BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

by GARY L. KRUPP A recent papal decree moved Pope Pius XII, among others, closer to sainthood -- returning to the forefront the controversy over his role in World War II and the Holocaust. Growing up Jewish in Queens, I never dreamt I would be defending the man I once believed to be a Nazi sympathizer and an anti-Semite. But my work since 2002 with my wife, Meredith, and the Pave the Way Foundation has led me to this point. We founded Pave the Way to identify and eliminate nontheological obstacles between religions. Thus, despite our early prejudices, we decided to investigate the papacy of Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli), one of today's greatest sources of hurt between Jews and Catholics. After years of research in documentary evidence and eyewitness testimony, what we found shocked us. We found nothing but praise and positive news articles concerning Pius' actions from every Jewish, Israeli and political leader of the era who lived through the war. A few articles in the postwar er...

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As a former devout Catholic, this sort of fuzzy P.R. and obfuscation coupled with fence-sitting was typical from Catholic hierachy. And one of the things that drove me from the Church. German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Pope Benedict XVI to make a "very clear" rejection of Holocaust denials after the Vatican's rehabilitation of a former bishop who questioned whether 6 million Jews were gassed by the Nazis. Merkel's rare and public demand came amid increasing outrage among Germany's Roman Catholic leaders over the pope's decision to lift the excommunication of British-born Richard Williamson. Merkel said she "does not believe" there has been adequate clarification of the Vatican's position on the Holocaust amid the controversy. Benedict last week expressed "full and indisputable solidarity" with Jews and warned against any denial of the horror of the Holocaust, but several leading German bishops have decried the decision and call...

Exactly 70 years after the 1938 Nazi pogrom widely seen as the precursor to the Holocaust, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Germans not to be indifferent to anti-Semitism. "Indifference is the first step towards endangering essential values," Merkel said during Germany's national memorial ceremony for Kristallnacht - "the Night of Broken Glass" - at the old synagogue in Berlin's Rykestrasse. "Germany needs a climate that encourages moral courage," Merkel said. "Xenophobia, racism and anti-Semitism must never be given an opportunity in Europe again." Advertisement "It is a mistake to think it doesn't affect you when your neighbors are affected," Merkel added. "This mistake just leads us further and further into evil." On November 9, 1938, massive riots began across Germany and Austria. More than 91 Jews were killed, more than 1,000 synagogues were damaged and 7,500 Jewish businesses were ransacked and loot...

Portugal rights long-standing wrong by launching virtual museum in honor of diplomat who helped save thousands of Jews during World War II and was consequently fired in disgrace by government Portugal made good Tuesday on a promise to help restore the reputation of one of its diplomats who saved thousands of Jews during World War II, only to be fired in disgrace by his neutral government over fears of angering Nazi Germany. Parliament Speaker Jaime Gama presided at the official launch of a website chronicling the life and work of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, a career diplomat who died in poverty and obscurity more than 50 years ago. "This is a gratifying day," Gama said. "Aristides de Sousa Mendes is a symbol for us all." The government-sponsored virtual museum — a database of photographs, videos and historic documents — meets the family's demands for authorities to right a long-standing wrong, said one of the diplomat's grandchildren, Alvaro de Sousa Mendes. ...

Nazis and Islamists I am sure I am not the only blogger who has posted this article. But it is so compelling, so important and goes right to the heart of my belief that the Islamists can NOT be reasoned with, negotiated with or talked to because they are fundamentally evil in their thinking and intent. So I am giving it some bandwith here, for the 2 people that probably stumble on to my blog daily. Maybe it will reach one of them. By Paul Belien During the Second World War, the Nazis worked on plans to build the "Amerikabomber," an airplane specially devised to fly suicide missions into Manhattan's skyscrapers. Albert Speer, the Nazi minister for armaments, recalled in his diary: "It was almost as if [Hitler] was in a delirium when he described to us how New York would go up in flames. He imagined how the skyscrapers would turn into huge blazing torches. How they would crumble while the reflection of the flames would light the skyline against the dark sky." H...

Anti-Semitism on Daily Kos? -- An Open Letter to Harold Ford (reprinted here - because it needs to be) Dear Mr. Ford, It happened again. We should be used to it by now. The Republicans do it all the time. When we supported Ned Lamont in the primaries last year, Joe Lieberman did it, too. Your friend Bill O'Reilly -- Falafel Boy himself -- and his minions took their shot, even going so far as to call us Nazis and Klansmen. And now it's your turn, Mr. Ford. In your capacity as the chair of the Democratic Leadership Council, you said this morning on Meet the Press that we're a bunch of Jew haters here. My response? Are some individuals here anti-Semites? Sure. I defy you to find any diverse group of 130,000-plus individuals anywhere in the United States that doesn't have some anti-Semitic members. But calling us a blog of anti-Semites based on a handful of bad apples is like calling all Christians bloodthirsty psychopaths because of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, or calli...