Vatican Holocaust ‘Holy Silence’
Could the Catholic Church have done more to save Jews during the Holocaust? The documentary ‘Holy Silence’ provides some answers, revealing the Vatican’s actions and inactions leading up to and during World War II. The film will be shown free of charge online from Aug. 15-22, sponsored by the Jewish Film Institute and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.“I had not really anticipated making another Holocaust-related film after finishing my earlier film, ‘50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus,’” producer-director Steven Pressman told the Journal. “At the time, I was thinking, okay I’ve been immersed in this very dark, horrible period of history for a while now, so maybe it’s time to move on to something else. But I had also been hearing a little bit about the Vatican and the Holocaust from some folks who work at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, whom I had gotten to know while making ‘50 Children.’ In particular, they had been involved for some time in various efforts to gain access to Vatican archives, and I found myself getting a little more drawn into some of the longstanding issues and controversy surrounding the Vatican’s response to the rise of Adolf Hitler and his pursuit of the Final Solution. Ultimately, I decided there was still a pretty dramatic story to tell about this part of history all these decades later.”