60 years later, baptized Jews deserve truth from Vatican
by K.... <p@[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Jan 24, 2005 at 01:15 PM
60 years later, baptized Jews deserve truth from Vatican
Sunday, January 23, 2005
Now I understand. The recently discovered document in which the
Vatican instructed its representatives in France after World War II to
prevent baptized Jewish children from being returned to their
families, finally makes clear to me what happened to me as a "Hidden
Child" after the war.
Like the many thousands of Jews who probably were saved because
Catholic individuals, families and institutions chose to take in
Jewish children whose parents were being dragged off to the
concentration camps, I was one of those children. My nanny took me in.
She persuaded a priest in the Lithuanian city we had reached, after
fleeing our home in Poland as we tried to stay ahead of the Nazis, to
baptize me and falsify records to show that I was born to a Catholic
family. Clearly, she could not have done this without the approval
involvement and support of the priest, the church and the church
hierarchy.
It also is clear that without the baptism, many of those who took in
Jewish children would have found themselves in a far more dangerous
situation where exposure was more likely and retribution by the Nazis
a certainty.
I long have believed that there are many stories of acts of courage by
Catholics that have not seen the light of day. Unfortunately, there is
a troubling negative side to this history that now has been compounded
by the revelation about orders from the Vatican. (The story, broken by
The New York Times' Elaine Sciolino, appeared in The Post on Jan. 9,
"1946 letter reopens Holocaust wounds.")
Most Jewish children who were taken in and baptized were not as
fortunate as I was. My parents survived the camps and the ghetto and
returned to claim their child. Possibly thousands of others,
particularly in Poland, where by far the largest numbers of Jews were
taken away, but in other European countries as well, were raised as
Catholics and never have been told to this day of their true origins.
That is why 10 years ago, in a meeting with Pope John Paul II, I
called on the Vatican to recommend to the dioceses throughout Europe,
but especially in Poland, France and Belgium, that they open the
baptismal records of children saved by Catholics during the war. I
argued then, as I do now, that this would give the "Hidden Children"
an opportunity to discover their true origins and possibly a return to
their original faith, while providing a magnificent story of courage
by Catholics. In the hell that was the Holocaust, this is one bright
shining light.
The disclosure about the Vatican directive to French authorities after
the war adds a new dimension to the issue in general and to my
personal experience. When my parents returned to claim me, my nanny, a
pious Catholic, refused to return me to my parents and my faith. This
resulted in a series of kidnappings and a custody battle. For many
years, my parents could not fathom my nanny's sudden change of heart
and her determined effort to keep me. The recent disclosure sadly
sheds light on her actions.
More broadly, the directive, which most likely was not limited to
France but reached Catholic clergy throughout Europe, adds a level of
responsibility for the church to actively participate in revealing the
truth about those who were baptized. In other words, it is not only a
question of providing an opportunity for people born Jewish to learn
of their origins, even if it is 60 years later, though that is
sufficient reason in itself. It is also a question of the church
making right a directive which had a profound imprint on the lives of
thousands of people and which is inconsistent with the many positive
changes that have taken place in the Vatican attitudes toward Jews and
Judaism in the past half-century.
A lot of things can be set right, even at this late date, if access to
historical records is provided. Acts of heroism can be known, a
special class of Holocaust survivors can connect to their past, and
the church can act today in a positive way to ameliorate past
decisions. Now is the time to act, because time is running out.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2005/01/23/a1e_foxman_0123.html
