The Pope at War: The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitler

by David I. Kertzer

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The most important book ever written about the Catholic Church and its conduct during World War II.”—Daniel Silva

“Kertzer brings all of his usual detective and narrative skills to [The Pope at War] . . . the most comprehensive account of the Vatican’s relations to the Nazi and fascist regimes before and during the war.”—The Washington Post

“Tolstoyan.”—Cynthia Ozick

Based on newly opened Vatican archives, a groundbreaking, explosive, and riveting book about Pope Pius XII and his actions during World War II, including how he responded to the Holocaust, by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Pope and Mussolini

WINNER OF THE JULIA WARD HOWE AWARD • LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/JACQUELINE BOGRAD WELD AWARD • A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

When Pope Pius XII died in 1958, his papers were sealed in the Vatican Secret Archives, leaving unanswered questions about what he knew and did during World War II. Those questions have only grown and festered, making Pius XII one of the most controversial popes in Church history, especially now as the Vatican prepares to canonize him.

In 2020, Pius XII’s archives were finally opened, and David I. Kertzer—widely recognized as one of the world’s leading Vatican scholars—has been mining this new material ever since, revealing how the pope came to set aside moral leadership in order to preserve his church’s power.

Based on thousands of never-before-seen documents not only from the Vatican, but from archives in Italy, Germany, France, Britain, and the United States, The Pope at War paints a new, dramatic portrait of what the pope did and did not do as war enveloped the continent and as the Nazis began their systematic mass murder of Europe’s Jews. The book clears away the myths and sheer falsehoods surrounding the pope’s actions from 1939 to 1945, showing why the pope repeatedly bent to the wills of Hitler and Mussolini.

Just as Kertzer’s Pulitzer Prize–winning The Pope and Mussolini became the definitive book on Pope Pius XI and the Fascist regime, The Pope at War is destined to become the most influential account of his successor, Pius XII, and his relations with Mussolini and Hitler. Kertzer shows why no full understanding of the course of World War II is complete without knowledge of the dramatic, behind-the-scenes role played by the pope. “This remarkably researched book is replete with revelations that deserve the adjective ‘explosive,’” says Kevin Madigan, Winn Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Harvard University. “The Pope at War is a masterpiece.”

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Religion, World War II, Biography, Politics, Italy

641 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 7, 2022

About the author

David Israel Kertzer is an American anthropologist, historian, and academic, specializing in the political, demographic, and religious history of Italy. He is the Paul Dupee, Jr. University Professor of Social Science, Professor of Anthropology, and Professor of Italian Studies at Brown University.

Reviews

[Patricia Romero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pope Pius XII, who died in 1958 and immediately had his archives sealed, probably didn’t think they would come to light in 2020. For a long period of time, we have wondered about his stance on the war and the people who surrounded the papacy. As a Roman Catholic myself, I can say he was very controversial.

Kertzer, who is one of the world’s leading scholars on the Vatican has been digging around in those archives for a while now. And he reveals how this pope traded moral leadership of the church to save its power.

It was difficult to read the atrocities and the deals that were made with fascists. But really haven’t we always known the church always acts in its own best interest? Not only is the research impeccable, but the facts are also explosive.

The amount of research that had to take place is monumental. I thought it read like historical fiction, but unfortunately, it was not fiction.

Outstanding work!

NetGalley/ June 7th, 2022 by Random House

[Bruce Katz · Rating 4 out of 5]

An eminently readable and thoroughly researched look into Pope Pius XII's record during World War 2. In addition to volumes of material from diplomatic sources from the period, Kertzer was given access to Vatican records that had been kept from view until very recently.

Put simply, Pius XII doesn’t come off well here. He was timid in his interactions with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, silent in the face of numerous pleas for help from a great many sources (including desperate calls from Catholic clergy in Poland and elsewhere), and far more concerned about protecting the Church than using his voice and position to protect the victims of German aggression.

Pius XII's predecessor, Pius XI (Ambrogio Ratti), was an outspoken man, as Kertzer shows. He joined other world leaders in condemning Kristallnacht. Racial superiority was a lie, he said in an address; there was only one single human race. Needless to say, his criticism wasn’t well received by Hitler's and Mussolini's governments: "[Hitler] learned late in 1938 that the pope was secretly working on an encyclical, a declaration aimed at Catholics worldwide, denouncing racism and antisemitism. Even more troubling were reports that Pius XI was planning to use his upcoming speech to all of Italy’s bishops to denounce the Duce’s embrace of Nazi Germany."

