Recount the Catholic Churches' Response to Nazi Anti-Semitism

Introduction

Anti-Semitism is a term that refers to prejudice or outright hostility toward Jews as a generalized group. It commonly appears in a combination of such prejudices religious, racial, cultural and ethnic. Although, the etymology of the term might suggest that it is a prejudice against Semitic peoples in general, the term is used exclusively to refer to hostility toward Jews.

Anti-Semitism can take many forms, from forms of hatred or discrimination to attacks by groups such as police or state violence for such purpose (Langmuir, pp. 341-417).

Background of Hostility toward Jews

Next to the ghettos, Jews were interned in concentration camps surrounded by walls, barbed wire and watched from towers. In the thirties, there were a few numbers of camps such as Buchenwald and Dachau. However, during World War II, the number of camps increased along with their capacity. There were interned dissidents of the regime, enemy soldiers, homosexuals, gypsies and, of course, Jews (Langmuir, pp. 341-417). The prisoners were subjected to forced labor to exhaustion in the manufacture of military components for the German army and other necessities. In addition, they were killed when they were unable to cope with the pace of work (Patterson, pp. 123-164).

On the implementation of the "final solution", i.e., the systematic elimination of all Jews under German jurisdiction, camps were set up, which were equipped with facilities. These camps were able to cope with the mass extermination of people. Auschwitz-Birkenau and Lublin-Majdanek had poisonous gas chambers for executions and crematories to remove the bodies. Living conditions in these camps were inhuman, and treatment of prisoners, received at the hands of their guardians, usually members of the SS (Schutzstaffel), was brutal. Many were subjected to medical experiments, some brutally punished. It is estimated that nearly 4 million prisoners, mostly Jews, died in the Nazi camps.

At the end of the war, the "holocaust", i.e. the mass killing of Jews had grown to over 6 million. Those who survived did so in unexplainable conditions and their experienced marked them for the rest of their lives. A number of them never returned to their homes and chose to migrate, mainly to Palestine, where in 1948, a Jewish state was created, which is the current State of Israel.

History of anti-Semitism

After the French Revolution, the spirit of nationalism, rationalism and political liberalism led to the separation of the Church and the State (in practice, although not always officially). It also led to the provision of political equality and economic empowerment of Jews in Central and Western Europe, as well as in North and South America. A number of members of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church were influenced by this trend, but the Catholic Church stood on the side of conventional forces (Langmuir, pp. 341-417). Early 20th century had profound socio-economic changes and growth of national movements. The anti-Semitic interpretation of the socio-economic phenomena has found a broad response in church circles. Only a few Catholic leaders and Church leaders defended the Jews, and such statements ...