Pope to watch TV movie on
Nazi treatment of Roman Jews
Vatican City, Apr 9, 2010 (CNA/EWTN News).- While resting up in Castel Gandolfo, the Holy Father will be taking time today to watch a film - "Under the Roman Sky,” a movie about Hitler's treatment of the Jews in Rome and his attempt to kidnap Pope Pius XII.
As the Pope recovers from a taxing Holy Week schedule, during which he appeared for public celebrations nearly every day, he will have the opportunity to relax and take in the movie featuring the American actor James Cromwell as Pope Pius XII, who was the subject of a kidnap plot by Adolph Hitler.
The mini-series is set in the streets of Rome during the Nazi occupation. According to Italy's AGI News, the plot develops along the course of nine months, and features Jews being taken from the ghetto and a failed attempt by the Nazis to abduct the Pope.
The film, made by the Italian production company Lux Vide, also illustrates the Church's efforts to protect and save Jews during the war, the very subject that raised a considerable amount controversy after Pope Benedict declared Pius XII "Venerable" on Dec. 19, 2009.
Lux Vide has produced other biographical films on Popes John Paul II, Paul VI and John XXIII as well as many other saints and biblical figures.
[NB: The Pope last watched Lux Vide's production on St. Augustine in an abridgement of the 5-part TV miniseries.]
The Holy Father will settle in for the viewing at 5:30 this afternoon in the Swiss Room of the Apostlic Palace in Castel Gandolfo.
I looked up LUXVIDE for material on the film. Hre is their online blurb.
Synopsis:
Sept 8, 1943. Abduct the Pope! Violate the sovereignty of the Vatican and lay hands on the man who remained the only authority on Italian territory who was not unnerved by the advance of the Allies. And here was the order from Berlin, from the Fuherer himself!
In 1943, Italy knew no peace – in the south, the Allies were moving up; in the north, the Germans cotnuned to hold out. A pitched battle in which Rome was in the crossfire. A city left to itself and the Nazis, who had made it their general headquarters in Italy.
The Pope was the only source of hope, and Hitler could not stand this. Hence, the secret plan, a real threat, of which, however, Pius XII (played by James Cromwell), has learned about. But he tenaciously rejects the idea of fleeing.
For the Roman-born Pope, his place was in Rome, and in Rome, he would stay. In order to save the city and its residents. Using all the means at his disposal: diplomacy and material resources, political influence and persuading hearts, even those who belo9nged to the enemy camp, like General Stahl, commandant of Piazza di Roma.
But despite all his efforts, Pius XII could not hinder the horror which would reach Rome itself. On October 16, 1943, the SS carried out a violent and sudden search-raid of the Jewish Ghetto in Rome. More than a thousand persons would be deported to Auschwitz, of which only 15 would come back alive.
The tragedy of the Jews became the the Pope’s own. History records that more than 10,000 Jews were saved from the Nazis in the churches and convents of Rome – unparalleled in any other city that had been occupied by the Nazis.
In the horror of those days, two young Jews – David and Miriam (played by Marco Foschi and Alessandra Mastonardi, respectively) – escape the ghetto raid and find refuge in one of the convents that the Pope had designated as a refuge. Here, their love for each other grows and presages the start of a new life.
But with the passing of months, the Nazi repression in Rome increased, and even the extra-territorial prerogatives of the Vatican were violated. And yet, when on June 4, 1944, Allied troops finally entered Rome, a crowd exulting in this liberation, poured into St. Peter’s Square and acclaimed the man who never abandoned them, Pius XII.
*****
Lux Vide based this work on documents submitted for the beatification of Pius XII regarding his relationship with the Jews. It comes in the middle of a new debate over the wartime Pope’s record, and is dramatized by new testimony about the Nazi plan to abduct him during their occupation of Rome.
But in fact, even some Nazi officials in Rome opposed barbarism – and so, under the skies of Rome, hidden but safe, the victims and their persecutors shared the heartfelt appeal of Pius XII before the ar began: “With peace, nothing is lost. But in war, everything can be lost”.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 10/04/2010 13:39]