The Popes Against the Jews: The Vatican's Role in the Rise of Modern Anti-Semitism

by David I. Kertzer

A groundbreaking historical study based on documents previously locked in the Vatican’s secret archives: The Popes Against the Jews graphically shows how the Catholic Church helped make the Holocaust possible.

Pope John Paul II, as part of his effort to improve Catholic-Jewish relations, has himself called for a clear-eyed historical investigation into any possible link be-tween the Church and the Holocaust. An important sign of his commitment was the recent decision to allow the distinguished historian David I. Kertzer, a specialist in Italian history, to be one of the first scholars given access to long-sealed Vatican archives.

The result is a book filled with shocking revelations. It traces the Vatican’s role in the development of modern anti-Semitism from the nineteenth century up to the outbreak of the Second World War. Kertzer shows why all the recent attention given to Pope Pius XII’s failure to publicly protest the slaughter of Europe’s Jews in the war misses a far more important point. What made the Holocaust possible was groundwork laid over a period of decades. In this campaign of demonization of the Jews—identifying them as traitors to their countries, enemies of all that was good, relentlessly pursuing world domination—the Vatican itself played a key role, as is shown here for the first time.

Despite its focus, this is not an anti-Catholic book. It seeks a balanced judgment and an understanding of the historical forces that led the Church along the path it took.

Inevitably controversial, written with devastating clarity and dispassionate authority, The Popes Against
the Jews is a book of the greatest importance.

Genres: History, Religion, Nonfiction, Christianity, Jewish, Judaism, Antisemitism

355 pages, Hardcover

First published September 18, 2001

About the author

David Israel Kertzer is an American anthropologist, historian, and academic, specializing in the political, demographic, and religious history of Italy. He is the Paul Dupee, Jr. University Professor of Social Science, Professor of Anthropology, and Professor of Italian Studies at Brown University.

Reviews

[Lewis Weinstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kertzer presents a methodical fact-based case that utterly destroys many of the self-serving statements and actions of the Catholic Church during and after the Nazi years.

He begins with the 1998 report of a Vatican Commission titled "We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah." Pope John Paul II had asked the Commission to determine what responsibility - if any - the Church bore for the Holocaust. The Vatican report predictably denies any link between the attitudes of Christians toward the Jews promulgated through many centuries and the subsequent destruction of Europe's Jews by the Nazis.

Kertzer says NO.

He asserts that the Church's version is what many in the Church may have wished had happened, but it is not what actually did happen. Then he proves his damning assertion with the record of the Church's own statements, in Papal and other high-level communications and in the Catholic press. He cites Catholic denunciation of the the Jews as evil conspirators against the public good, Catholic lamentation of the baleful effects of the emancipation of the Jews, and Catholic warnings of the harm done by giving the Jews equal rights.

*** Civilta cattolica began in 1880 a series of 36 fiercely antisemitic articles … published over 40 months … claimed that Jews were obligated to hate all non-Jews … that Christian societies had to protect themselves from the Jews … we told you to keep Jews in their ghettoes … you ignored our warnings and look what has happened! ... religion is everywhere threatened and social disorder spreads ... if the Jewish race is left free, it becomes the persecutor, oppressor, tyrant, thief and devastator of the countries in which it lives.

*** more from Civilta cattolica in the 1890s … the Jews thirst for world domination … Jews are always a foreign nation, a sworn enemy of their hosts' well-being … Jewish civil equality (emancipation) must be immediately revoked

*** countering the Church's assertion that it put forward a religious antisemitism that was not the same as the racial antisemitism preached by Hitler, Kertzer cites from Civilta cattolica ... the notion that Jews belonged to a separate race was introduced in the first article (of the 1880 series) … it is a grave error to believe that Jews are just a religion … they are Jews especially because of their race … because they are born Jews, they must remain Jews.

All of these communications were in Civilta cattolica, a Jesuit biweekly, founded at the request of Pius IX and supervised by the popes and their secretaries of state. According to Kertzer, it was, during the relevant years, the most influential Catholic periodical in the world, widely regarded as the unofficial voice of the Pope himself. Before publication of the cited articles, proofs were sent to the pope and his secretary of state for approval.

Kertzer's short history of a short-lived Catholic association called Friend of Israel is particularly illustrative.

*** Founded in Rome in 1926, its aim was the conversion of Jews. But Friends of Israel believed that - before conversion - changes had to be made in how the Church treated the Jews. They summarized their views in a booklet titled "Pax super Israel" (Peace Upon Israel), stating that Jews should no longer be stigmatized as the "deicide people," that stories of Jewish ritual murder should be dismissed as old wives' tales, that the Church should not support antisemitic movements (ie, Hitler's Nazi movement), and that the word "perfidious" should no longer be part of the Easter liturgy.

It is more than interesting that all of the Friends of Israel suggestions were later adopted by Vatican Council Two in 1965 and are now consistent with Church doctrine. How different might things have been if this view of Jews had been allowed to stand in 1928 and thus inform subsequent Vatican actions vis-a-vis Hitler? But that was not to be.

