The Attitude of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church to the Holocaust During World War II

Abstract

Little attention has been paid by historians to the subject of this paper, despite the fact that the Russian Orthodox Church was at the centre of events in World War II and was forced to react very directly in one way or another to the Holocaust. It should be emphasized that at that time the Russian Orthodox Church was not a united body and had broken up into several jurisdictions. Even before the beginning of the war between Germany and the USSR, many Russian emigré priests in different countries of Europe had expressed their opinion on the persecution of Jews. They belonged to two jurisdictions: that of Metropolitan Evlogy in Paris and that of the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad in Belgrade.