Pius XI sought to minimize conflict between the Vatican and Nazi Germany/fascist Italy, of course: they had a common enemy (albeit for different reasons) in the Soviet Union. His patience was limited, however: "Pius XI’s hopes for the German dictator did not last long. The Nazis soon began replacing Catholic parochial schools with state schools, abolishing Catholic youth groups, and limiting church activities to the purely sacramental." In time, against the advice of the very man who was to succeed him as Pope, Pius XI took the risky step of issuing an encyclical -- Mit brennender Sorge (“With deep anxiety”) -- that condemned, without naming any individuals or group, many of the basic precepts underlying Nazi racial theory and the Reich's efforts to undermine the Church. Written in German rather than the usual Latin, the document was smuggled into Germany so it could be read from pulpits. (Nazi agents scoured the country confiscating copies and shutting down printing presses that were making copies.)

All of this is covered by way of background. When Pius XI died he was succeeded by Eugenio Pacelli who took the name Pius XII. It is Pacelli who occupies Kertzer's attention in the book. Kertzer acknowledges the many risks Pacelli faced in overtly criticizing Mussolini or Hitler, but the risk was nowhere as dire as many have suggested because both Hitler and Mussolini had powerful reasons of their own to minimize conflict with the Vatican. Tellingly, in the rare cases when Pacelli did express unhappiness with Fascist/Nazi policies, the policies were changed (at least for a time).

“The Pope at War” shows how Pacelli remained silent in the face of growing violence of the Axis powers against Catholics, Jews, and others. When Germany attacked Poland and began closing churches and imprisoning Catholic priests he said nothing despite the desperate calls from Catholic clergy. He was similarly quiet when antisemitic racial laws were passed in Italy and, later, when Jews were being taken to forced labor and death camps. (Late in the war, the Jews who are about tobe deported are held in a building adjacent to the Vatican itself.) “Pius XII did nothing to disavow, much less express regret for, the church’s long-standing demonization of Jews,” Kertzer observes — a fact that proved useful to the Nazis and Italian Fascists, who claimed that they were following principles the Church itself had professed for centuries. The Pope was well aware of the exterminations taking place in the camps and in Nazi occupied territory (he had received numerous reports from Catholic chaplains and other clergy, as well as diplomats assigned to the Vatican). The only complaint he specifically made, however, concerned Jews who “the church regarded as Catholics, not as Jews”” — that is, Jews who had converted. The Pope wanted, Kertzer tells us, “to see that all the descendants of mixed marriages, baptized in infancy, and brought up as Christians, be recognized as Aryans.” Both the Nazi and Fascist governments responded favorably to the complaint, albeit not always in time to save individuals from Auschwitz and other death camps.

Kertzer covers a lot of ground in the book, far too much to cover here. Among the many things he writes about are: Pacelli’s profound reluctance to use his role as Pope to take moral positions when lives were at stake (notably, he did find the voice to speak against the “immortality” he found in movies and popular entertainment); his silence when Germany was bombing numerous cities throughout Europe, but his public complaints when Rome was bombed; the deep-seeded antisemitism in high Church offices (Kertzer talks about a meeting between the papal nuncio to Italy and the Vatican’s undersecretary of internal affairs to discuss Fascist treatment of baptized Jews: “As the nuncio entered the undersecretary’s office, he was momentarily taken aback by the sign he saw on the wall: “Please do not talk to me about Jews.””); his silence when Catholic priests in majority Catholic Poland were being arrested by the Nazis and their churches either being shut down entirely or permitted to open only two hours a week, as well as when it was discovered that the Nazis had massacred Italians and hid their bodies in a cave; the heretofore hidden secret meetings between Pacelli and representatives of Hitler’s government (““One gets the strong sense,” reported [one] ambassador, “that the Pope has such a fear that a phrase, a word of his might be repeated and escape the walls of Vatican City, that he prefers to remain silent, and merely nod and look up, raising his eyes to the sky.””); the intricacies of diplomacy at the Vatican; the efforts by numerous Catholic clergy in Italy and elsewhere to protect Jews despite the lack of guidance from the Holy See.

One of the most powerful moments (for me) in the book involves a searing letter to the London Times, written late in the war in response to a typically obtuse Papal radio address:
"I am sorry, indeed, if I have missed the Papal denunciations of Germany’s crimes; but I find that my friends are in the same state of woeful ignorance. In fairness to his Holiness, and for the instruction of your readers, perhaps you would permit your correspondent to give us the texts of the pronouncements condemning the German invasions of Poland, France, Holland, Belgium, Norway, Greece, Russia, &c., the systematic slaughter and torture of Poles and Jews, the mass deportations and vast robberies, the bombardments of Warsaw, Rotterdam, Belgrade, London, &c. I have been searching hopefully for such an utterance in your long report…of the Pope’s broadcast address on the fifth anniversary of the war. I do not find it. There is nothing here to show the historians that the war was not begun by America or Greece."

