Vatican And The Holocaust
...history and American history. The how's and why's of this atrocity still continue to be dissected by historians, and new books surface discussing and hypothesizing old topics. One of the continued topics of this event in history is how other people aside from the Jews reacted and what they did to either help stall Adolf Hitler's final solution, or perpetuate the cycle of the destruction of the Jewish, the Gypsy, and of course the Communists.
The purpose of this research is to examine the Vatican's noninterference policy in the face of Hitler's Final Solution, the name given to the Nazi policy of extermination of the Jews. The plan of the research will be to set forth the historical context in which the question of Vatican culpability in the Holocaust arises. In particular, the origins of Christian-Jewish schism. Then moving on to the papacy's policies towards Nazi Germany during Pius XII's. Ending with what Catholicism did to help thwart the Fuhrer's Final Solution.
The anti-Semitism that occurred during the Nazis reign over most of Europe is not something unique to that particular region, or even particular time period. Anti-Semitism had been a driving force throughout religious history. Nor was it particular to just the Nazis, they did not start this policy of hatred, they simply stoked the fires that made it possible. A fire that the Church had started hundreds of years ago.
Throughout religious history there has been a major schism between the Catholic church and the Jews. This schism can be traced back to the first century, in which the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity on his death bed, trying to unite the Roman Empire under one certified state religion. Thus was the beginning of the literal and theological war between Judaism and Christianity.
The act of Constantine converting gave Christianity it's status as a legitimate monotheistic...
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