It’s been two decades of answering questions from participants on my walking tours through the Jewish Museum of Rome and the Vatican Museums.

Did Pope Pius XII act or fail to act because of indifference, malice, or benevolence?

In my work as a scholar and a licensed and accredited tour guide in Rome, including the Jewish Museum and the Vatican Museum, I am experiencing the spread of two forms of wrong information: misinformation and disinformation by both scholars and colleague tour guides in Rome regarding Pope Pius XII and the Roman Jews. There is no doubt that these two words, so often used interchangeably, but there is one critical distinction between these confusing words: intent.

I have returned to academia to complete my Doctor in Science of Jewish Studies (a lifelong dream of achieving a higher education). I hope to interview Jewish and Christian authors, who have written extensively about Pope Pius XII and the Jews of Rome.

I was fortunate to be introduced to Gary Krupp many years ago, in which his guidance has opened many doors for me within the Vatican, Europe, and the United States. It is an honour for me to begin my series of interview sessions with Gary Krupp.

The distinction between misinformation and disinformation is similar and sometimes interconnected, and so get used interchangeably in the scholarship regarding Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust. But doesn’t accuracy matter?

One of the most important principles in Jewish tradition is showing gratitude to those who risked their lives to save us.

In 2006, when I met with the chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel, Yona Metzger, I revealed to him the shocking discoveries I unearthed of the actions of the Catholic Church during the worst events in Jewish history of the Holocaust. He told me “Ingratitude is considered one of the worst characters flaws a Jew can have.” Rabbi Metzger encouraged me and blessed me for this effort. From that time forward, I’ve been searching for documented proof worldwide of the events of those terrible years.

Since 2006, my wife Meredith and I have used our unique, trusted relationship with the Vatican State to discover and publish online the documented truth of events of World War II. We personally met with Pope Benedict XVI 19 times and obtained papal permission to publish documents that are the property of the Holy See.

Ironically, I was asked in 2006 by the executive director of the NY Board of Rabbis to request Vatican access for a Jewish author, Dan Kurzman, to research his book "The Secret Mission." Kurzman based his book on his interviews with General Karl Wolff, the Nazi Commander for Italy, and Himmler’s deputy on Hitler’s order to develop a plan to invade the Vatican and kill the pope. I asked why Hitler would order the killing of “Hitler’s Pope.”

We honestly felt that we would be praised by our co-religionists for revealing documentation that, up to that point, was undiscovered. Quite the opposite happened when we reported that it was Pope Pius XII that acted directly to save what is today believed to be 1 million Jewish lives during the war throughout the world, which represents today 25% of the world’s Jewish population, I was ridiculed online and called an amateur and a puppet of the Vatican by those whose published works were proven factually incorrect.

When I approached the chief Rabbi of Rome with this information, he said, “I know better. I studied this, and you are doing nothing but paving the way to the pope's canonization. Amazingly, he would not be alive today without the direct intervention of Pope Pius XII to save the Jews of Rome. Other rabbis additionally would condemn what we discovered, refusing to study these documents and proof. This I found inexcusable.

Not being a historian, I grew up believing that these experts revealed the true history. I was shocked when I was researching these events in multiple countries, to realize that there have been literally millions of pages of wartime documents available since the end of World War II that literally none of these “scholars” ever bothered to study.

There are many nefarious motivations lurking behind the creation of disinformation regarding Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust in general? Can you elaborate?

The original disinformation program was promoted by the Soviet KGB operation “Seat 12,” five years after the death of Pope Pius XII. The KGB said, “dead men can’t defend themselves.”

“Operation Seat 12” was based on the international fictitious play “The Deputy", which premiered in New York, where it won a Tony Award. In addition, it was performed in London and Tel Aviv, portraying the pope in a negative light relative to his actions during the horrible years of the Shoah. When the play was performed in New York City, fights broke out in the audience involving Jewish people who were witnesses to the life-saving effort of Pius and so we’re so upset by these false allegations.

When distinguishing between misinformation and disinformation regarding Pope Pius XII, I try to understand the author's “intent” because both words refer to types of wrong or false information, however, ‘disinformation’ is wrong on purpose. Can you elaborate?

The notoriety of the fictitious play now opens the door for many so-called historians to publish books on the pope’s perceived indifference to the plight of the Jewish people. In the Jewish world, this accusation was an effective fundraising mechanism that sadly demonized someone who saved what is today 25% of the world’s Jewish population, according to Israeli diplomat and historian Pincus Lapide, in his book “Three popes and the Jews.” I facetiously ask the question! “Why should anyone believe Lapide? After all, he was an Israeli diplomat and historian who lived through the war and was an eyewitness to the church’s lifesaving efforts.”

The 76,000 pages of primary source documentation, which we have published on our website, unquestionably disprove all these accusations. Please visit our commentary on this, including links to original documents at Observations On The Credibility Of Today's Historians.

The reality is that today’s academics need to be published, if they want to advance in their academic career. The media paradigm today is that an anti-religion manuscript is far easier to get published than a manuscript defending religion. This is also true with international media reviews of the published works. The truth is that many of the so-called historians' statements are provably false. The authors cannot substantiate their commentary with actual proof; they only provide questionable citations and references.

