Film still from a 1939 Universal Newsreel showing Pope Pius XI on the balcony at the Basilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome. US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives & Records Administration
In 1933, most Germans belonged to a Christian church. While one in three German Christians (around 20 million) were Roman Catholic, the Jewish community represented less than one percent of the population. As the Nazi Party’s power and antisemitism spread across Europe, how did one of the world’s most influential institutions—the Catholic Church—address and confront the regime and its laws, particularly the persecution of Jews?
Holy Silence is a new thought-provoking documentary that examines the role that leaders inside the Vatican and in the United States played in shaping the Church's response to the rising Nazi threat across Europe. Join us for a special screening of Holy Silence followed by a conversation examining this history.
Speakers
Peter Eisner, Author, The Pope’s Last Crusade: How an American Jesuit Helped Pope Pius XI’s Campaign to Stop Hitler
Steven Pressman, Director and producer, Holy Silence and Emmy-nominated 50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus
Moderator
Dr. Suzanne Brown-Fleming, Director of International Academic Programs, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and author, The Holocaust and Catholic Conscience: Cardinal Aloisius Muench and the Guilt Question in Germany
Tickets cost $10 per person and this program is open to the public.
For more information, please contact the Gordon Center at info@gordoncenter.com or 347.225.8769.
