God and the Fascists

by Karlheinz Deschner

Now available in English for the first time, a controversial work that indicts the Vatican for its actions before and during World War II.In the decade preceding the outbreak of World War II, the Vatican made a devil's bargain with fascist leaders. Anticipating that their regimes would eliminate a common enemy--namely Marxist-Leninist communism--two popes essentially collaborated with Hitler, Mussolini, and the fascist dictators in Spain (Franco) and Croatia (Pavelić).This is the damning indictment of this well-researched polemic, which for almost five decades in Germany has sparked controversy, outrage, and furious debate. Now it is available in English for the first time.Many will dismiss Deschner--who himself was raised and educated in a pious Catholic tradition--as someone who is obsessed with exposing the failings of the church of his upbringing. But he has marshaled so many facts and presented them with such painstaking care that his accusations cannot easily be ignored.The sheer weight of the evidence that he has brought together in this book raises a host of questions about a powerful institution that continues to exercise political influence to this day.

Genres: History, World War II, Nonfiction, Italy

290 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Karl Heinrich Leopold Deschner (23 May 1924 – 8 April 2014), was a German researcher and writer who achieved public attention in Europe for his trenchant and fiercely critical treatment of Christianity in general and the Roman Catholic Church in particular, as expressed in several articles and books, culminating in his 10 volume opus Christianity's Criminal History (Kriminalgeschichte des Christentums, Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek).

Reviews

[Eric Wojciechowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally published in 1968, this volume only became available in English since October 2013. Well documented from original letters, decrees, sermons and other published papers, Karlheinz Deschner demonstrates that as far back as World War 1, the Vatican had it in for Bolshevik Russia. And, was willing to back any regime strong enough to take it down.

Thus, during the Spanish Civil War, prior to the outbreak of World War 2, the Vatican supported Italian and Nazi military assistance to the revolution launched by General Franco. This was in support of a claim that the government of Spain was pro-Bolshevik (which turned out to be nothing of the kind).

The Vatican also supported the invasion of Ethiopia by the Duce, Mussolini, in defense of expansion and living space.

The Vatican, including the reigning Bishops and Cardinals also supported Hitler when he acquired the Rhine, Austria and Czechoslovakia. They even praised him for the 1939 invasion of Poland, even at the expense of lost priests in Poland, writing them off as acceptable losses in the final advance against "atheist" Russia.

Even regarding the Holocaust, the Vatican turned a blind eye as long as Russia remained the final target. Note that it was not until the 1960s that the Vatican changed its opinion, no longer condemning the Jews for the death of Christ.

It was only after the Reich fell and the Axis powers were doomed to fail all together that the Vatican began to cozy up to Britain, France and the USA, insisting that Hitler must go but the German army must be allowed to continue to invade Russia. The Vatican's calls for peace during this time was not a peace to end the war, but to allie with Germany and continue into Russia.

Failing to convince the Allied powers, the Vatican retreated to, once again, save itself and allie with the powers that remained in order to continue to hold its power.

This book is an excellent and well documented testament that the Vatican is not a force of peace and Christian love. It is a force that wishes to remain in power, protect its assets at all costs and do whatever it must to push its agenda on the rest of the world. Its willingness to cozy up to the likes of fascists regimes past and present in order to maintain itself, is grounds for demanding this old outdated agency be reduced to a museum.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author reviews the complicity of the Catholic Church with the fascist movements and governments of Germany, Italy, Spain and Croatia. Citing well documented texts, he demonstrates that almost the entire hierarchy of the Church (and many Protestants as well, but this only discussed incidentally) was in support of the Axis until it became apparent that they would fail in their attempts to wipe out Judaism and Bolshevism. Then, of course, most prelates switched sides, some of the fascist criminals, those who didn't flee under Church protection, even being beatified in later years.

Author Deschner, himself a Catholic by birth at least, does allow that many lower level clergy opposed the fascists, some of them unto death, but this is not his focus. Rather, he judges the criminals in terms of their own professed Christian beliefs and finds them radically hypocritical and self-serving opportunists.

