Sheryl (Momof2boys) reviewed Six Million Crucifixions: How Christian Teachings About Jews Paved the Road to the Holocaust on + 28 more book reviews
The subject of this book is what the Catholic church did and did not do to influence Nazi policy during the Holocaust. This book goes into great detail about the anti-Semitic teachings put forth by the Catholic church from the time of its inception to the years after the Holocaust. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever asked themselves how ordinary citizens could allow the extermination of 6 million Jewish men, women, and children.
I found it quite shocking how all of the Nazi racial purity laws were actually adapted from papal pronouncements made over hundreds of years. According to the author, the Nazis did not have to invent any of their anti-Semitic policies, as they had already been promulgated by papal decree. The papal decrees and the popes who issued them are all set forth in this book.
I did find the organization of this book a bit erratic, and I felt that some of the subject matter was repetitive. It often felt as though I was re-reading earlier sections, as the points made in each section often overlapped other sections. I also felt that at times the language was verbose--I often had to re-read sentences a few times to understand them. These drawbacks notwithstanding, I felt that Six Million Crucifixions is an important tome for anyone striving to understand what could drive ordinary citizens to perform the heinous acts associated with genocide. In my opinion, the fact that the author holds the Vatican responsible for refusing to speak out against the systematic extermination of the Jews, and in doing so, allowed its Christian followers to commit murder without fear of it being immoral, is the most important impact of this important piece of work.
I found it quite shocking how all of the Nazi racial purity laws were actually adapted from papal pronouncements made over hundreds of years. According to the author, the Nazis did not have to invent any of their anti-Semitic policies, as they had already been promulgated by papal decree. The papal decrees and the popes who issued them are all set forth in this book.
I did find the organization of this book a bit erratic, and I felt that some of the subject matter was repetitive. It often felt as though I was re-reading earlier sections, as the points made in each section often overlapped other sections. I also felt that at times the language was verbose--I often had to re-read sentences a few times to understand them. These drawbacks notwithstanding, I felt that Six Million Crucifixions is an important tome for anyone striving to understand what could drive ordinary citizens to perform the heinous acts associated with genocide. In my opinion, the fact that the author holds the Vatican responsible for refusing to speak out against the systematic extermination of the Jews, and in doing so, allowed its Christian followers to commit murder without fear of it being immoral, is the most important impact of this important piece of work.
