Gitta Sereny

Drawing upon her interviews with Franz Stangl, his family, and people influenced by him, the author defines his role as the head of a Nazi extermination camp

An Examination of Conscience

Into that Darkness

Stefano Zorzi

Having examined again the reasons for the silence of Pope Pius XI, and disregarding for a moment the indisputable moral obliga- tion, we must ask the tragic question whether, if the Pope from the very beginning had taken a decisive stand against euthanasia, against the systematic debilitation by forced labour, starvation, sterilization and murder of the Eastern European populations, and finally against the extermination of the Jews, this could have affected the conscience of individual Catholics who were directly or indirectly implicated in these matters, enough to force the Nazis to change their policies. I have deliberately put this question into a chronological sequence, because it can only be answered by considering one development after another. We have seen in the preceding pages, on the basis of documents and events, how aware Hitler was of the importance of Catholic opinion. And we have seen in the statements of individuals con- cerned, such as Stangl and his wife, how much the tacit approval of the Church contributed to the pacification of their conscience. I think there is a valid comparison to be made between Stangl's (one individual's) and the Vatican's (fundamentally another indivi- dual's) step-by-step acquiescence to increasingly terible acts. The Very first failure to say 'No" was fatal, each succeeding step merely confirming the original and basic moral flaw. 

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