Yours is a Precious Witness: Memoirs of Jews and Catholics in Wartime Italy

by Margherita Marchione

Book Overview

Mainly using untapped oral histories of Italian Jews and Catholics, this book shows that Catholics in Italy who saved Jews firmly believed they were doing so in consonance with the Pope's wishes.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0809104857
• ISBN13: 9780809104857
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Paulist Press
• Length: 258 Pages
• Weight: 1.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A Good Start in Resurrecting an Honorable Pope's Reputation

This reviewer read Sister Marchione's YOURS IS A PRECIOUS WITNESS when the book was first published in 1997 and was impressed by it. Sister Marchione demonstrates a passion for her work, and her book undermines Pope Pius XII's critics. Sister Marchione condenses an array of evidence based on documents, interviews, anecdotes, etc. to illustrate that Pope Pius XII was a hero who worked tirelessly to save hundreds of thousands of Jews in Italy during W. W.II. Part one of the book gives the Italian historical background of Italian attempts to rescue those whom the Italian and later German authorities had designated for concentration camps. Part two of YOURS IS A PRECIOUS WITNESS details the efforts of the Catholic Church authorities and their religious to use any means possible to rescue Jews in different areas of Italy. This section of the book is important in that Sister Marchione makes clear that these efforts were sponsored by Pope Pius XII who knew very well that the German political leadership were incensed at these efforts. What may interest readers is that Hitler had a plan to invade the Vatican, massacre the Catholic leadership, and relocate the Papacy in Lichenstein. Pope Pius XII knew this at the time, but he did not waiver in his efforts to rescue Italian Jews. What should also be known that while the Catholic priests, nuns, sisters, monks, etc. were taking great risks, these brave men and women were operating under Pope Pius XII's policies and direct orders. In other words, Sister Marchione makes clear that these efforts, which the German and Italian Fascist authorities considered illegal and subversive, had both the blessing and the sanction of Pope Pius XII. Sister Marchione demonstrates in a book of 203 pages of text a concise record of Pope Pius XII's courage, class, and determination to fullfill his mission as Christ's Vicar. Sister Marchione has included appendices, document listings, and a good bibliography that will lead the interested reader to numerous resources that clearly vindicate Pope Pius XII. While Sister Marchione's book is not combative in any obvious sense, she undermines the mainstream media's view of Pope Pius XII. What may be amusing to readers is that during Pope Pius XII's lifetime, THE NEW YORK TIMES editors and writers praised Pope Pius XII's rare courage and determination. The current gurus of THE NEW YORK TIMES should read YOURS IS A PRECIOUS WITNESS to know just how wrong they are today. In other words, THE NEW YORK TIMES editors are either so incredibly stupid or biased, that reading this book would correct their own anti-Catholic stupidity. One should further note that Sister Marchione is a first class scholar. Her book is lucid and would be useful to both professional historians and laymen alike. This reviewer highly recommends this book.

Marchione Does It Again

All of Marchione's books on Pius XII are the sort of straight forward, fact filled, indisputable studies Catholic haters like to suppress. I've seen no editorial reviews of this unusual contribution to setting the record straight. The book is filled with personal stories, told by Jews and Catholics who were there. If you want a more traditional approach to the matter, try Marchione's "Pope Pius XII:Architect of Peace" and her scholarly "Consensus & Controversy".If you like memoirs and first hand accounts, also read Chief Rabbi of Rome during the Nazi occupation Eugenio Zolli's "Before the Dawn", republished recently as "Why I Became A Catholic".

Truth at last

The book clearly documents how Pius XII and Italian Catholics saved thousands of Jewish lives. This is a tribute to the heroic efforts of the Vatican to save Jews. No "silence" here.

Documents, please

The strength of the book is simply its evidence: thousands of documents (letters, newspaper reports, chancery reports, diplomatic cables) showing the heroic efforts of Pius XII to save persecuted Jews and Christians during World War II. No silence here---only determined diplomatic and humanitarian charity.

An eye opening book for all concerned about the Holocaust.

Like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, Pius XII, the Vatican, and the Catholic Church, cry out to the world; "There is no need for us to defend ourselves before you in this matter!" (Deuteronomy 3) The scorching flames of revisionists and those who have made Pius XII a scapegoat for others failures can not destroy the living and documented record of the man who saved more Jews than all the Churches and rescue organizations combined. When Pius's public words only brought about more suffering and death, this great diplomat quietly went into action and threw open the doors and treasury of the Church. Written with the help of the memory of the Jews who suffered in Italy, and those who worked in diplomatic circles at the time,one quickly sees that actions do speak louder than words. Let what others have shamefully done to the memory of this great man be a lesson to others who truely want to learn from history. For no one did more to stop the Holocaust, including Shindler and Wallenberg, and yet no one has been more unjustly blamed than this, the loneliest of voices from World War II, and the greatest of all the righteous gentiles.