Daisy, I know. Catholics died, with Jews. Catholics were killed defending Jews, hiding them, smuggling them. There are stories of great courage and bottomless love. But history is complicated. I also remember the vatican rat lines. The hiding of Jewish children in convents and schools to keep their surviving relatives from finding them.

There is one story in particular you may have heard of: that of the Chief rabbi of Rome, saved by the Pope, and a convert to catholicism. I’ve had Catholic proselytisers cite him to me. I’ve been told he is an example of a “perfected jew”. But what they don’t say is this: he never should have hid himself. His place was in the camps with his congregation. His congregation rejected him for that moral failure. And that is an example of a “perfected Jew”. I wonder if you can understand what I think of that term.

This is a divide that cannot be healed by anything now here on earth. We all have to live with it, and take individuals as they come to us. History offers no comfort. Just my opinion.