Eugenio Pacelli, Pope Pius XII, served as the pontiff during the entirety of World War II, until his death in 1958. Beginning in 1962, an orchestrated campaign of press, books, plays, films and lectures has sought to portray this pope as evil, even to the extreme of dubbing him Hitler’s Pope. Gary Krupp, President of PTWF said “Pave the Way Foundation began researching this controversy in 2006, with no agenda beyond a search for the truth.”
Elliot Hershberg, PTWF Chairman, revealed that documents from the Vatican Archives show how, in 1917, Eugenio Pacelli (as Archbishop at the time) arrange for Nahum Sokolow, President of ZO, to meet with Pope Benedict XV to discuss the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Additional documents, and even newspaper accounts, show that Pacelli intervened again in 1925 to arrange further meetings Sokolow and Vatican officials to advance the subject.
In 1926, Pacelli stood with prominent Jewish and Catholic leaders such as Albert Einstein and Ludwig Kaas encouraging all to join the German pro-Palestine organization.
Addressing an Arab delegation opposed to the establishment of a Jewish state in 1946, Pacelli stated, “Just as we have also several times in the past condemned the persecutions that a fanatical anti-Semitism unleashed against the Hebrew people, we have always observed this attitude of perfect impartiality in the most widely varied circumstances, and we intend also to hold ourselves to it in the future.”
As Pope Pius XII in 1947, Pacelli ignored some Vatican objections, and encouraged Catholic countries to vote in favor of the United Nations vote to partition Palestine. This crucial resolution, which passed in a 33 to 11 vote, created the Jewish homeland of Israel.
Mr. Hershberg further revealed that official Israeli foreign policy documents indicated that it was Pacelli’s childhood friend Dr. Guido Mendes, an orthodox Jew, who acted as a behind-the-scenes diplomat.
Gary Krupp, Co-Founder and President of PTWF, stated, “Thousands of original documents can be uploaded from our website www.ptwf.org. Sadly, many of those who consider themselves historians and scholars have simply not researched primary source documentation from the open Vatican Secret Archives, publicly available since 2006. They have relied primarily on the published works of others.”
All documents are available at the following link:
http://legacy.ptwf.org/vatican_docs_register.aspx
About Pave the Way Foundation
PTWF is a nonsectarian public foundation working to identify resolve obstacles between religions through cultural, educational and technological gestures between the faiths. Our mission is to ultimately remove the use of religion as a tool to justify private agendas. Website: http://www.ptwf.org/