Was the vatican involved with ODESSA that aided n**i war criminals to escape to Argentina after WW2?

Question

Adam the return, you don't know your history. The German Catholic church supported Hitler. Do you want me to web link the evidences?

Answer 1

Hello,

Rick addressed those ratlines pretty well already.

As for n**i loving catholics, though Hitler felt a particular urgency — and hatred — when dealing with Jews and Communists, he also viewed the Catholic Church as a troublesome opponent, a deeply-entrenched threat that must be controlled and eventually uprooted from German life in order to establish his promised Thousand-Year-Reich. They were hardly friends.

This debate is hotly contested back and forth. What is hard is finding good reliable scholarship on these times. For every good damnation on the actions of the Vatican, one can find good counter arguments and opinions. Here are a few from Jews themselves regarding Catholic involvement, especially the Pope's::

Golda Meir, President of Israel: "We share in the grief of humanity [at the death of Pius XII]. When fearful martyrdom came to our people in the decade of n**i terror, the voice of the pope was raised for the victims. The life of our times was enriched by a voice speaking out on the great moral truths above the tumult of daily conflict. We mourn a great servant of peace".

Rabbi Louis Finkelstein, chancellor, Jewish Theological Seminary of America: "No keener rebuke has come to Nazism than from Pope Pius XI and his successor, Pope Pius XII."

Rabbi Alexander Safran, chief rabbi of Romania: "In the most difficult hours of which we Jews of Romania have passed through, the generous assistance of the Holy See was decisive and salutary. It is not easy for us to find the right words to express the warmth and consolation we experienced because of the concern of the supreme pontiff, who offered a large sum to relieve the sufferings of deported Jews. The Jews of Romania will never forget these facts of historic importance."

Rabbi Isaac Herzog, chief rabbi of Israel: "The people of Israel will never forget what His Holiness and his illustrious delegates, inspired by the eternal principles of religion, which form the very foundation of true civilization, are doing for our unfortunate brothers and sisters in the most tragic hour of our history, which is living proof of Divine Providence in this world."

Moshe Sharett (who later became Israel's first foreign minister and second prime minister): "I told [Pope Pius XII] that my first duty was to thank him, and through him the Catholic Church, on behalf of the Jewish public for all they had done in the various countries to rescue Jews ... We are deeply grateful to the Catholic Church."

Cheers,

Michael Kelly

Answer 2

i guess the real question is in what wasn't the Vatican involved? lol

Answer 3

I think I remember what you are asking, but when I did a search on "ODESSA" all I came up with was a city on the Black Sea.  I know there was such an organization.  Are you sure of the name/spelling?

"The Odessa Files"  was a 1974 novel set in Peron's Argentina, claiming such a conspiracy, between the Vatican, Argentina, and escaping n***s, was a fact.  The novel appears to have been mostly fiction.  Couldn't find anything supporting the idea that the Catholic church aided escaping n***s.  It is, however, possible -- since Hitler was a lifelong Catholic who enjoyed two audiences with two different Popes.  Hitler also funneled money into Vatican coffers, in exchange for geneological records used to weed out German citizens with any Jewish blood.  

Beyond the above, I'm stumped.

Answer 4

I can't believe the they didn't take out BOTH Eichmann and Mengele...both of them needed to be captured.  I'm sure they could have taken out the creepy doc too if they REALLY wanted to

ADD:  as for the Vatican being involved...we will never know

Answer 5

Perhaps but I'm fairly certain that no compelling evidence will ever be forthcoming so there will only ever be conjecture.

Answer 6

Yes and no.

I do not believe that the Vatican itself was involved with helping n***s escape justice, but a few priests and monks. This was done because the Catholic Church is against the death penalty and therefore it was bound (on a misguided notion) to help even known war criminals escape death. There is also a common theory that the priests that were helping these individuals were not aware of the crimes against humanity that they had committed, but rather the priests/monks weer helping these individuals escape Communist persecution as the Communists were actively killing Germans for revenge. The Communist movement was also extremely anti-religion.

Lets not forget the thousands of Jews and gypsies that were also helped by the church in WW2 for the same reasons.

Although the idea behind it is misguided, one cannot blame the whole Vatican for this error but only the misguided individuals. It is no different than blaming a whole race for the problems created by the few.

Anyway you see it though, one has to admit that the Vatican was somehow responsible for the escape of n**i war criminals and that is a sad chapter in a book full of good deeds.

Answer 7

not likely, seeing as the n***s tried to wipe catholicism off the planet.

though there were several thousands of catholics that helped jews escape the camps.