In a new book by a history professor at the University of Wales-Aberystwyth, William Rubinstein supports the claim made by Sister Margherita and others that Pius XII has been the object of unfair attacks. The book, The Myth of Rescue: Why the Democracies Could Not Have Saved More Jews from the Nazis (Routledge Press), attempts to show just how baseless the charge is that the Allies could have done much more to save the Jews during the Holocaust. Here is his conclusion on Pius XII:
“In all likelihood—a likelihood probably amounting to a near-certainty—Hitler would have paid no heed whatever to any pronouncement on the Jews made by the Vatican (which had denounced Nazi anti-semitism before the war began). Theoretically, and in hindsight, the Pope might have excommunicated all Catholic members of the SS (or the Nazi Party) although the only likely effect of such a pronouncement would have been that the Nazis denounced the Pope as an agent of ‘Judeo-Bolshevism’ and an imposter. The Vatican had more influence on Catholic satellite states such as Hungary, which it used to good effect whenever it could.”
Rubinstein’s previous books include A History of the Jews in the English-speaking World.
