were the cause of their poverty and misfortune. Of course, many knew that this was merely a form of scapegoating, and although they disagreed with the majority of Germany’s citizens, many would not speak up for fear of isolation (Boone,
The Holocaust is a shining example of Anti-Semitism at its best and it was no secret that the Nazis tried to wipe out the Jews from Europe but the question is why did the Nazis persecute the Jews and how did they try to do it. This essay will show how the momentum, from a negative idea about a group of people to a genocide resulting in the murder of 6 million Jews, is carried from the beginning of the 19th Century, with pseudo-scientific racial theories, throught the 20th century in the forms of applied social darwinism and eugenics(the display of the T4 programme), Nazi ideas regarding the Jews and how discrimination increased in the form of the Nuremberg Laws , Kristallnacht, and last but not least, The Final Solution. Spanning throughout the 19th century, racial theories were seen. Pseudo-Scientific theories such as Craniometry,where the size of one’s skull determines one’s characteristics or could justifies one’s race( this theory was used first by Peter Camper and then Samuel Morton), Karl Vogt’s theory of the Negro race being related to apes and of how Caucasian race is a separate species to the Negro race, Arthur de Gobineau’s theory of how miscegenation(mixing or interbreeding of different races) would lead to the fall of civilisation.
Catholic sacrifices in the Holocaust Imagine,you are walking out of your community church in a small town in Germany,when out of nowhere, green police swarm and arrest you priest because he was rejecting Nazi practices. This article is about the sufferings of the entire catholic church during the holocaust. The catholic church was known as group that was helpful to the Jews, for this reason the church, and its members, were constant targets for the Nazis. Many Catholics made the ultimate sacrifice in order to protect Jews.
Hitler then started ranting on about it and people joined in and Hitler had joined the Nazi party and eventually becoming the dictator and started the persecution and later on the execution of Jews. Hitler had a large effect on the world due to his killings and his somewhat famous
The rise of the Nazi Party from 1933-1945 had a profound impact on the lives of many people throughout Europe. Innocent people including over a million children suffered at the hands of the Nazis. The Nazis slowly changed life politically, economically, and socially for many people. The rise of the Nazi party changed people in many ways especially the Jews. One of the ways were politically, The Jews weren’t able to have a citizenship and not were able to vote.
The Nuremberg laws affected the Jewish people in the Holocaust in various ways like their rights, freedom, and more. Also, the Nuremberg laws had a role in the Holocaust. The role it had played was a big role in the Holocaust. These laws had affected multiple and had also made them feel isolated from German society and more. To begin, their were multiple Nuremberg laws, but what were the main ones.
As the laws against Jews in Germany got progressively worse, some Jewish people thought to stick up for their rights, but it was futile. Jewish people began fleeing the country, but few countries would take them due to the fear of a newly empowered German state. On the evening of November 9, 1938, the Holocaust began with carefully coordinated attacks on Jewish businesses. Unfortunately, this was just a sample of the horrors that would be shown in the next twelve years. Hindsight is already 20/20 and from the events leading up to the Holocaust most historians concur that the Holocaust should have been predicted and stopped.