Gary Krupp, President of the Pave the Way Foundation, is a Jewish man who has been knighted by two popes (John Paul II and Benedict XVI) for his good works.

Through their PTWF organization, he and his wife Meredith use the media to promote religious tolerance and understanding. According to them, one of the biggest areas of misunderstanding between Christians and Jews is the tragically mistaken belief that, during the Holocaust, Pope Pius XII at best was silent and at worst was an anti-Semite himself who tacitly supported the Hitler’s demonic plan to exterminate the Jews. They say that not only was he not an anti-Semite but that he was a hero who saved an extraordinary number of Jewish people during one of history’s darkest events.

Through the media, the PTWF is attempting to restore the reputation of a man Krupp says has had his record systematically distorted (also through the media).

In the early sixties, the dramatic play The Deputy: A Christian Tragedy depicted Pius XII  as a hypocrite who failed to speak out or take action against the Holocaust. Krupp suggests the work was part of a calculated Soviet plan during the Cold War to discredit the Church that, unfortunately, was largely successful. But the truth, he convincingly maintains, was quite the reverse.

The PTWF is in the midst of a campaign to release documents he says proves that Pius XII worked tirelessly and heroically to save Jewish lives during a period of great peril for the Church as well.  He plans to utilize the media (including books and films) to get the word out and correct what he considers to be a great misunderstanding of the 20th century.

A recent press release put out by the Pave the Way Foundation is, I think, worth reading.  Here it is:

Documents prove the Vatican’s actions to save Jews in 1938 triggered by Kristallnacht

New York June 29, 2010- Pave the Way Foundation (PTWF) has announced Vatican document discoveries of great importance. Gary Krupp, President of PTWF, said that “in the furtherance of our mission to identify and eliminate non-theological obstacles between religions we have indentified the papacy of Pope Pius XII as a period, which negatively impacts over one billion people. PTWF has undertaken our document retrieval project of the war time era to publicly post as many documents and eye witness testimonies as possible to bring the truth to light. To this date we have over 40,000 pages of documents, eyewitness videos, and news articles on our website www.ptwf.org help historians research this period.”

Historian and PTWF representative from Germany Michael Hesemann, has been regularly visiting the recently opened Vatican Secret Archives and continues to make significant discoveries. His latest study of the original documents that were previously published, reveal secret actions to save thousands of Jews as early as 1938, 3 weeks after Kristallnacht.

Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (Pope Pius XII) sent a telex November 30, 1938 to the Nunciatures and Apostolic Delegations as well as a letter to 61 Archbishops in the Catholic world requesting 200,000 visas for “Non Aryan Catholics” three weeks after Kristallnacht; In addition he sent additional letters dated January 9, 1939. Michael Hesemann stated that “the fact that in this letter speaks of ‘ebrei convertiti’ (converted Jews), and ‘non-Aryan Catholics’ indeed seems to be a cover. You couldn’t be sure that Nazi agents wouldn’t learn about this initiative. Pacelli had to make sure they don’t misuse it for their propaganda, that they could not claim that ‘the Church is an ally of the Jews”‘ (indeed the Nazis already used the phrase ‘the Jews and their black (Church) and red (Bolshevik) allies’ in their propaganda), which would cause a persecution of the Church in Nazi Germany. The concordat of 1933 singed with Germany, also guaranteed that converted Jews would be treated as Christians and using this legal position enabled Pacelli to help “Catholic Non-Aryans”. One clue that he is not just referring to ‘converted Jews’ is clearly revealed when Pacelli asks that the Archbishops, “care should be taken that sanctuaries are provided to safeguard their spiritual welfare and to protect their religious cult, customs and traditions’. (Latin: ‘ubi ipsis propria sint aedes sacra, propria schola et propria ea omnia quae ad religionis cultum, instituta et mores pertinent.’)”

Indeed converted Jews in Germany never had any sanctuaries, customs, or traditions on their own. With their conversion, they just became normal Catholics. Further proof of the real intent of the Vatican requests comes
from reading the original responses of the bishops and Nuncios on Pacelli’s request. The bishops often referred to the “persecuted Jews”, not to “converted Jews” or “Non Aryan Catholics”.

Although it is widely acknowledged by historians that Pacelli interceded to save thousands of “converted Jews”, many base their conclusions on their cursory reading of letters and Vatican documents. Since many of the critics of this papacy have not yet accepted the proven Nazi threat against the Vatican State and the life of Pope Pius XII directly, they seem not to understand that there was a need for deception sending only encrypted or verbal directives. In many cases the historians are ignorant of the unique Vatican language sometimes using ancient Latin to express the hidden meaning of these requests. High Vatican officials have verified to us that the terms Non-Aryan Catholics, non-Aryans, Catholic Jews all indeed meant Jews. We were told that if documents were intercepted, this deception would not raise a red flag since the concordat signed in 1933 specifically provided protection for Jews who converted to Christianity.

Chairman of Pave the Way Foundation, Elliot Hershberg, has stated that “PTWF will continue to reveal as many documents as possible since everything we have found thus far seems to indicate the known negative perception of Pope Pius XII is wrong. We also believe that many Jews who were successful in leaving Europe may not have had any idea that their visas and travel documents were obtained through these Vatican efforts.”

Renowned scholar Professor Ronald Rychlak and author of the recently reprinted Hitler, the War and the Pope, said, “PTWF has located document after document showing the good works of Pope Pius XII and the Catholic Church. This is another confirmation of those good works.  The important aspect of this document is that it shows what many of us have been saying all along: efforts that appear to have been directed to protect only converted Jews actually protected Jews regardless of whether they had converted.”