Joe Schick writes:
Later, in 1943, the surviving members of my mother's family were forced to flee France for Italy. By then, my mother's mother was pregnant with her first child, and a Catholic priest arranged for refuge for the family in villages around Cuneo, Italy. The men were with the partisans fighting the Nazis and fascists, with the women and children hidden elsewhere.So the matriarch of one of the most important families in the American Orthodox world was saved by a Catholic priest. Yet, see this post, where I noted:
Two years ago, I was speaking with a Yeshiva University rosh yeshiva about a halakhic matter. Suddenly, while commenting on the Catholic Church's view of an issue, the rosh yeshiva blurted out, "The Pope, yemach shemo, …." ["The Pope, may his name be blotted out," a traditional curse reserved for the greatest enemies of the Jewish people, like Hitler and Haman, now directed at Pope John Paul 2, the Pope who had done the most to restore relations with the Jewish people.] Can one imagine Rabbi Joseph Ber Soleveitchik speaking about the Pope this way?
I wonder how many anti-Nazi gentiles the Va'ad Hatzalah saved? How many retarded? How many Gypsies? Actually, I know the answer: zero. You would think the Va'ad along with Lubavitch and the other Orthodox groups would have saved a few of the non-Jews who were also targeted by Hitler. But they did not. Why?
Readers?
For more background on the issue of the Church and the Holocaust, read David Dalin's book, The Myth of Hitler's Pope.