I am sending this article to you as I believe this may help many who are searching for missing ancestors. I should say it will be helpful if the Vatican ever releases the records. Jewish group to sue Vatican for baptismal records BY CAROL EISENBERG STAFF WRITER Posted January 27 2005, 8:40 PM EST A Bronx-based Jewish group announced plans Thursday to sue the Vatican to force the opening of secret archives that might identify thousands of Jewish children baptized as Catholics to save them from the Nazis, and never returned to their families. "As long as the children of all those murdered at Auschwitz do not know their true identities, and as along as the murdered at Auschwitz have descendents who still do not know their true lineage, how can we truly say that Auschwitz has been liberated," said Rabbi Schmuel Herzfeld, vice president of the Coalition for Jewish Concerns. "We want our children back." The 60-year debate about the Roman Catholic church's refusal to return Jewish children to their relatives after the end of World War II was reignited earlier this month when an Italian newspaper reported the discovery of an Oct. 23, 1946 directive in a French church archive near Paris. The directive ordered authorities not to return baptized children to Jewish families who "would not be in a position to guarantee their Christian upbringing." While the document was unsigned and written in French, it said that it had been "approved by the Holy Father." Since then, Jewish groups around the world have urged the Vatican to open baptismal records to identify those children and to put the beatification of Pope Pius XII, who led the church during the Holocaust, on hold. Beatification is the final step before sainthood. Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, wrote Sunday in The Palm Beach Post about how his parents, Polish Jews who survived the camps, fought a protracted, eight-year custody battle after the war to retrieve him from his nanny who had taken him in and had him baptized to protect him from the Nazis. "For many years, my parents could not fathom my nanny's sudden change of heart," Foxman said, urging the Vatican to open the records. "The recent disclosure sadly sheds light on her actions." But the Coalition for Jewish Concerns is the first Jewish group to threaten litigation to open the files. The group called Thursday for an immediate, independent investigation of all Vatican archives that might shed light on "the blood lines of potentially thousands of missing children," an admission of wrongdoing by church leaders and a repudiation of the policy. "The Catholic Church deserves credit for having hidden these children," said Rabbi Avi Weiss of Riverdale, coalition president. "Where they went wrong is when they refused to return them. That's abominable. We're talking about kidnapping. Spiritual kidnapping. And as a rabbi who believes deeply in reaching out to clergy of other faiths, I really implore the Catholic church to come clean on this." Elizabeth V. Cardinal evc1369@comcast.net http://www.geocities.com/Wellesley/Garden/4548/

Elizabeth, thank you so much for sending this along. Elizabeth V Cardinal <evc1369@comcast.net> wrote: I am sending this article to you as I believe this may help many who are searching for missing ancestors. I should say it will be helpful if the Vatican ever releases the records. Jewish group to sue Vatican for baptismal records BY CAROL EISENBERG STAFF WRITER Posted January 27 2005, 8:40 PM EST A Bronx-based Jewish group announced plans Thursday to sue the Vatican to force the opening of secret archives that might identify thousands of Jewish children baptized as Catholics to save them from the Nazis, and never returned to their families. "As long as the children of all those murdered at Auschwitz do not know their true identities, and as along as the murdered at Auschwitz have descendents who still do not know their true lineage, how can we truly say that Auschwitz has been liberated," said Rabbi Schmuel Herzfeld, vice president of the Coalition for Jewish Concerns. "We want our children back." The 60-year debate about the Roman Catholic church's refusal to return Jewish children to their relatives after the end of World War II was reignited earlier this month when an Italian newspaper reported the discovery of an Oct. 23, 1946 directive in a French church archive near Paris. The directive ordered authorities not to return baptized children to Jewish families who "would not be in a position to guarantee their Christian upbringing." While the document was unsigned and written in French, it said that it had been "approved by the Holy Father." Since then, Jewish groups around the world have urged the Vatican to open baptismal records to identify those children and to put the beatification of Pope Pius XII, who led the church during the Holocaust, on hold. Beatification is the final step before sainthood. Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, wrote Sunday in The Palm Beach Post about how his parents, Polish Jews who survived the camps, fought a protracted, eight-year custody battle after the war to retrieve him from his nanny who had taken him in and had him baptized to protect him from the Nazis. "For many years, my parents could not fathom my nanny's sudden change of heart," Foxman said, urging the Vatican to open the records. "The recent disclosure sadly sheds light on her actions." But the Coalition for Jewish Concerns is the first Jewish group to threaten litigation to open the files. The group called Thursday for an immediate, independent investigation of all Vatican archives that might shed light on "the blood lines of potentially thousands of missing children," an admission of wrongdoing by church leaders and a repudiation of the policy. "The Catholic Church deserves credit for having hidden these children," said Rabbi Avi Weiss of Riverdale, coalition president. "Where they went wrong is when they refused to return them. That's abominable. We're talking about kidnapping. Spiritual kidnapping. And as a rabbi who believes deeply in reaching out to clergy of other faiths, I really implore the Catholic church to come clean on this." Elizabeth V. Cardinal evc1369@comcast.net http://www.geocities.com/Wellesley/Garden/4548/ ============================== View and search Historical Newspapers. Read about your ancestors, find marriage announcements and more. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13969/rd.ashx ========================== Mary Thiele Fobian Genealogical & Historical Research Pacific Grove, California