“The Holocaust, the Vatican and the Jews” will be the subject of a lecture by historian Susan Zuccotti at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 28, presented by the Holocaust Museum and Learning Center. Zuccotti will address the complex questions of how much Pius XII, pope from 1939 to 1959, knew about the Holocaust as well as examine his and the Catholic Church’s actions and inactions during this period. While defenders claim Pius XII was directly or indirectly responsible for saving hundreds of thousands of Jews, detractors assert his lack of overt action and relative silence. Zuccotti will draw on her decades-long, ongoing research on the role of the Pope and the Vatican during the Holocaust. 

A light reception will follow the presentation, held at the Jewish Federation Kopolow Building, 12 Millstone Campus Drive; dietary laws observed. The program is free and open to the public but seating is limited and RSVPs are required. This program is sponsored by Doctor Arthur and the late Marilyn Gale and family. For further information or to RSVP, contact Andrew Goldfeder at 314-442-3711 or [email protected].

After receiving her doctorate in modern European history from Columbia University, Zuccotti taught Holocaust and general Western European history at Columbia and Barnard Colleges in New York City and at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. Her numerous publications include “The Italians and the Holocaust: Persecution, Rescue, and Survival” (1987) and “Under His Very Windows: The Vatican and the Holocaust in Italy” (2000),  which  received the National Jewish Book Award for Jewish-Christian Relations and the Sybil Halpern Milton Prize of the German Studies Association.