November 1938: Perspectives from the Vatican Archives

This lecture will discuss the concerns and preoccupations that shaped the Holy See's muted response to the November 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom. The Holy See declined an open condemnation of the pogrom, despite receiving full reports about this landmark event and encouragement to speak out about it from Cardinal Arthur Hinsley, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster in the United Kingdom. This lecture is based on the records of the Vatican nunciatures (diplomatic headquarters) in Munich and Berlin during the 1930s, released in Rome in 2003 and available for research at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Dr Suzanne Brown-Fleming is Director of Visiting Scholar Programs at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies (CAHS) and a former Center Fellow (2000). She is author of The Holocaust and Catholic Conscience: Cardinal Aloisius Muench and the Guilt Question in Germany.

Source: http://www.culture24.org.uk/am52233?id=EVENT451124