Pius XII and the Jews

SIR: With regard to Alan N. Cowan’s letter (May 2008) I suggest it is he who needs to read more widely about Pius XII and the Jews. Rabbi David G. Dalin, in The Myth of Hitler’s Pope, makes it clear that Susan Zuccotti, whom Cowan praises, is not “scrupulous and objective”, in fact her theories are fanciful:

During and for close to two decades after World War II, Jewish praise and gratitude for Pius XII’s efforts on behalf of European Jewry were virtually unanimous … Susan Zuccotti disparages and dismisses … the praise that Pius XII received from contemporary Jewish leaders … To thus dismiss and deny the legitimacy of their collective gratitude to Pius XII is tantamount to denying the credibility of their personal testimony and judgment about the Holocaust itself … a subtle yet profound form of Holocaust denial …

For Zuccotti, Jewish praise for Pius and Jewish scholarship in his defense are merely political ploys to win Vatican recognition of Israel … To so question and attack the motives and credibility of Jewish leaders and scholars as a group solely because they are Jews dedicated to the State of Israel is especially unfortunate and disturbing.

As is commonplace now, the release of Dalin’s book and two other recent books defending Pius XII was greeted with silence in the mainstream media, compared to the noisy and warm welcome given to the books perpetrating the attacks on Pius XII’s reputation. Chris Hilder, Queanbeyan, NSW