*** The Holy Office of Inquisition (of which Pacelli, later Pius XII was a member) had apoplexy at the Friends of Israel's suggestions, dissolved the group in 1928, and specifically forbade any further writing on the subject.

Kertzer has none of the bombast of Goldhagen's A Moral Reckoning: The Role of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust and Its Unfulfilled Duty of Repair, but he makes many of the same points through documenting the record of Catholic antisemitism and showing how this provided the foundation for actions later taken by the Nazis.

*** the Nazi's 1935 Nuremberg Laws restricting Jewish behavior were modeled on measures the Church itself had enforced when it was in a position to do so

*** the Church's claim of lack of responsibility for the antisemitism that made the Holocaust possible is based on the assertion that the Church never called for, or sanctioned, the mass murder of Jews … but while that assertion is true (if you ignore the Spanish Inquisition) the teachings of the Church, including those of the Popes themselves, helped make the Holocaust possible ... a sad truth the Vatican Commission fails to admit ... the transition from medieval antisemitism to the modern political antisemitism of Hitler found in the Church one of its important architects.

RELEVANCE FOR MY NOVEL

My task will be to show how the Church's policies, positions and actions as documented by Kertzer and others influenced my novel's characters into accepting and supporting Hitler ... while always keeping in mind that the Catholic Church was surely not alone in this. The Protestant Churches, the US government, and even US Jewish organizations, among many others, can all stand in line to take their share of responsibility. And all of us, myself included, need to try to imagine what we would have done were we in the shoes of those who had to decide what risks to take and what consequences to accept. It is my goal to put my readers in those shoes.

[Brian Griffith · Rating 4 out of 5]

David Kertzer's research in recently opened sections of the Vatican archives exposes a religious dimension to the rise of modern anti-Semitism. He reviews decisions and statements on the "Jewish problem," by clerics, the popes, and Christian political activists, mainly from the French Revolution to the Final Solution. The account he compiles is a calm, unflinching witness to the rising chorus of alarming accusations against a despised ethnic minority. And the accusations sound almost boringly familiar.

The Jews, we hear, are an anti-Christian sect which seeks to destroy the church and kill Christians. They are members of a conspiracy to undermine Western values and impose their own godless world dominion. Their religious texts, so it was exposed by willful mistranslations, required the killing of Christians. The Jews remained loyal only to their own people. They sought resources and power only for themselves, and whatever money or jobs they gained was counted a loss to Christians. Those who doubted the danger of domination by this growing alien community were complacent fools. The danger was real, and forceful measures were required. As the Vatican's newspaper L'Osservatore romano warned Jews in the early 1890s, "As we have said on other occasions, take care what you are doing. Don't play with fire. The people's ire, although at the moment somewhat dampened by sentiments of Christian charity and by the tender influence of the Catholic clergy, may at any moment erupt like a volcano and strike like a thunderbolt. ... A quarter-hour might be all it takes."

Though the book focuses on Catholic Europe, it shows similar trends among Protestants or Eastern Orthodox Europeans. And while reading this book, I had to wonder: Are these accusations really any different from those now circulating against Muslim immigrant communities? Are we seeing the rise of another movement towards expelling another "foreign body"? Were the massacres of perhaps 250,000 Muslim "foreigners" in Bosnia and Kosovo just a warning sign?

I was reminded of a joke that recently made the rounds in Germany -- Question: "What is the difference between a Jew and a [Muslim] Turk?" Answer: "The Jew has learned his lesson, and the Turk has yet to learn his."

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eye-opening book about the relentless anti-Semitic propaganda campaign by the Catholic Church from the fall of Napoleon in 1815 to World War II, drawn from archives of the Vatican made publicly available in 1998. After reading this book, the existence of popular European attitudes toward the Jews that made the holocaust possible will n longer be a mystery - and the book does not even address the many Protestant, Orthodox, and nationalistic anti-Semitic efforts going on at the same time. It shows what a comfortable fallacy it is to lay all the blame for the holocaust on Hitler and the Nazis, rather on European attitudes more generally.

The book focuses on the role of the Popes and their Secretaries of State, and directly contradicts the Church's own investigation published in 1998 which minimized and white-washed the Pope's and entire Church's involvement. Church periodicals, including those directly supervized by the Vatican and Pope, published attacks week after week, month after month, including blatantly false stories about Jews killing Christian children for blood for religious rites, Jews taking control of Catholic countries, Jewish-Masonic conspiracies, Jews bringin on themselves pogroms and other attacks by Christians by being so uppity, greedy and threating to Christian well being, Jews as the great enemy of the Catholic Church, as the poluting factor in contemporary life now that they could mixon on an equal footing with Christians, as incapable of being loyal citizens of any country, etc. It blamed them for freemarket capitalism, socialism and communism (all 19th-century developments that the Church disapproved of). Most of the anti-semitic charges heard from the Nazis and from anti-Semites today appear in Chruch propaganda, particularly from 1880 onward.

As a member of the Fascist Grand Council in Italy said in 1939, "We fascist Catholics consider the Jewish problem from a strictly political point of view.... But it comforts our souls to know that if, as Catholics, we became anti-Semities, we owe it to the teachings that the Church has promulgated over the past twenty centuries."

