Topic: Catholic Fatalities During Holocaust
Question:
I know about six million Jews died during the Holocaust, can someone tell me how many Catholics were killed?
Answer:
I do not know with precision how many Catholics died in WW2. The usual figure given for all deaths as a result of the War is 45 million. About 25m of those would have been in Europe. Catholics would have been around half of the non-Jews (Catholics comprised the vast majority of the Italian, French and Polish populations, for example, and 40% of Germany was Catholic; and they fought in armies on both sides). So if 6m of the 25 m were Jews then half of 19m would have been Catholics.
However, it is misleading to speak about Catholic deaths the way we speak about Jewish deaths. Except for parts of Poland, Catholics were not targeted as Catholics the way the Jews were targeted as Jews. In parts of Poland the Catholic clergy was rounded up and put in concentration camps as part of Hitler's larger program to exterminate, Germanize, deport and enslave the Polish population. Hitler had it in for the Catholic Church and intended after the war to destroy it in the areas which he controlled. However, with 40% of Germany Catholic he could not afford to move against the Church too violently. His persecution was limited to closing Catholic schools, publications, associations, and placing in concentration camps those who spoke out against him.
So my short answer would be that around 9m to 10m Catholics were killed during WW2 either as soldiers or as civilian populations, but that except for a few exceptions in Poland they were not killed because they were Catholics, but rather because they were soldiers or civilians who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time during the War.
Anthony Schratz
HIstorian
April 17, 2002