Revealing History: A Fresh Perspective on Catholics and Jews in WW2

Here is the review of the book by Rebecca Moore from San Diego State University:

Des catholiques au secours des Juifs sous l’Occupation [Catholic Aid to Jews under the Occupation]. By Limore Yagil. Montrouge: Bayard. 2022. Pp. 359.

French-Israeli historian Limore Yagil is well-equipped to write about how Catholic Christians under the Occupation helped Jews living in France. The author of at least eight books about World War II, she has examined Christian resistance to Nazism, both Catholic and Protestant, in numerous venues. The present volume concentrates specifically on Catholic efforts undertaken in France. Examinations by other authors have highlighted Protestant endeavors, so Yagil’s focus on Catholic interventions is a welcome addition to the literature about righteous gentiles— those non-Jews who came to the aid of Jews during World War II. Yagil begins by noting the paradox of Jewish survival in France compared to other European nations. Although almost a quarter of the Jews in France—especially foreign-born Jewish refugees—were deported to death camps, an astounding 75 percent survived. This is in contrast to neighboring countries like the Netherlands (with 80 percent deported) and Belgium (with 45 percent deported). Although part of the explanation may lie in France’s topography and politics, a large part of Jewish survival according to the author was due to the efforts of bishops, priests, seminarians, men and women religious, and lay Catholics. An important distinction that Yagil makes throughout the book is between public pronouncements condemning anti-Jewish laws, internment camps, and deportations, and the secret—and more important in her view—actions that occurred in church sanctuaries, behind convent and monastery walls, and with church approval. These covert undertakings required formal church involvement, such as issuing baptismal certificates, work permits, enrollment documents, identity cards, and travel authorizations. While the creation of paperwork may appear trivial, these documents were required for employment, education, travel, and obtaining basic necessities under the Nazi Occupation. Other activities, which frequently required church oversight and funding, included offering housing, providing schooling, hiding refugees, and, on occasion, smuggling Jews out of the country. The heart and soul of the book comprises seven chapters that recount the actions of each and every diocese before and during the war. This is a monumental body of research, which Yagil obtained by scouring diocesan records, ledgers, letters, speeches, and other documents. She begins in the south of France, on the border with Spain along the Pyrenees. This was the most dangerous location for rescue given the fact that most of the French internment camps were located here, and the Gestapo patrolled the border for those in flight. Networks of clerics, religious, and lay Catholics, working with Jews, Protestants, and Communists, ran large and small operations. She concludes with consideration of the diocese of Paris and dioceses in the west. Yagil discusses the question of conversion, especially of Jewish children, throughout the book and asserts that ecclesiastical leadership strongly condemned conversionary efforts. The historian could find no directive to convert in any of the archives she examined and takes pains to reiterate the claim that a false baptismal certificate was not considered a conversion. She states that no more than forty or fifty children were converted, out of 10,500 rescued. Like the issue of baptism and conversion, the question of Pope Pius XII’s role during World War II is also addressed. According to Yagil, the pontiff provided financial help and tacit support to the dioceses of France. The pope’s silence, she writes, “hides concretely the many discreet initiatives of rescue and mutual aid” that occurred in Italy, other European countries, and in particular, France (p. 333). The great strength of Des catholiques au secours des Juifs sous l’Occupation, however, is its detailed presentation of the actions of ordinary, and extraordinary, Catholics in every diocese in France. Limore Yagil relates countless stories of heroism, based on meticulous research. One comes away from this book with deep appreciation for the leadership shown at all levels of the Church. It is to be hoped, therefore, that an English translation of this valuable book will be available in the near future.

The book may be purchased on amazon.fr: HERE.

Prof. Limore Yagil (born in 1961 in Haifa, Israel) is an Israeli historian who has been naturalized as French and is fluent in French. She specializes in the cultural and political history of France during the Second World War, with a particular focus on the history of Vichy.

She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from Tel Aviv University, and in 1992, she obtained her doctorate from Sciences Po Paris. Since that year, she has been a lecturer at Tel Aviv University and the University of Haifa, as well as at Bar-Ilan University, where she teaches French history and civilization. In 2010, she was appointed as a professor and authorized to direct research (HDR) at Paris-Sorbonne University, and in 2021, she took a similar position at Bar-Ilan University in Israel.

Limore Yagil is the author of a doctoral thesis at the Institute of Political Studies (1992) titled "The New Man and the National Revolution of Vichy: A Study of Its Regime, Ideology, and Practices." Following that, she published several books on the subject. Her habilitation thesis, defended at the University of Paris-Sorbonne in 2010, focuses on the relations between Jewish and non-Jewish artists in France before 1940 and their rescue. This dissertation was revised and later published by Fayard in 2015.

She is also among the few historians who have conducted research in the archives of Pope Pius XII, which were opened in 2021 by the Vatican. Her research clearly demonstrates the connections between the Vatican and the bishops in France, as well as in other European countries, and their numerous interventions towards the Jewish community, particularly those of Rome and Poland, which were always discreetly handled by the Pope.

On January 27, 2020, the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations, together with the Pave the Way Foundation, sponsored a conference entitled “Remembering the Holocaust: The Documented Truth about the Holy See and the Catholic Church to Save Lives.” It was held in the Trusteeship Council Chamber at United Nations Headquarters to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. 

Professor Limore Yagil spoke about “The Role of the Catholic Church in France, the Saving of the Jews and the Ties with the Vatican.” She highlighted the relationship between Christians and Jews and the role of the Catholic Church in France leading up to and during World War II. She focused on the efforts of bishops in the Church in France to save Jews and the direct ties they had with the Vatican, showing in detail how Catholic leaders and networks in France tried to prevent the Holocaust and how their efforts led to saving at least 200,000 French Jews from extermination in the concentration camps.