Pius XII and the Holocaust: Understanding the Controversy

Pope Pius XII's alleged silence in the face of the destruction of the European Jews during World War II has been the subject of a fierce controversy that has continued unabated ever since Rolf Hochhuth's The Deputy made the charge so spectacularly in 1963. Numerous critics have accused Pius of everything from deliberate anti-Semitism to collusion with the Nazi regime, while equally partisan defenders have argued that his silent diplomacy saved hundreds of thousands of Jews and other innocen...