"The train to Auschwitz was not stopped," he said. "Seven hundred and fifty Roman Jews were gassed immediately on arrival. Another thousand were deported during the following nine months. In Bulgaria, where the Bulgarian government intervened forcefully, a similar train never left the station," therefore saving his own grandfather, he said.
Pope Benedict XVI, celebrating a Mass for the anniversary of Pius XII’s death on Thursday, did not agree with Rabbi Segni.
Pius XII "often acted secretly and silently because, in the real situations of that complex moment in history, he had an intuition that only in this way would he be able to avoid the worst, and to save the largest possible number of Jews."
Benedict XVI also asserted that the historical debate over the figure of Pius XII "has not thrown light on all aspects of his multifaceted pontificate." In this context he recalled the numerous messages and discourses his predecessor had given to all categories of people, "some of which are still extraordinarily relevant even today, and continue to provide a sure point of reference.”