Connecting the Church and the Shoah

The cover of this book bears a crude caricature by Fritz Hirschberger: two men are standing on the body of a person stretched out on his back with a pained look on his face; he is identified as a Jew by a star of David; the man on the left, with his legs spread far apart, is wearing boots and a uniform with a swastika; the one on the right is a faceless bishop or cardinal. Next to this image is printed "A.D. 1933-1945. The Concordat." Is there a causal connection between the Reich Concordat of July 20, 1933, and the behavior of the Catholic Church during the Nazi slaughter of the Jews in 1941-1945? It is a fundamental thesis of Michael Phayer that such a connection existed.