[Daniel Pardo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who believes that George Washington never told a lie, that Betsy Ross stitched the first flag, or that the Liberty Bell cracked on July 4, 1776, needs not read this book. The Popes Against the Jews is not for the naïve, faint hearted, or for those whose religious zealotry prevents them from wanting to expand the boundaries of their knowledge.

Though hard to accept that Christianity and the Catholic Church, since their beginnings, would promote, encourage, and enforce anti-Semitism, the fact is that the self appointed “True Faith,” in its zeal to conquer the world, enrich itself, and control the masses, has done just that, and more. In the process, the Church became guilty of the very things it accused Jews: greed, hatred and having contempt for others. However, “The Popes Against the Jews” is not a tirade against Christianity or the Catholic Church, but a historical tracing of Church policies and practices, and how they led to anti-semitism. “The Popes Against the Jews” is an exposé which begs for clarification of what happened, and why.

“As late as the 1850s, the Pope was busy trying to evict Jews from most of the towns in the lands he controlled, and forcing them to live in the few cities that had ghettoes to close them in. Jews were barred from holding public office or teaching Christian children or even having friendly relations with Christians. Church ideology held that any contact with Jews was polluting to the larger society, that Jews were perpetual foreigners, a perennial threat to Christians (p. 9). [Jews in the Papal states were forced to wear a yellow badge, as] mandated by Church councils for over six hundred years…so all would know of their reviled status. [Those found without the] required yellow badge on their clothes [faced prosecution as late as the Nineteenth Century (pp. 10-11)]”

A modicum of objectivity would point out that the Nazi Nuremberg Laws from 1938, and legislation enacted by Italian Fascists, which were aimed at demoralizing Jews by stripping them of their citizenship and any rights associated with it, were modeled after those espoused and enforced by the Church for as long as it had the power to do so (p.9). In editorials, printed in the Vatican's official periodicals, Jews were portrayed as a foreign nation, and the sworn enemy of the well-being of all Christians. The solution to this situation was the immediate revocation of the Jews' civil equality, for they had no right to it. Thus Jews were to remain foreigners, the “Eternal Wandering Jew,” wherever they were allowed to live, and the enemy of any country where they settled (p.8).

Although the Vatican has gone out of its way to exonerate and absolve itself from any direct involvement, it has yet to recognize that its policies over the last two millennia paved the road for the Holocaust. To the Church, as indicated in “We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah (the report of the Vatican's Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews),” while terrible things had been done, these atrocities were not the result of a long standing policy or practice by the Church, but due to misinterpretation of Christian teachings which, occasionally, had fostered such behavior (p. 4). As difficult as it is to imagine, even in the acknowledgement of its failures, the Church would deny any involvement. The Vatican has also failed to fully explain why and how it turned a blind eye to Nazi atrocities, or its involvement in, and support of “Catholic Croatia,” during World War II which resulted in atrocities committed against all non-Catholics, but in particular to the Jews.

In a typical use of smoking mirrors, the Vatican's report differentiated between anti-Judaism (a religious, sociological and political discrimination based on centuries of mistrust and hostility), and anti-Semitism (theories contrary to the constant teachings of Christianity and of the Catholic Church)—while denying both of which have their basis on Church practices. Contrary to the overwhelming evidence, the Church opted to reject any direct association with either philosophy in spite of the many instances which lead to the Church's association with religious anti-Judaism. The issue had already been addressed in 1928 by Father Enrico Rosa in “The Jewish Danger and the 'Friends of Israel,'” an article published in Civiltá cattolica, in which the prelate calls for the rejection of unchristian anti-Semitism. However, Father Rosa opined that the Church must protect itself from those who sought to eradicate views long held by the Church (p.270). As long as any of the actions by the Church could be disguised as “Religious,” they could be minimized or, at the very least, shown to be the lesser of the two evils of anti-Jewish/anti-Semitism (p.8). This is further justified because of the perceived ceaseless war Jewish religion demanded from Jews to wage against Christianity. But, cursed by God, the Jews' continued degradation validated the prophesies in the New Testament (p. 144). The Church's anti-Judaism stance was further defined by Father Giuseppe De Rosa in the year 2000, for the 150th anniversary of Civiltá cattolica, a Vatican periodical. To Father De Rosa, it was necessary “to note that these [hostile articles] were not a matter of 'anti-Semitism,' the essential ingredient of which is hatred against the Jews because of their 'race,' but rather anti-Judaism, which opposes and combats the Jews for religious and social reasons (pp.7-8).” Of course, it would have been difficult for the Vatican to espouse anti-Semitism: If the crime of deicide passed to all subsequent generations of Jews, it would stand the test of logic that all Christians were also guilty, by virtue of their Jewish ancestry.

It wasn’t until the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s that, theoretically, the Church “renounced its view of the Jews as the perfidious people who had crucified Jesus. It removed negative references to the Jews from the liturgy, undertook a complete revision of what was taught about the Jews in Catholic schools and catechism, and…put an official end to the Catholic belief in Jewish ritual murder.” (p. 20) Even so, the sincerity of the Church remains in question by many.

