Deborah Castellano Lubov
Though historians contest it, Pius XII is still accused of failing to
do enough to help the Jews during World War II. In particular, he is
criticized for too much silence.
But well-known German historian Michael Hesemann says the Pope's
decision to be guarded in protest was a result of what he'd learned some
years before, when while working in the Vatican Secretariat of State
and as nuncio, he was privy to the Vatican's information on the Armenian
genocide and its attempts to stop it.
Protests from Pope Benedict XV and his diplomats only made the
situation worse for the Armenians and that was history Pius XII didn't
want to repeat, Hesemann explains.
In an interview with Zenit ahead of Pope Francis' Nov. 28-30 trip to
Turkey, Hesemann analyzes this massacre, and gives insight into the
parallels with the Holocaust and Pius XII's actions during the war.
