The Papacy, the Jews, and the Holocaust (review)

Abstract

The Papacy, the Jews, and the Holocaust. By Frank J. Coppa. (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press. 2006. Pp. xxii, 353. $59.95.) Before venturing into the minefield covered by this book, Coppa notes that of the most influential works the Church and the Holocaust have been produced not by historians and theologians but by dramatists, novelists, journalists, and lawyers. Hence must keep in mind the difference between advocacy and historical scholarship. Coppa deserves credit for writing as historian, albeit-and this is major weakness of the book-one so detached that he is often unwilling to judge between sharply contesting advocates. Herewith an example of his on the one hand-on the other hand methodology. Coppa reports, correctly, that the of Pope Pius XII against the Nazi roundup of Roman Jews in mid-October 1943 was private and discrete. He also gives the reason: because the German Ambassador to the Holy see, Ernst von Weiszacker, who worked behind the scenes to frustrate his superiors' persecution of Jews, warned the Pope that public would put the Jews at even greater danger. Labeling the Pope's policy subtle benevolence (toward whom? Coppa does not tell us), he writes that some observers are convinced that [the Pope's course of action] avoided massive massacre of Roman Jewry. Others discount the papal role in saving Rome's Jews. A footnote refers to the works of Susan Zuccotti.The reader is not informed that her arguments have been decisively refuted by Ronald Rychlak. Though herself historian (unlike many non-historians cited uncritically by Coppa-notably James Carroll, frequent source throughout the book), Zuccotti's work is prime example of what Coppa calls in his Introduction a process of selection that bolsters preconceived interpretative bias. In work heavily dependent secondary sources the failure to distinguish between advocates and honest seekers after truth is major flaw. We all make mistakes. But the number of them in these pages is troubling. Repeated citations of an important article by Martin Rhonheimer all refer to non-existent page numbers. WeE-known contemporary names are garbled (curial Cardinal Jeijia, Archbishop Gunthausn of Seattle). Coppa writes twice about 2600 priests at Vatican II, seemingly unaware that almost all were bishops. He gives version of the prayer for the Jews in the Good Friday liturgy never heard in any church in the English-speaking world. A reference to bishop's protest against Nazi euthanasia fails to identify the prelate in question. …