Pave The Way Foundation - Criticism of Pius XII Related Activities

Criticism of Pius XII Related Activities

The methodology of Pave the Way Foundation relating to the historical record of Pope Pius XII has been subject to harsh criticism from scholars and long-established Jewish organizations. Professor Dwork, Rose Professor of Holocaust History and Director of the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University, said Mr. Krupp’s research was “amateurish, worse than amateurish — risible.” and that "He may be well-meaning, but his lack of experience in international affairs and historical research makes Mr. Krupp highly vulnerable to being manipulated by factions inside the Vatican John T. Pawlikowski, Catholic priest and founding member of the board of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and a professor of social ethics at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, said the Vatican was “discrediting itself by associating itself with this kind of questionable scholarship.” Eric Greenberg, director of Interfaith Policy at the New York-based Anti-Defamation League asserted "Whether he understands it or not, he is waging a campaign of misinformation...He's been given out-of-context documents and is coming to overblown conclusions about Pius XII's personal involvement and that is a disservice to historians and to the historical truth." Rabbi Joseph Potasnik of the New York Board of Rabbis, who was once a supporter, resigned from the board of directors of Pave the Way and commented "Many of us are very troubled by the stance Mr. Krupp has taken...Thus far there's only been a superficial examination (of Pius XII). Given the seriousness of the subject, we need to be much more deliberate and have as much historical factual information." Pave the Ways claims of finding new documents that exonerate Pius XII are by disputed John Pawlikowski, professor of ethics at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, who argues that Krupp's evidence has already been studied by experts and that "We know that Pius did some things that were good, but they tended to come rather late, they were mostly behind the scenes and were relatively minor gestures." The Anti-Defamation League asked Holocaust historian Paul O'Shea to examine other material published by Pave the Way and ADL concluded that "materials presented by Pave the Way Foundation are part of a campaign of misinformation by some Pius apologists who use selective church documents and issue unsubstantiated conclusions about Pius XII. O'Shea commented on the claims made by Pave the Way "To use the Campagna files to suggest that Pope Pius XII was active in attempting to rescue Jews is to demand something that historical record cannot sustain,"

In 2011 Pave the way published claims that a new document they had recently uncovered showed that Pius XII had been pressurised by the allies not to make a radio broadcast that would save the lives of Hungarian Jews. Eric J. Greenberg points out that contrary to the claims made by Pave the Way "the 1944 cable is an old, well-known document, and by itself does not make the case for Pope Pius" and that “You can’t distribute or release an out-of-context letter or document and make a global claim for it. This is an example of Pave the Way’s campaign of misinformation that makes a disservice to Catholic and Jewish scholars,” O'Shea, of the Australian Institute of Holocaust and Genocide Studies also asserts that “Pave the Way" are masters at creating a media flurry. They are not trained historians. They believe that by creating a deluge of paper with information that is favorable to their perception of Pius XII, they can create a new reality about the wartime pope,” Gabriel Wilensky asserts that the Pave the Way expert Michael Hesemann presents "findings of documents in a misleading way" by implying that the Catholic Church had always been opposed to the Nazi Party." and evidences this with reference to the Concordat signed by the Vatican and Nazi Germany in 1933