The backbone of this book is in Roberto Farinacci’s speech, “The Church and the Jews,” given at Milan’s Institute of Fascist Culture in 1939, “We fascist Catholics …consider the Jewish problem from a strictly political point of view….But it comforts our souls to know that if, as Catholics, we became anti-Semites, we owe it to the teachings that the Church has promulgated over the past twenty centuries.” Until the end of the Eighteenth Century, Farinacci further states, that in all countries, “…their legislation inspired by that of the Church [excluded] Jews from public offices, from the schools, from university degrees, from exercising professional business positions. All this in harmony with the dispositions sanctioned by the Church through its councils and papal bulls.” Farinacci then asked whether the Church had altered its laws, its views, or decrees, once the Jews had been emancipated. “My question is ironic. The Church could not correct itself without dealing a death blow to the infallibility of its teaching; it could not, nor did it want to. On the contrary, it confirmed its anti-Jewish measures and principles.” (p.283)

The Holy Office for long had denied any such hatred towards Jews, insisting that Christians should instead pray for them, in spite of their rejection of Christianity. However, this Catholic charity should only go so far, and not blind people to the sad reality of the Jews (p.271).

Unfortunately, those who would most benefit from reading this book are the same who would most reject it, and be most offended by it: The faithful who believe the Pope to be infallible, and the clergy to be irreproachable. Far from it, as history has more than once shown, and the researched documents in this book support. These are men guilty of all the same faults as mere mortals are, and as such, they should be given the same scrutiny, probed under the same if not a stricter microscope, and be held as accountable for their crimes as common “sinners” are quickly dispatched to Hell for lesser offenses.
There are those who would be critical of Kertzer’s narrative, but readers should keep in mind that “The Popes against the Jews” is not fiction, and as an historian, the author is presenting the facts available to him from the Vatican archives, and other publications amply cited. Some may claim that those in the upper echelons of Church hierarchy did not know what others were doing, and therefore could not, or should not be held accountable. It would be naïve to think that, even if the Pope did not have first hand knowledge of all that was being printed in the Catholic periodicals, there was no one else in the Church hierarchy to have noticed it, and made no mention to the Pope, or to some other such person in a position of authority.

On the contrary; while one can assume the Popes did not read every word in the eventual 500 Catholic periodicals in Twentieth Century Italy (p. 13), Civiltá cattolica, founded in 1850 with the backing of Pius IX, became the unofficial voice of the Pope. Five days before the release of each issue, the journal's director was present at the Vatican, and reviewed the contents of the periodical for approval with the Secretary of State, and most often with the Pope. This practice of including the Pope in the approval process ended during the time of Pius XII, in the 1950s. The main purpose of Civiltá cattolica, from the point of view of the Popes and that of the journal, was to defend the actions and opinions of the Pope, and to spread them across its readership. This periodical, along with the Vatican’s daily paper, L’Osservatore romano (owned by the Holy See and founded in 1861), came to be regarded by the “network of Catholic newspapers throughout the world…as the most authoritative source for Vatican perspectives on current events, and quoted its articles constantly (p.135).” It is hard to argue against the Popes knowing of, and conscientiously giving their approval of the editorials.

The number of cases of Church-condoned violence and other atrocities against Jews is far too large to report in this venue; only in reading this book, can anyone fully understand the enormity of the abuse instituted, condoned, and enforced by the Church against the Jews.

As with most heads of state, the Popes controlled and still control, and hold the power and the responsibility. Not unusual then, for the Popes to create their own series of rules to benefit their ideology; not unusual, either, for the public at large to expect them to be held accountable. Just as history is a memory of the future, “the lessons that we draw from history are a poor guide for the future if they are based on a past that we wish had happened, rather than the past that truly did (p.19).”

A perfect companion to “Hitler's Pope (Viking, 1999),” by John Cornwell, and “Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews, a History, by James Carroll (Mariner Books, 2001),” “The Popes Against the Jews” is just as relevant today, as it was when first published in 2001. All the more ironic in light of the recent rise of extreme ideology in parts of the world, which is thoroughly condemned by the very Christians who would condemn Kertzer's book.


Hardcover: 355 pages
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf (2001)
ISBN: 0-375-40623-9
Language: English

[Laurence O'Bryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tremendous, detailed and devastating account of the roots of the Holocaust.

I congratulate David on exposing the deceit that has covered up the clear responsibility the Catholic Church holds in one of the most horrific acts of genocide every perpetrated.

Pius XII should have stood in the dock at Nuremberg as an accessory to the Holocaust. I see it as my mission to spread the word of the evil ideas the Catholic Church spread through its antisemitism over many decades in the lead up to the Holocaust.

If anyone wonders where Hitler got his evil ideas from and why the German people went along with him, all you have to do is read this book.

For any who support the Vatican I ask you to read this and answer me this:

Would Christ have acted like this?

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book and it is such an important book that I am not going to write my own review I am going to quote the entire review by Gary Wills that appeared in the New York Times on September 23, 2001. I don't want to be or appear anti-Catholic, I was raised and educated within the church and I know that there are many good people within it, but for way to long as in institution it has coasted along on half truths. Professor Kertzer's many books on the recent history of the Catholic Church are must reads for anyone who wants to understand the background to what the what the church is or is not responsible for. It is astounding that an institution which proudly proclaims its essential place in history can so rapidly forget and distort the past. Read the review, even better read the book.

