International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations

Representing:

American Jewish Committee, Anti-Defamation League, B’nai B’rith International, Central Conference of American Rabbis, Israel Jewish Council on Interreligious Relations, Rabbinical Assembly, Rabbinical Council of America, Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, World Jewish Congress

July 22, 2001

A Catholic-Jewish commission of historians, created jointly by the Vatican and an international Jewish interreligious committee to review published archival material related to the Holy See's activities during World War II, has suspended its study because of "lack of positive response" to its appeal for additional documentation. The scholars have also asked that the Holy See open its archives covering that era.

Seymour D. Reich, chairman of the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations (IJCIC), expressed "deep disappointment" at the lack of an affirmative reply by the Vatican to a preliminary report by the joint commission of historians entitled "The Vatican and the Holocaust."

The Catholic-Jewish study was established in October 1999 as a joint undertaking by the Holy See's Commission for Religious Relations With the Jews and IJCIC. Three of the six scholars on the panel were appointed by the Vatican commission and three by the Jewish committee. They agreed to undertake a review of 11 volumes of already-published Vatican records from the World War II period and "to pose questions about unresolved matters" in the published documentation. The panel's preliminary report, issued in October 2000, concluded that its review of the unpublished material raised many questions, listing 47 issues by way of illustration, requiring additional documentation from the Vatican's unpublished archives.

In response, Walter Cardinal Kasper, recently appointed president of the Holy See's Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, stated in a letter to the historians, dated June 21, that "the Vatican archives are accessible only until 1923" and that access "after that date is not possible at present for technical reasons." He asked the panel to prepare a final report about the history of the Holy See during the Holocaust from the material it already reviewed.

In a letter to Cardinal Kasper dated July 20 and signed by all five of its members, the panel cited "a seeming misunderstanding between you and the scholars on the very terms of our work."

The five signers included the two Catholic members: Reverend Gerald P. Fogarty, S.J., the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Religious Studies and History, University of Virginia, and Reverend John F. Morley, Associate Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Seton Hall University, New Jersey; and the three Jewish scholars: Dr. Michael R, Marrus, Professor of History and Dean of the School of Graduate Studies, University of Toronto; Dr, Bernard Suchecky, Researcher, Department of Social Sciences, Free University of Brussels, Belgium, and Dr. Robert S. Wistrich, Professor of History and holder of the Neuberger Chair in Modern Jewish Studies, Hebrew University, Jerusalem. Dr. Eva Fleischner, Professor Emerita of Montclair Share University, New Jersey; a Catholic appointee, was the sixth member of the academic team but retired from the panel after the work of the preliminary report was completed.

In their joint letter, the historians noted that their mandate was to examine the 11 volumes of Vatican archival material published between 1965 and 1981-- known as the Actes et documents du Saint Siège relatifs à la Seconde guerre mondiale -- and "to pose questions about any matters we believed were unresolved in the published documentation."

They said they agreed to this "unusually limited mandate" because they hoped to contribute to "a more balanced public discussion" of the complex historical issue regarding the policies and actions of the Holy See during World War II and "because we were at the same time hopeful that the process we began might promote the advisability of opening the archives for the period of the Second World War."

The historians' letter acknowledged that while their work is not complete, "we have made our best case for responsible historical inquiry" and "set a framework for a balanced approach."

The scholars asserted that without some positive response to their request for unpublished Vatican archival material, "we could not maintain our credibility with the many voices, Catholic, Jewish and others, who have called for greater availability of archival material" and added: "We therefore cannot see a way forward at present to the final report that you request, and believe that we must therefore suspend our work."

Mr. Reich noted that despite the Holy See's policy of keeping its archives closed for many years after an event, Pope Paul VI in 1964 made an unprecedented decision to override its policy by giving archival access to the four Jesuit scholars who prepared the publication of the 11 volumes of materials that were the basis of the Catholic-Jewish historical panel's preliminary report. "In that case, why not also give archival access to the Catholic-Jewish panel and to other respected historians," Mr. Reich said.

END