The following letter has been published in Israel, in Hebrew and English, ahead of next week’s planned arrival of Pope Benedict XVI.
On the eve of your upcoming visit to Israel, we turn to you with a heartfelt plea.
As you know, during the Holocaust, thousands of Jewish parents deposited their children in monasteries and with Christian families to protect them from the Nazis, fully intending to retrieve them and return them to their families and their nation, after the war. Tragically, a very large percentage didn’t survive, and these Christian families refused to reveal to the children their true identity.
We view with utmost gravity media reports that these families were acting on order of Pope Pius XII, who stated that the orphans should not be told they were Jews.
The continued silence of the church on this matter prolongs the suffering of the Jewish people and serves as a victory for the Nazis who sought to eradicate our people.
Therefore, we appeal to you to issue a statement calling on all members of the church to reveal to Holocaust orphans and to their descendants their Jewish past, and provide them with accurate information regarding their families.
See the YWN story on the Yad L’Achim request HERE.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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7 Responses
were do i sign the pettion?
This letter will either get to the P. or not.
But for a real interasting story, why dont you interview Rav Bleich about the time he asked the last P. about this, to his face while he was visiting the Rav in Kiev?
It’s curious that if his hand were facing with the palm down, it would be the salute he made as a youth.
Yochi – What did he get for shaking his hand?
To #3: If the picture were moving, it would look nothing like a Nazi salute; its clearly the traditional waving of the hand in the shape of a cross, done by all priests in the Catholic Church. There are plenty of legitimate reasons to be critical of the Pope without imagining new reasons.
aren’t these ‘orphans’ great-grandns aleady so what would one do now about thenm?
#5, the picture is not moving and the logistics and commentary of my post are still valid. Perhaps it was satire or made tongue-in-cheek, but your coming to the defense of this pope is understood.