The Holocaust and Catholic conscience : Cardinal Aloisius Muench and the guilt question in Germany / Suzanne Brown-Fleming.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brown-Fleming, Suzanne.

Contributor:

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Muench, Aloisius J. (Aloisius Joseph), 1889-1962.

Muench, Aloisius J.

Catholic Church.

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Moral and ethical aspects.

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945).

World War, 1939-1945--Religious aspects--Catholic Church.

World War, 1939-1945.

Catholic Church--Foreign relations--Germany.

International relations.

Germany--Foreign relations--Catholic Church.

Germany.

Christianity and antisemitism--History--20th century.

Christianity and antisemitism.

History.

Germany--History--1945-1955.

Physical Description:

xiv, 240 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Notre Dame, Ind. : University of Notre Dame Press, [2006]

Summary:

American-born Cardinal Aloisius Muench (1889-1962) was a key figure in German and German-American Catholic responses to the Holocaust, Jews, and Judaism between 1946 and 1959. He was arguably the most powerful American Catholic figure and an influential Vatican representative in occupied Germany and in West Germany after the war. In this carefully researched book, which draws on Muench's collected papers, Suzanne Brown-Fleming offers the first assessment of Muench's legacy and provides a rare glimpse into his commentary on Nazism, the Holocaust, and surviving Jews. She argues that Muench helped legitimize the Catholic Church's failure during the 1940s and 1950s to confront the nature of its own complicity in Nazism's anti-Jewish ideology. This fascinating story of Muench's role in German Catholic consideration-and ultimate rejection-of guilt and responsibility for Nazism in general, and the persecution of European Jews in particular, is an important addition to scholarship on the Holocaust and to church history.

Contents:

Introduction : Aloisius Muench and the question of guilt and responsibility

The life and career of Aloisius Muench

Excusing the Holocaust : the sensation of One world in charity

Comfort and consensus : Muench and the German Catholic hierarchy, clergy, and laity

Granting absolution : Muench and the Catholic clemency campaign

The longest hatred

Conclusion : the Holocaust and Catholic conscience.

Notes:

"Published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum."

Includes bibliographical references (pages 216-226) and index.

ISBN:

0268021864

0268021872

OCLC:

61454002