Hitler’s Mufti, Not Hitler’s Pope

Hitler’s Mufti, Not Hitler’s Pope August 11, 2005

I’ve been meaning to post this piece for two days, but kept forgetting, then Amy Welborn, who seems to be much better at keeping up with things than I, posted excerpts of this interview and Eureka! I remembered! You’ll want to head over to Amy’s site to read the interview with Rabbi David Dalin, the author of this book, The Myth of Hitler’s Pope.

In the Frontpage piece, Rabbi Dalin writes:

Many readers of the New York Times no doubt believe that Pope Pius XII was “Hitler’s Pope,” because John Cornwell’s bestselling book told them that, and it’s been reaffirmed by Garry Wills, Daniel Goldhagen, and other Left-leaning writers since. It’s been said so often in fact that most well-read liberals know it for a certainty. The only trouble is: it isn’t true.

Not only does it contradict the words of Holocaust survivors, the founders of Israel, and the contemporary record of the New York Times, but even John Cornwell, the originator of the phrase “Hitler’s Pope,” has recanted it saying that he was wrong to have ascribed evil motives to Pius and now found it “impossible to judge” the wartime pope.

But there’s something else that has been ignored nearly all together. Precisely at the moment when Pope Pius XII and the Catholic Church in Rome (and throughout Europe) was saving thousands of Jewish lives, Hitler had a cleric broadcasting from Berlin who called for the extermination of the Jews.

He was Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the viciously anti-Semitic Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who resided in Berlin as a welcome guest and ally of the Nazis throughout the years of the Holocaust,

As I point out in my book, The Myth of Hitler’s Pope, the outrageous calumny directed against Pope Pius XII has not only besmirched the reputation of a man who did more than any other religious leader to save Jewish lives, it has deflected attention from the horrible truth of Hajj Amin al-Husseini—who continues to be a revered figure in the Muslim world.

Sounds pretty interesting.

You will, no doubt, be unsurprised to learn that I have put The Myth of Hitler’s Pope at the top of my Bookshelf (scroll down the sidebar), so if you think you’d like to order it, please consider doing so through The Anchoress Bookshelf. Remember, everything purchased through Amazon generates a small kickback to me, every dime of which is then donated to the hospice which took such good care of my brother in his last days. I was very happy, just a week ago, to add a few bucks to the quarterly earnings sent to me by Amazon and write a check for $200.00 to that hospice, and believe me, I bless all of you for the “found” money that goes to that good facility.

And btw, the third book down on the Bookshelf is Michael Gruber’s Valley of Bones. I am not a fiction fan, and I’ll give you a fuller review when I’ve finished it, but I picked it up via Julie’s recommendation, and so far…it’s pretty good, if you like murder mysteries with mystical twists! :-)


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