" 'The Jews -- eternal insolent children, obstinate, dirty, thieves, liars, ignoramuses, pests and the scourge of those near and far . . . managed to lay their hands on . . . all public wealth . . . and virtually alone they took control not only of all the money . . . but of the law itself in those countries where they have been allowed to hold public offices . . . [yet they complain] at the first shout by anyone who dares raise his voice against this barbarian invasion by an enemy race, hostile to Christianity and to society in general.'' Those words appeared in 1880 in Civiltà Cattolica, the journal Pope Pius IX had ordered the Jesuits to publish in Rome as the informal organ of the Vatican -- every article was cleared before publication by the papal secretariat of state. The words were written by a founding editor of the paper, Giuseppe Oreglia, S.J., who was responsible for three dozen more articles in this vein during the 1880's. The articles were typical of Civiltà Cattolica, and Civiltà Cattolica was typical of Roman Catholic periodicals all over Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

David Kertzer, a professor of history at Brown University, has undertaken the sickening task of compiling a sampler of such material issuing from church-sponsored newspapers. He earlier wrote ''The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara,'' which told how Pius IX took a 6-year-old boy away from his Jewish parents because the Inquisition had decided that the boy had been secretly baptized by a Christian servant working in the Mortara household. ''The Popes Against the Jews'' is even more disheartening than ''The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara,'' besides being a more formidable scholarly achievement, since it traces, over a stretch of two centuries, the Vatican's endorsement of things like the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, or the guilt of Alfred Dreyfus or the charge that Jews regularly commit ritual murders of Christian children. Pope John Paul II's document on the Holocaust, ''We Remember,'' said that the Catholic church in the past objected to Jews only on theological grounds, not racial ones. Kertzer easily destroys this falsehood. To quote again Oreglia's article, cleared by the Vatican secretariat of state: ''Oh how wrong and deluded are those who think Judaism is just a religion, like Catholicism, Paganism, Protestantism, and not in fact a race, a people, and a nation! . . . For the Jews are not only Jews because of their religion . . . they are Jews also and especially because of their race.''

Kertzer has done a staggeringly thorough job of tracing Catholic statements on the Jews, and in using the Vatican archives to show what support was given to the people making these statements. From this he argues that the debate over what Pius XII might have done during the Holocaust is a distraction from a more important question -- what did the Catholic church do to help bring on the Holocaust in the first place? It did a great deal. The anti-Semitic campaign against Alfred Dreyfus, the French military officer convicted of treason in 1894 on forged documents, was largely driven by a fanatical band of Catholics denouncing Dreyfus for his perfidious Jewishness. The Assumptionist Fathers made this a special mission of their daily newspaper, La Croix. Owen Chadwick, the author of the excellent ''History of the Popes: 1830-1914'' (1998), says of this campaign that it ''was the most powerful and extreme journalism ever conducted by an otherworldly religious order during the history of Christendom.'' Pope Leo XIII, though he criticized the paper for other reasons, never objected to this rabid effort. He said in 1899, ''I love La Croix.'' And no wonder. His own official newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, had also prejudged Dreyfus's guilt. Later, it defended anti-Semitic mobs resisting a reversal of his rigged conviction: ''The Jewish race, the deicide people, wandering throughout the world, brings with it everywhere the pestiferous breath of treason.'' Kertzer brings the story down to the late 1930's, when Pius XI's attempt at writing an encyclical condemning Nazi anti-Semitism was sabotaged by the superior general of the Jesuits (a Polish aristocrat) and the editor of Civiltà Cattolica. For that matter Pius XI himself, who served as a papal diplomat in Poland during World War I, dismissed reports of pogroms there as inventions of Jewish propaganda. He wrote to the Vatican secretary of state: ''One of the most evil and strongest influences that is felt here, perhaps the strongest and the most evil, is that of the Jews.''

None of the modern Piuses comes off well. Pius X favored a high official in his secretariat of state, Monsignor Umberto Benigni, who became one of the two principal distributors of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in Italy. Pius also refused to intervene in the 20th century's most famous trial of a Jew on the ritual murder charge, a trial conducted in Kiev in 1913. After a Catholic priest testified to the court that such murders were an established fact of history, British Jews asked the Catholic Duke of Norfolk to request from the pope a denial of the libel. Pius X's secretary of state would not deny the myth, or send information about false uses of it directly to the presiding judge. As Kertzer notes, ''by not taking this step, the pope allowed the Catholic press, including that part of it viewed inside and outside the church as communicating the pope's true sentiments, to continue to tar the Jews with the ritual murder charge.'' This is the pope canonized by Pius XII in 1954.

