Editing Pope Pius XII (section)

===''The Deputy''===
{{Main|The Deputy}}
[[File:1899eugenio.jpg|thumb|right|A rare 1899 handwriting sample of Eugenio Pacelli with text in [[Latin]]]]

In 1963, [[Rolf Hochhuth]]'s controversial drama ''[[The Deputy|Der Stellvertreter. Ein christliches Trauerspiel]]'' (''The Deputy, a Christian tragedy'', released in English in 1964) portrayed Pope Pius XII as a hypocrite who remained silent about the Holocaust. The depiction is described as lacking "credible substantiation" by the ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]''.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/462400/Pius-XII/236598/After-World-War-II ''Pius XII'']; web 26 April 2013</ref> Books such as Joseph Lichten's ''A Question of Judgment'' (1963), written in response to ''The Deputy'', defended Pius XII's actions during the war. Lichten labelled any criticism of the Pope's actions during World War II as "a stupefying paradox" and said, "no one who reads the record of Pius XII's actions on behalf of Jews can subscribe to Hochhuth's accusation".<ref>Lichten, 1963, ''[http://www.catholicleague.org/piusxii_and_the_holocaust/quesjud5.htm A Question of Judgement] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060725005932/http://www.catholicleague.org/piusxii_and_the_holocaust/quesjud5.htm |date=25 July 2006 }}''.</ref> Critical scholarly works like [[Guenter Lewy]]'s controversial ''The Catholic Church and Nazi Germany'' (1964) also followed the publication of ''The Deputy''. Lewy's conclusion was that "the Pope and his advisers—influenced by the long tradition of moderate anti-Semitism so widely accepted in Vatican circles—did not view the plight of the Jews with a real sense of urgency and moral outrage. For this assertion no documentation is possible, but it is a conclusion difficult to avoid".<ref>Marchione, 2000, pp. 16–17.</ref> In 2002 the play was adapted into the film, ''[[Amen.]]''. An article in ''[[La Civilità Cattolica]]'' in March 2009 indicated the accusations that Hochhuth's play made widely known originated not among Jews but in the [[Communist bloc]]. It was on Moscow Radio, on 2 June 1945, that the first accusation directly against Pius XII of refusing to speak out against the exterminations in Nazi concentration camps. It was also the first medium to call him "Hitler's Pope".<ref>Giovanni Sale, ''Il Novecento tra genocidi, paure e speranze'', Jaca Book, Milan 2006, p. 214, quoted in ''[[La Civiltà Cattolica]]'', 2009, I 540</ref>

The former high-ranking [[Securitate]] General [[Ion Mihai Pacepa]] alleged in 2007 that Hochhuth's play and numerous publications attacking Pius XII as a Nazi sympathizer were fabrications that were part of a [[KGB]] and Eastern Bloc secret services [[disinformation]] campaign, named [[Seat 12]], to discredit the [[moral authority]] of the Church and Christianity in the West.<ref name="article.nationalreview.com">[http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YTUzYmJhMGQ5Y2UxOWUzNDUyNWUwODJiOTEzYjY4NzI= "Moscow's Assault on the Vatican"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070205011340/http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YTUzYmJhMGQ5Y2UxOWUzNDUyNWUwODJiOTEzYjY4NzI%3D |date=5 February 2007 }}, ''[[National Review Online]]'', 25 January 2007</ref> Pacepa indicated that he was involved in contacting Eastern Bloc agents close the Vatican in order to fabricate the story to be used for the attack against the wartime pope.<ref name="article.nationalreview.com"/>