'Why were you Catholics so awful to the Jews during the War?'

Some controversies just won't lie down and die. Pius XII and the Holocaust is one of them. I know this because I was at a dinner party recently and was introduced to an elderly German of Jewish origin. An architect by profession, he was the soul of culture and courtesy, as one would expect. He had been to a recent performance of Billy Budd at Glyndebourne and enjoyed singing madrigals with his wife.

He reminisced about his boyhood during the War, lying low in Berlin. Then there was a pause in the conversation and he leaned forward. With a slightly apologetic air, he said, "I hope you don't mind my asking, but why were you Catholics so awful to the Jews during the War?"