Pius IX's record was far worse, even apart from his kidnapping of the Mortara child. In 1867, he canonized Peter Arbués, a 15th-century inquisitor famed for forcible conversion of Jews, and said in the canonization document, ''The divine wisdom has arranged that in these sad days, when Jews help the enemies of the church with their books and money, this decree of sanctity has been brought to fulfillment.'' (Kertzer somehow misses the story of this St. Peter -- it can be read in Chadwick's ''History of the Popes.'') Pius IX not only gave the Cross of Commander of the Papal Order to a man famous for a book endorsing the myth of Jewish ritual murders, but established the feast of a boy ''martyr'' who was supposedly the victim of such a rite. In 1871, addressing a group of Catholic women, Pius said that Jews ''had been children in the House of God,'' but ''owing to their obstinacy and their failure to believe, they have become dogs'' (emphasis in the original.). ''We have today in Rome unfortunately too many of these dogs, and we hear them barking in all the streets, and going around molesting people everywhere.'' This is the pope beatified by John Paul II in 2000.

Kertzer lays out this revolting record with admirable calm, not giving way to the indignation that most readers must feel. A Catholic will especially wonder why John Paul II was so determined to beatify Pius IX. Determined he certainly was. The board of experts established to examine Pius IX's credentials did not include the man who knows most about him, Giacomo Martina, S.J., the author of the definitive three-volume life of him. Why was this? Probably because, when Kenneth Woodward of Newsweek asked Martina if, after decades of studying the man, he thought Pius IX a saint, Martina answered ''No, I do not.'' Owen Chadwick said that there was only one pope who would have canonized Peter Arbués -- Pius IX. I am afraid, in the same way, that there was only one pope who would have beatified Pius IX -- John Paul II.

[Kenneth Barber · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book offers a good historical background to the Catholic Church’s antisemitic views and teachings. The fundamental cause was the supposed DEI ode committed by the Jews in the death of Jesus. The looking at Jews as deserving to be segregated and not allowed into society. The author traces the actions of the Pope, priests, Curia and the Catholic press in fostering this discrimination. The book also details how the church tried to separate themselves from the antisemitic beliefs of the Nazis and Fascists. The Church made this distinction while never condemning the Nazis outright. The Church always put the welfare of the Church over their belief in the respect for humanity. Many of the laws put into effect in Germany and Italy were restrictions the Church had enforced and advocated for centuries. The effects of these centuries of discrimination in setting the stage for the Holocaust is difficult to measure. However, while not condoning the murder of Jews, the papacy never openly voiced any objections.

[B Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book, Brown University Professor David Kertzer's book refutes the Church's contention that the Holocaust was due to "an anti-Judaism that was essentially more sociological and political than religious." Rather, he shows, using long-sealed Church archives which were only recently opened, that European antisemitism was "in no small part due to the efforts of the Roman Catholic Church itself." I have a lot of histories about Germany and WWII, but I have to admit that I was surprised to learn that the racial laws of fascist Italy and the Nuremberg Laws of 1930s Germany, for example, were directly modeled on the RC Church's own rules governing treatment of Jews: right up until the dissolution of the Papal States in the late 19th century. Jews living in these territories were forced to wear yellow badges and live in ghettos. Why do the history books let the church off so lightly?

[Frank Cardenas · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that opened my eyes to the role of the church in the world wars, nobody would fool me anymore and I find myself to be more tolerant; though the revelations regarding the treatment of Jews are very horrendous -but truthful- the contents were fascinating; this is a book we all catholics should read, that would make us wonder whether we should continue believing in an institution that was supposed to be helpful, accepting of anyone without any relevance to race or... religion! Thanks for confirming my fears about the whole thing.

[Alex Galinsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating trip to the deep and historical roots of anti-semitism and the role the church played in fostering and promoting it maintaining the myths through ages until they flowered in the horrible events of the 20th century.

[Anna Amato · Rating 4 out of 5]

Started in the doctor's waiting room. By page six I was mumbling 'what'? By page eleven I was cursing under my breath.

[Marianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://www.criticaletteraria.org/202...

[iain meek · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very heavy read. Not a great writer.
Also a very heavy subject- a trawl thro previously secret (1998?) Vatican archives showing how the Catholic church has been anti-semitic for centuries along with fine hair splitting about OK Christian ant- semitism and dreadful anti-semitism by others including the Italian fascists and the Nazis. Apparently the Italian fascists were considered wrong to outlaw Jewish converts to Catholicism but correct, according to the Church, to outlaw all other jews.
Not surprising to see the Israelis using similar techniques on the Palestinians after what they have been through- doesn't make it right though.
Bloody religions!
Good for Humanism.

[Joseph J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a recent re-visit. Often the librarian turned Pope is cast as the good Pius as opposed to the controversial Pius XII and his "silence" on the Nazi extermination of the Jews. Think again. Here is a reevaluation of Pius XI, following the author's exhaustive examination of the history of Popes and the Jews especially from the early 19th. century onward. The oppression and discrimination against Jews sanctioned and encouraged by words from St. Peter's do not make for easy reading, but it is a story which must be told.

[Rich · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you were Jewish in the 1930's, it seems like the choice between Nazi Germany and the Catholic Church was like a liberal choosing between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. "Which godawful option is best?" Really great book, and I'm looking forward to reading his others, which are basically centered around parts of what he wrote about in this book, with a tighter focus.