There are many nefarious motivations lurking behind the creation of disinformation regarding Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust in general? Or is it misinformation? Can you elaborate?

Disinformation is the intentional distortion of facts to fit a hidden agenda. Misinformation is simply based on low information and ignorance. An excellent example of ignorance on this subject is the perception that what the pope is empowered to do according to Canon Law. As an example, there is a small convent next to the Apostolic Palace. The pope does not have the power to order the superior of that convent to do anything. All he can do is ask the superior to help, most did help, and some did not. Unfortunately, the “low information” scholars and the public think that all the popes must do is order his followers to do this or that. This was not true in 1939 and is not true today.

In the countless secondary sources, I have read and researched for the past twenty years, I find many scholars have an intent to deliberately write misleading or biased information and/or have manipulated facts to fit their narrative?

Not being a historian, I grew up believing that these scholars revealed true history. My shock came when I began our research in 2006 researching in multiple countries. I was surprised to realize that there have been literally millions of pages of wartime documents available since the end of World War II. These are in the archives of every Catholic community and nunciature around the world and in the archives of warring countries as well. Literally none of these experts ever bothered to research these documents, they only wanted to see the “Secret Archives” (now called the “Apostolic Archives"), which contains only a fraction of evidence of WWII actions. As an example, Mark Riebling’s book “Church of Spies” has documented Pope Pius XII actions and involvement of every assassination attempt to kill Adolf Hitler. Mark did all the research in the British and American archives. Not one word of these actions would be found in the Apostolic Vatican Archives.

In addition, I discovered that literally every Jewish personality and organization (Albert Einstein, Golda Meir, Chaim Weizmann, Moshe Sharett, Sir Martin Gilbert, Chief Rabbis of Palestine, Egypt, Denmark, Romania, and two Chief Rabbis of Rome, B’nai Brith, World Jewish Congress, in 1949 the entire Jewish community of Italy, etc.), who lived through the war and experienced the actions of the Catholic Church had a positive recollection of events. The critics of Pius XII, all born after the war and having no life experience of military reality or living under the Nazi regime, have a negative impression.

The best example of this inexplicable difference of opinion is with David Kertzer, who wrote 2 negative books about the actions of the church (one won a Pulitzer Prize). His father, however, Rabbi Morris N. Kertzer, who served in the army during WWII, said in a June 22, 1944 interview in the Iowa City Press-Citizen, “The role of the pope and his many monasteries who hid the Jews from the nazis and surreptitiously fed them, when detection could well result in the seizure of the Vatican by the nazis, is in my mind a bright addition to the story of Christianity.”

Another example of this reality is in Susan Zuccotti’s book “Under His Very Windows: The Vatican and the Holocaust in Italy,” Zuccotti met in Assisi, Italy with eyewitness Msgr. Aldo Brunacci. (a Righteous Among Nations award recipient) where she completely discounted his testimony of the letter received from Pope Pius XII to Archbishop of Assisi, Giuseppe Placido Nicolini, to do everything possible to save the Jews. In addition, in the archives of the church of Santa Maria dell' Anima, which is the national church of the Germans in Rome, Zuccotti was referred to in the documents of the events of the roundup of the Roman Jews on October 16, 1943.

Pope Pius XII acted directly through the German Rome administrator, General Renier Stahel, to end the arrest of the Roman Jews at 2 PM the day it began, resulting in saving and hiding an estimated 10,000 Jews (including Jews from other countries seeking protection). She also doesn’t acknowledge the telegram from Berlin ordering the 8000 Jews of Rome to be sent to the work camp at Mauthausen as hostages, not to the death camp of Auschwitz (the orders from Berlin were subsequently overruled by Eichmann). Why didn’t she reveal this? Links to our commentary and primary documents of many of these false actions and statements are available here.

A few months ago, a tourist showed me a photograph published by Newsweek on June 15, 2022, titled “Pulitzer Prize-Winning Historian Details Pius XII’s Troubling Alliances with Mussolini, Hitler” showing Hitler meeting with Pope Pius XII. Do you know who is the man photographed with Hitler?

This article is a prime example of misinformation based on ignorance. The article states that Pius XII had a disturbing line of communications with an example of misinformation with Adolf Hitler and claimed a photograph of Pacelli with Hitler. The fact is that it is a photograph of the Vatican Ambassador to Germany, Archbishop Cesare Vincenzo Orsenigo with Hitler at a diplomatic event in 1939. Pius XII never met Hitler.

Similarly, the cover photo on John Cornwell's (1999) book “Hitler’s Pope”, added to the negativity and subjective commentary, which advanced the change of international sentiment about Pope Pius XII. The book cover is an example of the provocative, negative methodology employed within this book. On the right is the cover of “Hitler’s Pope.” The photo itself was taken in 1927, at the birthday reception of President Von Hindenburg of the Weimer Republic, not the Nazi regime. This photo was intentionally cropped and further altered to inflame emotions. Archbishop Pacelli left Germany in 1929, never to return. Cornwell’s photo credit clearly, but erroneously states that this is Cardinal Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII, leaving the Presidential Palace in Berlin, March 1939. Pacelli was elected Pope on March 3, 1939. The photograph can be found in my book Pope Pius XII and World War II: The Documented Truth: A Compilation of International Evidence Revealing the Wartime Acts of the Vatican (2012).