To the editor:
After WWII, a concerted effort was made to blacken the image of Pope Pius XII. Initially, the disinformation was seeded by communist Russia during the 50s and 60s, but a number of authors in the last 15 years have published works in which the same lies continue to be spread. This defamatory campaign has been extremely successful, to a degree in which many Jews today hold a decidedly negative opinion of the Pope who was most instrumental in the protection of Jews during the war.
This is unfortunate, not only because of the false accusations against a just man, but also because it has promoted division and animosity between the Catholic and Jewish faiths. Those responsible for the spreading of lies of this magnitude owe an apology, to the Pope and to those that have been misinformed. Locally, there have been some one-sided discussions about these events.
However, no one can now claim ignorance of the basic facts, since a book containing hundreds of historical documents was recently compiled and made available by Mr. Gary Krupp, a recent speaker at the JCC and St. John Fisher College. Said documents prove beyond any reasonable doubt the affection and care that Eugenio Pacelli and later Pius XII had for the Jewish people and the nascent Jewish nation. The original documents showcase the unsurpassed extent of his efforts, which preserved hundreds of thousands of Jewish lives during the war.
Fernando Ontiveros
Rochester