[Socraticgadfly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent look at history of anti-Semitism inside the walls of the Vatican

This is an excellent book for showing that anti-Semitism in Catholic portions of Europe, especially the period 1800-1945, were not confined to Catholic laity and parish priest types, but were often not only held by, but emanated from, the Vatican itself.

Kertzer starts with the fact that twice — once briefly, once for five years — Napoleonic France occupied the Papal States. Both times, it abolished the Roman ghetto and the requirement for Jews to wear yellow badges. (This, which in Europe culminated in Nazi Germany, originated in early Muslim times in Palestine and was at that time applied to Christians as well as Jews.)

Kertzer notes that the pope Leo XII chose to restore both, even as Napoleonic-era emancipation of Jews elsewhere in central and western Europe largely remained intact.

Things get worse from here. Agents of the Vatican encouraged a “ritual murder” interpretation of the death of an Italian monk in Syria in 1840. Pages 86ff

Kertzer then looks backward. He notes that, during the Middle Ages and specifically the Crusads, popes intervened to stop pogroms and other attacks on Jews organized by priests and laity alike. But, by the Renaissance, the popes were joining in, burning Talmuds, etc. The Counter-Reformation sparked much of this. 101ff He ties this to the 1840 blood libel issue, and notes that enlightened Jews begged the pope at the time not to go down this path.

On pages 134ff, Kertzer documents the rise of mid- and late-1800s Catholic journals, most notable Civilta Cattolica, which had close ties to reactionary elements in the Vatican. Later, the official Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, joined it. It also officially supported secular anti-Semitic political parties, movements and individuals in Central Europe, mst notably Karl Lueger, further detailed on 202ff

Both papers, plus the French Catholic L’Unita Cattolica, also fueled the Dreyfus-connected anti-Semitism in late 19th century France. 180ff

Next, it was the papacy that promoted the “one drop of blood” idea of Judaism 207, which of course got applied later to blacks in the US. The papacy only dropped the rule in 1946. It actively supported 1930s German and Italian racial definitin laws.

Civila Cattolica continued to denounce Jews into the 1930s.

Pope Pius XI’s “secret” encyclical against anti-Semitism was first watered down, then never printed.

Ignore any 1-star reviews as likely written by pro-Papal Catholic diehards.

[Stefanie Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pope John Paul II was, in my opinion, one of the better Pope's that the Vatican housed. During his service, he attempted to improve relationships between the Church and a lot of different groups. This book focuses on his effort to improve relationships with Jewish people. He allowed the author to have access to Vatican archives and papers in an attempt to uncover any dealings that the Catholic Church had with Axis powers and Jewish people around the World War II years. He was actually the first Pope to ever visit Auschwitz, subsequently publishing his thoughts on the Holocaust and members of the Jewish faith. He also visited Yad Vashem.

During World War II, Catholics fought on both sides of the conflict. Pope Pius XI was not a fan of Hitler and his Nazi Party, saying that he was waging war against the Church and people's faith, which was true. Hitler was not into religion, really, and was openly hostile and restrictive about it. He had a lot of churches dismantled, and church officials arrested. When Pope Pius XII took over, he was the only world leader at the time who spoke out against Hitler and what was happening to the Jewish people. He also tried to help out the Jewish people by giving them aid via diplomacy.

This book serves as a wake up call to people who think that organized religion isn't criminal. I know that the Catholic church in particular has had a landslide of bad publicity for sexual abuse, coverups, cultural genocide, manipulation, and other atrocities. I know that most everyone else knows it too. A lot of people are unaware of the role that the Catholic Church played in World War II and the Holocaust. While they did condemn actions, attempted to help out where they could, they maintained an overall stance of neutrality. They did not want to become too involved and increase the target on their own backs since Hitler hated the Church as well. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that Pope Pius XII knew all about the Holocaust and what was happening to these people, but did next to nothing so he wouldn't "undermine aid efforts behind the scenes". In cases like this, silence is criminal, and the fact that they gave food and clothes and hid some people in churches doesn't really make up for the neutral stance they took.

[Roberta · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a meticulously researched book that delves into the historical role of the Catholic Church in fostering and promoting anti-Semitism. I felt as if there was an argument that the Catholic Church played a significant role in shaping anti-Jewish sentiment that laid the groundwork for modern anti-Semitism and the roots of this animosity goes back to the Church's theological stance that Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus, an accusation that perpetuated a narrative of Jews as Christ-killers and enemies of Christianity. This theological anti-Semitism was compounded by socio-economic and political factors that the Church exploited to maintain its influence and authority.

The book also explores the role of the Catholic press and clergy in disseminating anti-Semitic propaganda. Catholic newspapers and periodicals frequently published articles that depicted Jews as dangerous and malevolent figures, perpetuating stereotypes that fueled hatred and suspicion. Clergy members often echoed these sentiments in their sermons, further entrenching anti-Jewish prejudices among the faithful.

One of the key arguments is that the Church's anti-Semitism was not merely a relic of the medieval past but evolved to adapt to modern political and social contexts. As Europe underwent significant changes in the 19th and early 20th centuries, including the rise of nationalism and the spread of secularism, the Church saw Jews as both a religious and existential threat. This fear was exacerbated by the growing presence of Jews in public life, which was perceived as undermining Christian values and societal order.

