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Yad Vashem, the state of Israel's official Holocaust memorial, has generally been critical of Pope Pius XII, the pope during The Holocaust. For decades, Pius XII has been nominated unsuccessfully for recognition as Righteous Among the Nations, an honor Yad Vashem confers on non-Jews who saved Jewish lives during the Holocaust altruistically and at risk to their own lives. ==Museum caption== Prior to July 2012, Yad Vashem affixed the following caption, in English and Hebrew, to two photographs of Pius XII in its Jerusalem memorial: :"In 1933, when he was Secretary of the Vatican State, he was active in obtaining a Concordat with the German regime to preserve the Church's rights in Germany, even if this meant recognizing the Nazi racist regime. When he was elected Pope in 1939, he shelved a letter against racism and anti-Semitism that his predecessor had prepared. Even when reports about the murder of Jews reached the Vatican, the Pope did not protest either verbally or in writing. In December 1942, he abstained from signing the Allied declaration condemning the extermination of the Jews. When Jews were deported from Rome to Auschwitz, the Pope did not intervene. The Pope maintained his neutral position throughout the war, with the exception of appeals to the rulers of Hungary and Slovakia towards its end. His silence and the absence of guidelines obliged Churchmen throughout Europe to decide on their own how to react."〔Etgar Lefkovits, (Vatican to skip Yad Vashem ceremony ), The Jerusalem Post, March 7, 2012.〕 The caption made reference to the following controversies concerning Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust: *His role in the drafting of the ''Reichskonkordat'' *His failure to promulgate ''Humani generis unitas'', "The Hidden Encyclical" of Pius XI *His lack of public protest of the Holocaust *His reaction to the Roman ''razzia'' *The neutrality of Vatican City during World War II In July 2012, the museum "slightly softened its rhetoric" and changed the wording in a way that "incorporates views of those who defend the Pope."〔David Ng, (Israeli Holocaust museum changes exhibit featured Pope Pius XII ), Los Angeles Times, July 2, 2012.〕 An excerpt follows: :The Israeli newspaper Haaretz provided some excerpts from the revised language. The new text cites the pope's defenders, who maintain that his "neutrality prevented harsher measures against the Vatican and the Church's institutions throughout Europe, thus enabling a considerable number of secret rescue activities to take place at different levels of the Church." However, "until all relevant material is available to scholars, this topic will remain open to further inquiry,” the new text reads.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Pope Pius XII and Yad Vashem」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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