Pope meets Holocaust survivors

(June 19, 2008)
Pope Benedict XVI met four Holocaust survivors who expressed their gratitude to the Church for saving their lives during World War II.
As Jewish German teenagers during the 1930s, they fled to Italy and found moral and material support from the Catholic Church.)




Horst Stein
Shoah Survivor
We Jewish people from mainly Germany and Austria, nobody came for a few years until an emissary of the Pope was sent to us not only to give us moral support: he gave us hope! He was I would say our salvation because that gave us the courage to keep on living and going forward.

This woman and her family were saved by the personal commitment of Monsignor Beniamino Schivo, at that time the young rector of a local seminary in Umbria. He is 97 years old and has been honored as Righteous Among Nations in the Holocaust memorial of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.

Ursula Selig
Shoah Survivor
My mother and I were hidden in a convent of the Sacred Heart, in Citta di Castello, dressed as nuns, locked into room. This, the monsignor, did for us. My father was hidden 8 hours away, in the country, with the farmers, and we were in that convent until the British Army liberated us, and if I am here today is to thank Italy, the nuns who saved my life, the clergy, and one person.

The visit reminded the efforts of pope Pius XII in saving Jews during the Holocaust.

Horst Stein
Shoah Survivor
If anybody ever thinks that the Pope could do anything against Hitler, what did he have? With his 22 Swiss Guards he would fight the German army which the whole world ought to do? Impossible! He did what he could do, and he saved many, many people and for this we should all be very thankful to him.

The visit was sponsored by the Pave the Way Foundation, which is preparing a symposium on the papacy of Pius XII in September to collect and publish the hidden solidarity stories of the dark days of the Holocaust.

DDS

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[philipmarie1854]

Hitler's Pope indeed. John Cromwell, Dawkins, Hitchens and Fry can go fuck themselves.

[holodenier]

They "survived" precisely because the Nazis NEVER tried to kill them in the first place. On the contrary, the Nazis took good care of them and fed them, gave them shelter, medical care and security as best they could in spite of the murderous air attacks on civilians. The real mass murderers were the Allies, the US and Britain. Tel the truth for a change. Holocaust propaganda vindicates Hitler and the anti-Semites.

Friedrich Paul Berg

go to my website

[wheelmanstan]

@ned262626 thanks for the info

[ned262626]

@wheelmanstan he was drafted at the age of 16 and then deserted while the war was still going on.

[creptoin1]

@AnahSkywalker Yes that's a little different then someone who was forced in there and then describes it as the best years of his life.( gorge soros)

[MrVideomaker16]

you are absolutely right! the fate of this universal church is basically upon the papal decision with great courage! let us support the pope!

[AnahSkywalker]

@luckygame100 true :)

But remeber the Pope might not have chosen to be part of the Hitler Youth it was compulsory

[luckygame100]

if the pope is a former nazi then it is great courage for him to do this things. we must forgive our enemy even if it is hard to accept and accept the things that we cannot change anymore. God made this things for a reason and it is good that a former Nazi act personally to restore everything in God's grace. Bene papa! Viva el Papa! God loves us!

[tokyoisawesome]

@JohnyKimbled he was a bishop of berlin not the pope.

[wheelmanstan]

the pope was a nazi youth but thats just how things went. And soldiers during that time were just bravely fighting for their country. We call our soldiers hero's now, why condemn all nazi soldiers. Very few knew of the holocaust and towards the end of the war children and old men and women were forced to fight, it was insane. Hitler thought that all Germans should die fighting rather than live inferior. Nobody questioned him, he was a demigod. Anyway where was the church during the holocaust?