The Myth of Hitler’s Pope: An Interview with Rabbi David G. Dalin

Rabbi David G. Dalin received his rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. He is the author or co-author of several books. His most recent book, and the subject of my interview with him, is The Myth of Hitler’s Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews from the Nazis.

"(...)The campaign of vilification against Pius XII’s conduct during World War II began as easily dismissed Communist agitprop against the strongly anti-Communist pontiff. But the campaign of vilification became a major issue after the 1963 Berlin premiere of a play called The Deputy, written by a young left-wing German writer named Rolf Hochhuth. Hochhuth vilified Pius XII as a Nazi collaborator and an icy and avaricious pontiff guilty of moral cowardice and inexcusable silence as Europe’s Jews were being murdered by the Nazis. Promoted as “the most controversial play of our time,” The Deputy was fictional, highly polemical, and offered no historical evidence. It nevertheless became a sensation and ignited a firestorm of controversy, and first created the myth that Pius XII was “Hitler’s pope,” [which] has continued to this day.That was more than forty years ago. And yet the myth that Pius XII was "Hitler’s pope" persists.

It persists despite well-documented historical evidence that Eugenio Pacelli was one of Hitler’s earliest and most consistent critics and that, as both the Vatican Secretary of State and subsequently as pope, was in fact a friend of the Jewish people who was instrumental in rescuing and sheltering a great many Jews from the clutches of the Nazis.

In The Myth of Hitler’s Pope I ask and try to answer the question of why this malicious myth, [which] has no basis whatsoever in historical fact, continues to persist. In part, at least, the persistence of this myth is attributable to the anti-Catholic diatribes of an increasingly left-wing (and secularized) intellectual class that seeks to denigrate not only traditional Catholicism, but Christianity and even Judaism as well.

It is no coincidence that the most extreme of the pope’s attackers — including James Carroll (author of Constantine’s Sword) and Garry Wills (author of Papal Sin) — are also outspoken critics of the late Pope John Paul II."