"Popes Against the Jews" is a sobering and important work that sheds light on a dark chapter in the history of the Catholic Church. The book challenges readers to confront the uncomfortable truths about the role of religious institutions in perpetuating hatred and discrimination and underscores the importance of historical accountability and reconciliation.

[Bob H · Rating 5 out of 5]

An important, and scathing, account of the modern Papacy's role in building anti-Semitism in Europe and its culpability in the subsequent Holocaust. Kertzer, building on his research on the papacy in general -- much of this book has echoes in his other histories of particular Popes -- focuses on the period when the Popes were secular monarchs in central Italy. He also describes the next period, after the 1870 loss of the Papal States and their confinement in the Vatican, in which they escalated their anti-Jewish propaganda, through publications like Civiltà Cattolica and others. He also describes the relationship between Masonry and the Jewish community in that period -- which explains much of the subsequent anti-Masonic ranting by the Church. Kertzer also demonstrates the Church's role in spreading the blood libel (ritual murder) tales and its promotion of the Protocols forgery. In all, it's a damning indictment of the papacy's culpability and very much worthwhile to readers interested in the background to the Holocaust. Highly recommend.

[Alan Zwiren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Usually I write long analysis of books. For this one, all I can say is that is a must read to understand the attitudes that were prevalent i the Catholic Church that could create an environment in Europe that resulted in the Holocaust. From Jews in ghettos to forced and coerced conversion to assigning the Jews Although the commission empowered by Pope John Paul II declared the Catholic Church bore no responsibility for the Holocaust. And that is the result you would expect when an institution is asked to investigate itself.

That is why DavidKertzer's book is so important. In looking at the actions of the Catholic church from the 1800's on, it is clear that many of the attitudes and actions of Nazis were first put forth by the Church. That is not to say the Church of today is the same, it is not. But it must come to understand and accept it's mistakes of the past so as never to be repeated against Jews or any others every again.

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is no doubt that David Kertzer provides an uncomfortable lookback on the history of the Catholic church's relationship with Jews, and there is no reason to doubt his credibility. But this book makes the same point from a dozen different perspectives. Granted, this may all be true, but it does not make for enjoyable reading. Perhaps Kertzer knows all that and concedes this goes along with a difficult subject, but many people will have to struggle through this material. If you have an academic interest of the history of the Catholic church relative to Jews, this book will provide valuable insights. For the rest of us though, this is a difficult read.

[Marian Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

A chilling and essential read. We’ll-researched, include Vatican documents recently made available . Documents the modern history of church anti-semitism. I never realized how many early nazi tactics, including ghettos and external symbols, were taken from church-enforced laws. I also never knew that the church actively promulgated and spread blood libels, among other anti-Semitic lies and conspiracies. While the Catholic Church does not bear full responsibility for the Holocaust, this book demonstrates that the Holocaust was possible due to centuries of church policies and actions.

[James T · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disgusting!

I was instructed to comment on what I liked or disliked about the book. Well, I mostly disliked the attitude and actions of the Catholic Church. The people of the Church were as despicable and culpable as were the Nazi Germans. Those who protected the Vatican from war crimes should have also been on trial. The very foundation of the Catholic faith is not based on Christ and his teachings but rather on the hatred and persecution of the Jews. Disgusting indeed.

[Ian Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Vatican has had too much of a spirit of anti-Semitism that has pervaded it. Still, when it became expedient to make use of Jewish (esp. bankers) to further their own (usually political) agenda, while still antagonistic toward ‘them’ as a people, they nevertheless came a calling ... Rather disturbing ... as an analysis of what “systemic racism” indeed is, here is a very clear example.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent history of the popes and their relationship with the Jews and how that relationship and their attitude toward the Jews made it easy for the Nazis and just regular people in Europe at that time, to acquiesce in the horrible treatment and extermination of the Jews. As a lapsed Catholic, it made me ashamed to be a part of the Catholic Church.

[Michele Trabucco · Rating 5 out of 5]

A deep historic presentation of the most important fact s and documents of Catholic Church in supporting and creatina the ground for the modern antisemimtism. A very intersting book in how to understand the role of the Church and its cultural influence on the antisemitism

[Carlos Solis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew the Christians had sponsored ante antisemitism, but never imagined it had been so consistent and systematic over such a long period of time , and to that degree. This book says so much about what religion in general, and Catholicism in particular is worth to mankind, which isn't much.

[Paolo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Libro veramente molto interessante che apre gli occhi su come la Chiesa ha sempre considerato e perseguitato gli ebrei. L'autore ha potuto consultare gli archivi segreti del Vaticano resi accessibili da poco agli studiosi. Ne consiglio la lettura

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

⭐️ Didnt like it.
⭐️⭐️ finished but didn't really like it. Just ok.
⭐️⭐️⭐️ it was fine. No strong feelings for or against.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ good and continue thinking about it even when done.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ life altering. Just amazing book. Can't put it down.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative. However it gets a little repetitive in the early chapters when He gives numerous examples of Jewish babies getting baptized and then taken from their families. Several times I thought he was telling the same story over again.
Otherwise a very good book!