The Catholic Church and the Jews

The impact of events in Nazi Germany and in Europe during World War II was keenly felt in Argentina, a country with an especially large Catholic community. This meticulously researched study illuminates the relationship between the Catholic Church in Argentina and the local Jewish community during the Nazi era (1933-45). Although the complex role of the Vatican in the Holocaust is now well known, what was the stance of the powerful Catholic Church in a country that harboured large numbers of both Jewish and Nazi refugees?In "The Catholic Church and the Jews", Uruguay-born historian Graciela Ben-Dror assesses the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Jewish community in Argentina by examining a number of interconnected issues: the history of anti-semitism in the country; the differing attitudes of the Catholic hierarchy and lower clergy to Jews and Nazism; the church's treatment of Jewish refugees - locally, nationally, and globally; the church's view of the Holocaust; and, the long-term effects of those turbulent years.The Catholic Church and the Jews is a nuanced portrait of a church during dark times - a church wrestling with conflicting policies and feelings toward Jews within the borders of Argentina and their mass extermination elsewhere.