Pope Pius XII, the Bishops of France and the Rescue of Jews, 1940–1944

Abstract

France is one of the countries of occupied Western Europe where the Jewish community best survived the Holocaust. The bishops, religious congregations and the priests there contributed to this situation in great measure. Many bishops remained silent about the roundups of Jews, but they helped to save many Jews in their dioceses. Most of them had been nominated to the episcopacy in the 1920s and 1930s when Eugenio Pacelli was nuncio and influential in the appointment of bishops. These bishops followed the policies of the Vatican which enabled the Church in France to fight Nazism and racism. During World War II, the Vatican sent enormous sums of money to rscue Jews and other fugitives in France. The encyclical of Pope Pius XI Mit brennender Sorge (1937), widely distributed in France, encouraged Catholics to assist Jews and other fugitives. This article offers insights into Vatican policy for the years 1940 through 1945.