Because several attempts to condemn the church for not doing more to save Jews during the Holocaust have so misrepresented the position of the medieval church, it seems worthwhile to quote the most repsected of all Holocaust historians, Steven J Katz on this matter. Calling "Thou Shalt Not Annhiliate the Jews" the "Eleventh Christian Commandment", Katz wrote:
Though Christendom possessed the power, over the course of nearly 1500 years, to destroy that segement of the Jewish people it dominated, it chose not to do so...because the physical extirpation of Jewry was never, at any time, the official policy of any church or of any Christian state. Rather...Christian dogmatics entailed prtoecting Jews and Judaism from extinction...with the quasi-exception of Pope Leo VII (936-939), no pope pemitted the use of force in attempts to convert Jews, whereas Pope John XVIII (1004-1009) openly defended Jews against hostile Christian forces...
One True God, p125
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