Product Description

The incredible assaults on one of the last of the great Roman Pontiffs, Eugenio Pacelli (Pope Pius XII) has been called THE GREATEST SLANDER IN HISTORY. Reading his rescue record during World War II and the Holocaust, his most relentless critic must cringe. EUGENIO: True Hero of the Holocaust has been written to set the record straight.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1571281 in Books
• Published on: 2001-12-15
• Released on: 2002-04-12
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 170 pages

Review
I read Eugenio and found it fascinating, well documented, and certainly absolutely convincing. -- - William Wilson, Ambassador to the Vatican, 1984-1986

Customer Reviews

A Good Commentary on an Unalloyed Hero
Miss M.L.T. Brown wrote a good commentary on Pope Pius XII's heroism during World War II and the Cold War. While this book has some problems with the actual origins, Miss Brown does a good job citing Eugenio Pacelli's careful yet brave efforts to rescue refugees including Jews during the 1940s.

Miss Brown cites some of the early efforts of Pope Pius XII's criticisms of the German government and their ideology as well as practices. Readers should note that Pope Piux XII voiced strong criticism of the German government even before he became Pope. When Eugenio Pacelli became Pope, the German authorities were clear of their displeasure at his election. Miss Brown cites German authorities as referring to Pope Pius XII as "The Jewish Pope."

One fault of this book is chapter 4. Miss Brown oversimplifies the origins of World War II which distorts the actual origins. One of the problems of recent historians is that they write history as though there is no such place as Eastern Europe. The view that somehow the wicked Germans attacked the innocent Polish in 1939 is simply not accurate. The Polish were not so innocent. For example, Polish troops invaded and took land from the Lithuanians in March of 1938. In September of 1939, Polish troops invaded and took Teschen Province from Czechoslovakians in September of 1938. Readers can read of these events in the November 12, 1938 edition of THE NEW YORK TIMES (page 7). Readers should also not between 1920 to 1922, the Polish and the Soviets fought a bitter war when the Polish invaded the newly created Soviet Union which ended with the Treaty of Riga in 1923. Miss Brown should have mentioned this. Obviously Polish expansion caught the attention of [...] and especially the attention of Stalin. Before the German AND the Soviet invasion of Poland in September of 1939, the Polish sent troops into the free City of Danzig in violation of the League Mandate and international law. Some Polish officials prolcaimed that Polish borders extended from Berlin to Moscow. One American historian remarked that the Polish government thought of themselves as the canary that could swollow two cats.

Miss Brown could have mentioned how the Soviets beginning with Lenin committed massacres and outrages against Catholics living within Soviet borders. Lenin and Stalin virtually erased Catholicism with Soviet borders. This should have been mentioned which helps explain Pope Pius XII's problems in trying to save refugees in Eastern Europe. The Pope and this Catholic clergy had insurmountable problems in Eastern Europe due to both German and Soviet hostility toward Catholics.

Yet, Miss Brown did a credible in giving a good summary of events in Spain during the 1930s when Franco's forces finally prevailed over Soviet controlled Spanish forces who were particularly lethel in their treatment of Catholics and especially Catholic clergy. This reviewer has read considerable works about the Spanish tragedy, and Miss Brown's assessment of Franco are accurate. Fracno was one of the few continental Euroepean leaders who was able to outwit both [...] and Stalin. This chapter more than compensates for her problems in chapter four.

Miss Brown does an outstanding job in discrediting THE NEW YORK TIMES recent tirades against Pope Pius XII. THE NEW YORK TIMES journalists who covered Pope Pius XII during the 1940s and 1950s lauded him with the praise he deserved. Now the journalists of the same newspaper smear him and are so stupid as to not notice their predecessors praised Pope Pius XII. [...] Pope Pius XII's critics would do well to read Jewish praise of Pope Pius XII from 1940 to 1958 when Pope Pius XII died. Many Jewish leaders have continued to give Pope Pius XII well earned praise which Miss Brown covers very well.

An outstanding part of Miss Brown's book is her excellent discrediting of Rolf Hochhuth's stupid play titled THE DEPUTY. She bluntly and clearly undermines Hochhuth's lack of knowledge and character. She cites the fact that Rolf Hochhuth was a member of a [...] youth group called The Wolf Cubs. She cites the embarrassing facts of Mr. Hochhuth's anti-Jewish writing and his endorsements of other anti-Jewish writings.

[...] Miss Brown's book cites numerous documents that make it easy to counter Pope Pius XII's critics. Any fair minded individual who is willing to get away from shallow media sources and read this book plus others cited in the bibliography would agree with Miss Brown's assessments of The True of the Holocuast- Eugenio Pacelli (Pope Pius XII).

History has no home here
The title is a misnomer. Historians spend their time researching in archives, looking for clues in all manner of places, and work to keep their subject matter within relevant contexts. This book does none of these things. It is an apologetic based on uncritical use of material that has not been subjected to rigorous analysis - especially with the new material available from the National Archives (de-classified by order of President Clinton in 1997). It begins with a conclusion already firmly in mind, namely that Pope Pius XII was/is a hero of the Holocaust. The historical record begs to differ. Pius was a limited being, obsessed with communism and the safety of the Catholic Church to the point that he was prepared to do all in his power to avoid any conflict with Germany that might impede the bigger war against atheistic communism. For the Jews of Europe there was some comfort from the Successor of Peter, but his long-term goal of saving Europe from Bolshevism meant they would always be, to use the term of Saul Friendlander, "lesser victims".

Pius's responsibility for the horrors of his followers
Some basic questions are unanswered by this book.

1. German Christians and Catholics committed the Holocaust. They helped imprison Jews, transport them to death camps, starve, and them kill them, leaving piles of dead Jewish boys and men. Yet the Catholics were followers of Pius following Catholic doctrine on diverse items such as contraception, marriage, attendance at church, and child-rearing. According to the author, they listened to the Pope on everything but treatment of the Jews.

2. The Pope signed a concordant with Nazi Germany.

3. To the extent there were statements they were deliberatley vague, so that Catholics would perceive no conflict between following their faith and the Nazi party dictates. Where is the dictate, don't commit violence towards Jews, Krystallnacht was a sin, and those who murder in the concentration camps will be consigned to hell.

4. Yes he did save Italian Jews and for that he must be commended, but how about the destruction of so many others, the Anne Franks of the world. Remember even when the war was lost in 1944, the German Christians and Catholics thought it was important as their last act to gather up more Jews in Holland and other countries and arrange for their murders.

The sheer number of murders and horrors committed by Pius's follows belies his characterization as someone who tried to prevent the holocaust. Probably like most, he was scared, and chose to do what would cause as little cnflict, even if it would result in death of those like Saint Edith Stein who could not speak out.