I've read quite a lot about the shameful behavior of the Vatican during WWII, but general accounts of the concordats, the ratlines and the rest don't have the impact of the mass of accounts documented in this book. Had it been better translated, the English being clumsy at times and some of the sentences being incomplete, I'd have given it more credit.

[Hanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

The idea of Catholicism and Fascism being so closely related had me like


Also It came as a major surprise when reading this book that it was only translated into English, get this 3 YEARS AGO. I wonder what took someone so long to think "Hey there are a lot of Catholics in the English speaking world, perhaps this would be a relevant read in Churches."

This was quite an informational read, interesting but after the first two chapters – I was like "Okay I get it - The Vatican supported Fascists so they could in turn fuck with Bolshevik Russia and they are mainly responsible for the death of millions of people." So It’s safe to say this is NOT a “read and chill” type novel. It’s read like a text book and if you don't have any background in Catholicism (like myself), many of the terms will get lost in translation and in some parts - you'll wonder what the heck the author is discussing.

Besides that, this book is a strong testament to the fact that the Vatican in Italy is not all it's made out to be - it's filled with greed and corruption. The Vatican today is estimated to have 4 billion euros' (4.35 billion dollars') worth of real estate holdings - not only in Rome, but also London, Switzerland and Paris. It's obvious they are not living the life of Christ nor are they in power to help the poor and needy, which is often the propaganda they propagate to the masses. Rather they are greedy capitalists scrounging to maintain their power and fortune.

[Rhonda Ketterling · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally published in 1965 and just translated into English in 2013 this is a rather dry, academic book about the complicity of the Catholic Church in WWI and WWII. I’m afraid the Catholic Church has nothing to be too proud about when it comes to the popes Pius XI and XII. This is a well documented and annotated work that I am sure wasn’t a hit with the church. The aforementioned popes had a real bug in their butt about Bolshevism and wanting to bring the Orthodox Church to heel. Power and Greed writ large.

[Mark McTague · Rating 4.5 out of 5]

This focuses on the first half of the twentieth century and the Vatican's Faustian bargains with first fascist Italy (the Lateran Pact of 1929) and then four years later with fascist Germany (the Reichskonkordat) that lent legitimacy to both regimes' seizure of power in return for cash, mirroring in a way the start of the Catholic Church as an institution in 313 A.D. after the Emperor Constantine's conversion. In both cases, "bidniss" came at the price of belief. Deschner's analysis is as ruthless as his documentation is impressive. What would Jesus do? Not what three successive Popes did (Pius X, XI, and XII). One can argue that the Vatican had a worldwide institution (not just churches but universities, monasteries, hospitals, and schools) and millions of believers to protect, and chose the lesser of two clear evils (fascism over atheistic bolshevism), but the ensuing bloodshed can't be washed away, not with a Niagara of cash.

[Olivier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Need to be read to understand the link between the church and the dictatorship leading to WW2

[OvercommuniKate · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author leaps to unexplained and unsupported conclusions. Reading this feels like coming halfway into a drunk man's rant.

I realize the first edition was written in the 1960s so maybe those readers know who "Pepin" is without explanation? It is frustrating the book does not clearly state "Pepin the Short" to distinguish from his grandfather of "Pepin the Younger."

Later the author writes: "during the reign of Stephen III in the eighth century, a religious war led to the creation of the Papal States, those grotesque monstrosities." I believe the author is referring to Pope Stephen II who is sometimes called the third based on the numbering system, who was alive during Pepin the Shorts' interlude with King Aistulf. Is that a religious war? Or is the author referring to other skirmishes involving Pope Stephen III (sometimes the IV)? I don't know because the book is not clear on what war or battle.

I wanted more context and more explanation. "During the First World War, which the Vatican was partly responsible." Don't drop that without more! Explain!!!

I didn't finish this book, but from what I read there was no mention of Philipp von Hessen, a German prince and son-in-law of Italy's King Victor Emmanuel III, who served as an intermediary between the Vatican and the Nazis during World War II. That's a pretty glaring omission in a book about fascism and the Vatican.

[Kim Heimbuch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review coming soon once posted at its original destination.