Did the Pope speak out against Hitler ?

[good2skull]

What was the stance of the Vatican during the Second World War, particularly concerning the holocaust, as it became known ?

[incitatus]

Silence. Pius XII to his shame said nothing. There was some indication of work behind the scenes to mitigate matters.....

[COLLYWOBBLES]

the pope and Hitler had an unofficial and unstated policy of live and let live although it has to be said that the full extent of the damage don by the Third Reich was not known by the pope or anyone else until long after the war.Some individual priests and clergy did speak out most of them didn't get the opportunity yo do it twice.

[artisan]

I think that the Vatican City was formed as a separate country as a reaction to Mussolini. Apart from that I think Collywobbles and incitatus are right...

[incitatus]

No, vatican city had independent status from 1870, granted by Victor Emmanuel. And Im sorry, but what was known about the third reich was bad enough. There was no film of death camps, but they were known to be there. The mass deportations were known. The kristallenacht had been reported. The anti-jewish laws and the sterilisation campaigns against the infirm were known. Diplomatic missions, notably the Wallenberg mission from Norway were sent in from other countries desperate to ameliorate the damage. The difficulty the RC church had was that violent anti-semitism was too close to its own policy of the last 1200 years or so, so it couldnt understand what the problem was.

[sundsvall]

It is a known fact the the chief Rabbi of Rome personally thanked Pius x11 for all that he and the Church did for the Jews of italy during the war.He was so impressed by Pius that he himself became a Catholic.the Prime minister of Israel on a visit to Rome in 1950 praised Pius for behind the scene work he did for the Jews sheltering them in various convents and monasteries throughout Italy(many priests and Nuns were but to death by the germans) and unknown to the Germans allowed downed allied airmen to take refuge in the Vatican. iN 1945 Pius was praised by "newsweek" and the New york times in their post war editorials.

[rod]

here

Found this page on BBC site

[rod]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2611847.stm