Catholic Church Holocaust Analysis

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On January 30th 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany after the Nazi Party had won a significant percentage of the vote in the elections of 1932 (Rychlak). Soon after he became chancellor, Hitler ordered new elections in an effort to gain full control of the German Parliament. Using Nazi propaganda, the Nazi Party quickly consolidated their power into a dictatorship, assimilating the German people into a unified force against the Jews. Only six months after Hitler had been appointed Chancellor, the Catholic Church signed the Concordat with Hitler in July 1933 (Rychlak). In the Concordat, the Catholic Church agreed not to oppose the Nazi Party, claiming it was now their Christian duty to support Hitler. Pope Pius XI hoped that …show more content…

Whether or not the Catholic Church helped the Jews or the Nazis more has been a heated discussion since the end of World War II. This essay evaluates the question “To what extent did the Catholic Church cooperate with the Nazi German government, instead of aiding the Jews, during the Holocaust?”. To investigate the extent to which the Catholic Church cooperated with Nazi Germany during the Holocaust is interesting and even necessary because it can create a better understanding of the current relationship between the Catholic Church and Jews. Analyzing this question can help to understand the current anti-semitism in the Catholic church today. In this essay, I will discuss the controversy over the extent to which the Catholic Church cooperated with Nazi Germany, instead of aiding the Jews, during the Holocaust by discussing background information on Nazi Germany and the Catholic Church, the involvement of Pope Pius XII, and the opinions of various scholars on the Catholic church’s involvement, ending with my own opinion that, to a great extent, the Catholic Church complied with the demands of Nazi Germany, instead of aiding the Jews during the

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