Churches and the Holocaust: Unholy Teaching, Good Samaritans and Reconciliation (review)

Mordecai Paldiel is arguably the foremost authority on the history of Righteous Persons during the Shoah. This volume brings that vast store of information along with the archival material at Yad VaShem into a coherent narrative about Christian clergy who undertook rescue efforts. This is certainly the definitive summary of what is known today about the clergy rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust. It is required reading for any would-be or present scholar of the Holocaust and a necessary addition to any library on the Holocaust whether personal or institutional.

After a brief overview of Paldiel’s perspectives on Christian-Jewish relations during the many centuries prior to the Shoah, he lays out all existing information about the rescue efforts of clergy in specific countries and regions (e.g., the Balkans) throughout Europe. Paldiel then concludes the volume with two chapters in which he offers some overarching reflections on the roots of rescue and takes up post-Holocaust issues such as the anti-Judaic heritage of Christianity in the post-Shoah world and the significance of statements by the Catholic and Protestant churches on the relationship with Jews over the past forty years. An extensive set of notes, a comprehensive bibliography and an alphabetical list of clergy rescuers identified by their respective Christian denomination (Catholic/Protestant/Orthodox) round off the book. There is little question this masterful work bringing together years of research by Paldiel and his colleagues at Yad VaShem will remain a standard reference work in Holocaust studies for years to come.

At the outset of the volume Paldiel sets forth its basic purpose: to understand how certain clergy were able to overcome what seems to him an endemic feature of the Christian philosophy of history, i.e., an inherent drive which, when pushed to an extreme, leads to the justification, if not to the incitement, of Jewish extermination. So this work is more than merely a chonicle of what clergy did to save Jews and where they did it, although often it reads that way. It does offer some interpretation of classical Christian attitudes towards Jews and Judaism as well as reflections on what actually motivated rescue efforts.

Having endorsed the book as an extremely useful resource for detailed factual information about clergy rescuers in virtually every part of Europe, I must note some limitations and even some small scholarly flaws. As to the latter, though minor, they indicate a measure of scholarly laxity. The noted popular writer on Christian antisemitism and the Holocaust James Carroll is named on several occasions as “John Carroll.” And the distinguished scholar on Polish-Jewish relations Antony Polansky is identified as a “Polish publicist.” It is unclear whether this is intended as a putdown of Polansky’s comprehensive work over the years on Polish-Jewish relations or simply an error. Paldiel does include some of Polansky’s writings in his concluding bibliography so he appears aware of Polansky’s work. If more than a simple error or inappropriate designation it would constitute a regrettable dismissal of one of the most balanced and thorough scholars in the field of Polish-Jewish relations. There are also occasions when quotations are not clearly identified, including one from this reviewer.

Paldiel certainly faced limitations in terms of the amount of contextual material he could include in his basic narration of specific rescue operations by Christian clergy, whether personal or with some institutional support. Inevitably such limitations lead to some superficiality in important areas such as his historical account of Christian-Jewish relations over the centuries or his treatment of the very complex relationship between Jews and other Polish citizens in Poland. The reader needs to be aware that in terms of the contextual history other scholarly resources in history, biblical studies, and theology are required for a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding. One example of oversimplication is his claim that Pope John Paul II placed Judaism and Christianity on an equal theological plane. This...