Responding to Gary Krupp - from June 2012

In late June Gary Krupp emailed me.  He emailed me privately because of the restrictions placed on the blog, an necessary evil because of some of the rather inappropriate material that gets sent to me.  I have assumed that the email was, therefore, intended for publication.  I have delayed responding until I had read the email carefully and ensured that I had answered the points Mr Krupp raised.  The email and my responses have been posted under "pages".

Mr Krupp's email was in response to the posting of my article written on the Campgana Files and a number of posts where I set out my reasons for disputing some of the claims made by a number of people who assert that Eugenio Pacelli / Pius XII committed himself to a series of positive actions for Jews before, during and after the Holocaust.  I acknowledge, again, my gratitude to Mr Krupp and Pave The Way for allowing me access to the material.  That we disagree on the interpretation of the documents is now a matter of public record.

My primary concern as a student of history is allowing the record to speak as clearly and unambiguously as possible.  I have never claimed or suggested that there is only way to look at material, nor have I ever claimed that there cannot be more than one interpretation of an event.  I have claimed consistently that context is essential for any serious study of documents and provenance.

To set this latest email from Mr Krupp into its necessary context a few reminders are necessary.

The available primary documentary material on Pope Pius XII consists, in part, of:

a) files and material in the Secret Archives of the Vatican (ASV) – all files up to 1939 are available for public inspection, including all material related to Eugenio Pacelli from the time of his entry into Vatican service in the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs in 1901, his service as nuncio to Bavaria and Germany 1917-1929, and his service as Cardinal Secretary of State 1930-1939;

b) published records of the ASV – including Volume I of Pacelli’s minutes of his audiences with Pius XI (2010), the selected war year documents in Actes et Documents (ADSS 1965-1981), the formal record of the Holy See (i.e. Acta) containing many of the speeches and addresses of Pius XI and Pius XII;

c) The published war-time records of many of the governments of Europe and the United States; the published records of the German bishops;

d) Published and unpublished sources from numerous diocesan and religious order archives (e.g. Campagna, Italy);

e) Newspaper and journals from around the world, e.g. The New York Times reported on many papal speeches throughout the war, including the complete text of the 1942 Christmas Address.

f) Memoirs, diaries, monographs, recordings and interviews of many eye-witnesses, journalists, military personnel, papal collaborators etc.

And for the record I have never claimed that Pope Pius XII was

i)   “silent”

ii)  ”inactive and did nothing”

iii) “Hitler’s Pope”

iv) “Antisemitic”

v)  “indifferent to the fate of the Jews”

I have also expressed my concern at some of the methodologies employed by Pave The Way especially by some of their researchers.  I am not alone in this.

My comments are given in RED in the pages section.