I’ve been meaning to post something on this but haven’t had the chance.
Last week, I was pointed to this article by the author of The Myth of Hitler’s Pope which refutes many of the allegations made about the role of Pope Pius XII during World War II. I haven’t read this book yet, but its on my Amazon Wish List and I’m hoping to get to it soon.
From the article:
Many readers of the New York Times no doubt believe that Pope Pius XII was “Hitler?s Pope,” because John Cornwell?s bestselling book told them that, and it?s been reaffirmed by Garry Wills, Daniel Goldhagen, and other Left-leaning writers since. It?s been said so often in fact that most well-read liberals know it for a certainty. The only trouble is: it isn?t true.
Not only does it contradict the words of Holocaust survivors, the founders of Israel, and the contemporary record of the New York Times, but even John Cornwell, the originator of the phrase “Hitler?s Pope,” has recanted it saying that he was wrong to have ascribed evil motives to Pius and now found it “impossible to judge” the wartime pope.
But there?s something else that has been ignored nearly all together. Precisely at the moment when Pope Pius XII and the Catholic Church in Rome (and throughout Europe) was saving thousands of Jewish lives, Hitler had a cleric broadcasting from Berlin who called for the extermination of the Jews.
He was Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the viciously anti-Semitic Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who resided in Berlin as a welcome guest and ally of the Nazis throughout the years of the Holocaust.
Not exactly something you learn in the history books huh ? The article goes on to detail the contacts not only between the Grand Mufti and the Nazi Party but between modern day Islamic anti-Semitism and Nazi Germany.
Though he was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, al-Husseini moved his base of operations (and pro-Nazi propaganda) to Lebanon in 1938, to Iraq in 1939 (where he helped establish the strongly pro-German Rashid Ali al-Gaylani as prime minister), and then to Berlin in 1941.
Adolf Eichmann?s deputy Dieter Wisliceny testified at the Nuremberg Trials that Hajj Amin al-Husseini “was one of the initiators of the systematic extermination of European Jewry and had been a collaborator and adviser of Eichmann and Himmler in the execution of this plan. He was one of Eichmann?s best friends and had constantly incited him to accelerate the extermination measures.” At Auschwitz, al-Husseini reportedly “admonished the guards running the gas chambers to work more diligently.”
In other words, he was a war criminal and only escaped prosecution at the end of the War by fleeing to, and obtaining asylum in, Egypt where he met a young cousin named Yasser Arafat.
Pius XII has been criticized for not speaking out loudly enough against the Holocaust, despite the fact that he was living at the time in the capital of one of the three Axis powers. Al-Husseini was an active participant in the Holocaust. Which one was really in Hitler’s pocket ?
Hajj Amin al-Husseini has inspired two generations of radical Islamic leaders to carry on Hitler?s war against the Jews, which is why today, as was true 60 years ago, it is not the Catholic Church that is the great threat to the survival of the Jewish people; it is Islamofascism.
Not only the Jewish people but the entire Western world. Its funny the things you learn from history, if you pay attention.
Hat Tip to The Anchoress
