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Solemn Words Offered by the Vatican: A Call to Penitence 37 Relations Between Jews and Christians At the dawn of Christianity, after the crucifixion of Jesus, there arose disputes between the early Church and the Jewish leaders and people who, in their devotion to the Law, on occasion violently opposed the preachers of the Gospel and the first Christians. In the pagan Roman Empire, Jews were legally protected by the privileges granted by the Emperor and the authorities at first made no distinction between Jewish and Christian communities. Soon, however, Christians incurred the persecution of the state. Later, when the Emperors themselves converted to Christianity, they at first continued to guarantee Jewish privileges. But Christian mobs who attacked pagan temples sometimes did the same to synagogues, not without being influenced by certain interpretations of the New Testament regarding the Jewish people as a whole. “In the Christian world - I do not say on the part of the Church as such - erroneous and unjust interpretations of the New Testament regarding the Jewish people and their alleged culpability have circulated for too long, engendering feelings of hostility toward this people.” Such interpretations of the New Testament have been totally and definitively rejected by the Second Vatican Council.
The Church in Germany replied by condemning racism. The condemnation first appeared in the preaching of some of the clergy, in the public teaching of the Catholic Bishops, and in the writings of lay Catholic journalists. Already in February and March 1931, Cardinal Bertram of Breslau, Cardinal Faulhaber and the Bishops of Bavaria, the Bishops of the Province of Cologne and those of the Province of Freiburg published pastoral letters condemning National Socialism, with its idolatry of race and of the state. The well-known Advent sermons of Cardinal Faulhaber in 1933, the very year in which National Socialism came to power, at which not just Catholics but also Protestants and Jews were present, clearly expressed rejection of the Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda. In the wake of the Kristallnacht, Bernard Lichtenberg, provost of Berlin Cathedral, offered public prayers for the Jews. He was later to die at Dachau and has been declared Blessed. Pope Pius XI too condemned Nazi racism in a solemn way in his encyclical letter “Mit Brennender Sorge,” which was read in German churches on Passion Sunday 1937, a step which resulted in attacks and sanctions against members of the clergy. Addressing a group of Belgian pilgrims on 6 September 1938, Pius XI asserted: “Anti-Semitism is unacceptable. Spiritually, we are all Semites.” Pius XII, in his very first Encyclical, “Summi Pontificatus,” of 20 October 1939, warned against theories which denied the unity of the human race and embraced the deification of the state, all of which he said was as leading to a “hour of darkness.” Nazi Anti-Semitism and the Shoah Thus we cannot ignore the difference which exists between anti-Semitism based on theories contrary to the constant teaching of the Church on the unity of the human race and on the equal dignity of all races and peoples, and the long-standing sentiments of mistrust and hostility that we call anti-Judaism, of which unfortunately, Christians also have been guilty. The National Socialist ideology went even further, in the sense that it refused to acknowledge any transcendent reality as the source of life and the criterion of moral good. Consequently, a human group, and the state with which it was identified, arrogated to itself an absolute status and determined to remove the very existence of the Jewish people, a people called to witness to the one God and the Law of the Covenant. At the level of theological reflection we cannot ignore the fact that not a few in the Nazi party not only showed aversion to the idea of divine 38
Page 1 and 2: TEACHING THE HOLOCAUST 2004 SUMMER
Page 3 and 4: INTRODUCTION 2 The Southern Institu
Page 5 and 6: TABLE OF CONTENTS 4 I. The History
Page 7 and 8: POLAND: SETTING OF THE DESTRUCTION
Page 9 and 10: 8 “Anti-Semitism is unacceptable,
Page 11 and 12: 10 On September 23, 1943, von Weizs
Page 13 and 14: HANDOUT: BRIEFING THE VATICAN 12 In
Page 15 and 16: (6) It is a tragedy that the Polish
Page 17 and 18: HANDOUT: DEPORTATION OF JEWS FROM R
Page 19 and 20: HANDOUT: THE CHARITABLE ACTIVITY OF
Page 21 and 22: Kossak first called for Polish resc
Page 23 and 24: and stays silent. The slaughter of
Page 25 and 26: JADWIGA 24 Jadwiga Piotrowska was a
Page 27 and 28: others?” I wanted to help them, a
Page 29 and 30: GOD SAVED US IN THAT MOMENT 28 Once
Page 31 and 32: DOBROWOLSKI 30 Stanislaw Dobrowolsk
Page 33 and 34: JOHN PAUL II 32 Karol Jozef Wojtyla
Page 35 and 36: lumber truck to take Wojtyla to a h
Page 37: It is my fervent hope that the docu
Page 41 and 42: Many did, but others did not. Those
Page 43 and 44: couldn’t continue my education to
Page 45 and 46: THE LODZ GHETTO 44 PR I wonder if y
Page 47 and 48: mat, a little hay. And we wrapped o
Page 49 and 50: HOLY WEEK IN WARSAW, 1943 48 Warsaw
Page 51 and 52: PR When the Poles, outside of the g
Page 53 and 54: juxtaposition would best illustrate
Page 55 and 56: about great ideas. You were not thi
Page 57 and 58: temple, and the temple was on fire,
Page 59 and 60: feet high, maybe five and a half si
Page 61 and 62: PR In this hidden compartment that
Page 63 and 64: BEING A CATHOLIC 62 PR Who instruct
Page 65 and 66: HANDOUT: “HIDDEN CHILDREN SPEAK O
Page 67 and 68: DISCUSSION OF FAVORITE BOOKS 66 (Th
Page 69 and 70: 68 PR How is that? E I don't know w
Page 71 and 72: see, old religious Jews, and walked
Page 73 and 74: JUMPING FROM THE TRAIN 72 PR If I w
Page 75 and 76: POLISH FRIEND 74 PR But this Polish
Page 77 and 78: HENRY 76 Henry Galler was born in O
Page 79 and 80: HENRY: TAKEN TO BE KILLED 78 H I re
Page 81 and 82: ENTERING POLAND WITH POLISH ARMY IN
Page 83 and 84: don't know what happened to these p
Page 85 and 86: and by Ukrainians. The Poles were j
Page 87 and 88: HANDOUT: BERMUDA CONFERENCE 86 Spec
Page 89 and 90:
HANDOUT: ACQUIESCENCE OF THIS GOVER
Page 91 and 92:
(a) (b) A long time has passed sinc
Page 93 and 94:
JAN KARSKI 92 Jan Karski, a Polish
Page 95 and 96:
JK Germany as well. How many I don'
Page 97 and 98:
DORA NIEDERMANN 96 Dora Niedermann
Page 99 and 100:
They put some right, some left. I w
Page 101 and 102:
SIGMUND BORAKS 100 Sigmund (or ‘S
Page 103 and 104:
CZESTOCHOWA GHETTO 102 SB This was
Page 105 and 106:
PEA SOUP IN BLIZEN 104 SB My friend
Page 107 and 108:
GAS CHAMBER 106 SB All a lie. They
Page 109 and 110:
HANDOUT: THE VATICAN AND THE JEWS O
Page 111 and 112:
110 Supplications have been address
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