On 16 March the Vatican Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews published a statement of capital importance entitled "We remember : a reflection on the Shoah. The trial of Maurice Papon, ultimately convicted of complicity in crimes against humanity, was drawing to a close.
While the former secretary-general of the prefecture of the Gironde under the German occupation awaited the verdict, Joseph Sitruk, the Chief Rabbi of France, stressed the importance of the Vatican statement on the holocaust which had just been published. On 30 September , in a ceremony at the site of the Drancy deportation camp, the French bishops had made a much more specific public declaration of "repentance".
In it they had stressed that, under the Vichy regime, "the Church authorities in their majority responded with loyalism and docility that went well beyond traditional obedience to the established order.
Their reaction was coloured by conformism, caution and abstention, dictated partly by fear of reprisals against charitable works and Catholic youth movements. They failed to realise that the Church had considerable power and influence and that, with other institutions reduced to silence, the impact of a public statement might have forestalled an irreparable catastrophe.
It is important to remember that the scope of Nazi genocide was not fully apparent during the Occupation. While it is true that many acts of solidarity can be cited, it is necessary to ask whether acts of charity and mutual assistance are sufficient to meet the demands of justice and respect for human rights 1.
