Witness to the truth
From John Lee, Johannesburg
Allow me to comment on the continuing Pius XII debate in your excellent editorial of July 11. Claims that Pope Pius XII never instructed religious to protect Jews during World War II are strongly contradicted by the chief rabbi of Rome at the time Israel Anton Zolli.
"Christian families in the heart of Rome accepted Jews. Jews were even housed in make-shift dormitories at Castel Gandolfo."
The American Hebrew in New York published an interview with Rabbi Zolli in 1944. Rabbi Zolli was hidden in the Vatican during the German occupation of Rome. He emphatically stated: “The Vatican has always helped the Jews and the Jews are very grateful for the charitable work of the Vatican, all done without distinction of race.”
After the war Rabbi Zolli converted to Catholicism, claiming to have witnessed a vision of Christ, who called him to the faith.
The voice he heard said: “You are here for the last time.” It was Yom Kippur.
The people of Rome willingly assisted in the evacuation of the Jewish population into remote villages. Christian families in the heart of Rome accepted Jews. Jews were even housed in make-shift dormitories at Castel Gandolfo.
The Holy Father gave instructions via the bishops to lift the enclosure from convents and monasteries in order for them to become refuges for the Jews.
The rabbi knew of one convent where the sisters slept in the basement, giving up their beds to Jewish refugees.
Rabbi Zolli is the most important non-Catholic witness to the role of Pius XII in wartime Italy during the Nazi occupation and persecution of Jews—a biblical scholar whose courage and integrity cannot be challenged.
Zolli was baptised a Catholic in Rome’s basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli. He chose the name Eugenio in gratitude to Pius XII. A year later his wife and daughter were also baptised.
In his book Antisemitismo, Zolli wrote: “World Jewry owes a great deal of gratitude to Pius XII…no hero in all history was ever more heroic than Pius XII in pursuing the work of human charity…and this on behalf of all the suffering children of God.”
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