The Vatican was surrounded by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germans.. They had little choice but to get along, or face greater persecution of Catholics, as was already in evidence in Poland.
6 million Jews died in the Holocaust... But there were 11 million alleged total victims of this organized extermination. Many of those remaining 5 million were non-Jewish Poles, Christian and Catholic. Hence, the reason the current Pope is a Pole, based upon his actions under Nazi oppression.
holocaustforgotten.com
holocaustforgotten.com
"Polish Christians and Catholics were actually the first victims of the notorious German death camp. For the first 21 months after it began in 1940, Auschwitz was inhabited almost exclusively by Polish non-Jews. The first ethnic Pole died in June 1940 and the first Jew died in October 1942."
I have to admit that I was surprised to learn these dates as well. But then again, I'm not completely convinced that the "11 million" figure is accurate either, given the complex logistical problem that would be involved in exterminating 11 million people over 3-4 years.
The holocaust was not just a "jewish" tragedy. It affected all nations of Europe, and to emphasize the "jewishness" of this genocide, it might provide ammunition to the more brutish, anti-semitic elements of mankind, who might discount the immensity of the crime by saying "oh.. it only happened to some Jews".
The bottom line is that it can happen to any group of people who suddenly become a convenient scape goat for a totalitarian regime.
Hawk |
