The Holocaust, the Church, and the Law of Unintended Consequences: How Christian Anti-Judaism Spawned Nazi Anti-Semitism - Softcover

The image of Jews as "God-killers" and their refusal to convert to Christianity has fueled a long tradition of Christian intolerance, hatred, and violence. It is no surprise, then, that when Adolf Hitler advocated the elimination of Jews, he found willing allies within the Catholic Church and Christianity itself.

In this study, author Anthony J. Sciolino, himself a Catholic, cuts into the heart of why the Catholic Church and Christianity as a whole failed to stop the Holocaust. He demonstrates that Nazism's racial anti-Semitism was rooted in Christian anti-Judaism. While tens of thousands of Christians risked their lives to save Jews, many more-including some members of the hierarchy-aided Hitler's campaign with their silence or their participation.

Sciolino's solid research and comprehensive interpretation provide a cogent and powerful analysis of Christian doctrine and church history to help answer the question of what went wrong. He suggests that Christian tradition and teaching systematically excluded Jews from "the circle of Christian concern" and thus led to the tragedy of the Holocaust.

Anthony J. Sciolino is a retired New York State Family Court judge and a graduate of Columbia University and Cornell Law School. He holds a master’s degree in theology from St. Bernard’s School of Theology and Ministry and is an ordained Roman Catholic permanent deacon. Sciolino and his wife, Gloria, live in the Rochester suburb of Pittsford, New York. They are the parents of an adult daughter, Kate.