Under His Very Windows
Under His Very Windows: The Vatican and the Holocaust in Italy (2000,
The book
Zuccotti evaluates the actions of the
The book contains a number of chapters dealing with aid provided by Catholics to Italy's Jews, but concludes that these acts were performed spontaneously.[2] Zuccotti writes that Catholics who aided Jews, "invariably believed that they were acting according to the Pope’s will" but that there is no written evidence confirming that this was the case.[3]
Critical reception
According to a
Ronald J. Rychlak, author of Hitler, the War, and the Pope (Genesis) describes the book as controversial for conceding that the church provided aid to Jews and other refugees in Italy, but giving no credit to Pius XII for this, on the basis that she could find no written evidence to confirm his involvement.[5]
In his review in The Tablet, historian Owen Chadwick whose work focuses on Christianity and the Papacy, calls Under His Very Windows, "not history but guesswork." Chadwick's review states, "when the Germans occupied Italy she [Zucotti] thinks that the Pope could have informed church leaders that he would look favourably on help to the Jewish fugitives, and could have warned the Germans that he would protest forcibly and publicly at any deportations of Jews from Rome. All this is not history but guesswork, and one or two guesses have a more than minuscule improbability. "Faced with the certainty of papal condemnation, the Germans might possibly have postponed anti-Jewish actions in Italy", she suggests. Imagination boggles at what would have been said when such a message from the Pope was read at Hitler's headquarters, if it ever reached that height and if anyone round the table bothered to do more than laugh. Anyone who thinks otherwise should read the devastatingly uncompromising speech which Himmler made to SS leaders at Posen on a vital date for Italy, the beginning of October 1943."[6]
Awards
In 2000, the book won the
See also
References
- ^ The Silence, debated over Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust; New York Times; 4 February 2001.
- ^ Right under his nose ; Catholic Herald; 20 April 2001
- Ronald Rychlak.
- New York Times; 4 February 2001.
- Ronald Rychlak.
- ^ Pius XII's terrifying dilemma
- ^ "Past Winners". Jewish Book Council. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
External links