The world being what it is, I’m certain there will be some who see the book as unfair to Pius XII or even anti-Catholic. In my estimation, neither criticism is warranted. I found Kertzer’s analysis honest and even-handed, letting many of the documents speak for themselves. He took on a difficult and fraught task in "The Pope at War." I believe he performed the task well and with integrity.

[Jill H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw this following quote in another review and believe that it needs to be repeated as it is so very relevant to the Papal actions during WWII.

"The world suffers a lot; not because of the violence of bad people, but the silence of the good people."
Napoleon Bonaparte

Pope Pius XII's stance during WWII has been the center of controversy for years and not until 2020 were his archives opened. The author uses this information and many other strong sources in an attempt to explain the conundrum that faced the Vatican. And the answer to that conundrum was silence.

The Pope's position was to avoid, in any of his statements, the politics of the Axis and only address the religious aspects of the Catholics in the countries involved in the war. He also had repeatedly warned of the evil influence of the Jewish people and did not speak out as the Holocaust was wiping the Jewish population off the map of Europe.

These are only samples of the information so well documented in this book. It is a rather slow read but there is a wealth of information contained in this history. It might appear that the author is biased but the impeccable sources support him. I recommend this book to all of those who are interested in WWII and the stance of the Vatican.

[David Eppenstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Besides this book the author has written three previous books that recount the history of the papacy from the mid-19th century up to just after WWII. I have read all of these books and have found them all to be quite informative and also disappointing if not actually depressing. Real history can do that sometimes and, I suppose, such feelings are an indication of good history. This latest book, when considered with the others, simply confirms a conclusion I have reached some time ago and that is that there is a significant difference between the Catholic faith or religion and the Catholic Church. One is an honorable way of life and the other is bureaucracy composed of out of touch men that attempt to control that way of life in order to maintain themselves in their positions of power and influence. This book illustrates the consequences of a history of such behavior and its results.

This book gives the reader a very unflattering history of the reign of Pope Pius XII. This man was the pope when I was born and into half of my parochial school education. This man, and then John XXIII, formed my understanding and image of what a pope was. The contrast between these two men was hard to reconcile for me as a kid but John seemed far more human and approachable. What I have read in this book indicates that Pius, who is being considered for sainthood, was a priest that was never a shepard to any flock. From day one after his ordination he used his family connections to be assigned to the papal bureaucracy and he never left those confines. He was a papal insider and part of the establishment and about as out of touch as a person could be. Nevertheless, he waited his turn or his opportunity and became the pope in 1939 on the eve of WWII. After reading this book I can only conclude that there was no more unfit a person to occupy that office at that or any other time. His failure to act and call out Hitler was justified as being out of concern for the safety of the Catholics in Germany. Of course no concern was ever voiced for the abuses being inflicted on the Catholics people and clergy of Poland and later France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Lithuania, etc. This was a man of silence and inaction occupying an office with a moral duty that he failed to recognize and perform. I won't even mention his astounding moral failure to condemn the extermination of European Jews of which he was well informed about. But, today, he is being considered for sainthood because the papal bureaucracy, as the author notes in a final chapter, has gone overboard in its attempt to rewrite the history of the Church during WWII and that rewrite began immediately after Germany's surrender if not before.

The author reports the various defenses offered by the admirers of Pius during his war years and the readers can decide for themselves if any of them hold water. I didn't find them very credible. What I read in this history was a man trying to preserve the bureaucracy of the Church and doing so at the fatal expense of Catholic and non-Catholic peoples across Europe. Pius seemed more worried about Fascists invading the Vatican than in Fascists killing innocent people. I can imagine no one more unworthy of sainthood than Pius XII. I think Pius would be infamous among popes if I hadn't read enough Church history to know that the Church has had worse, much worse. And while I distinguish between the Catholic faith and the Catholic Church I also have to acknowledge that the Church has lasted for two thousand years. During the time this Church has been led by an almost continuous string of idiots that managed to pick the wrong side of just about every issue and event in history and still it survived. You have to wonder if there isn't some higher Being looking out for it. Then you have to wonder what is He thinking?

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This outstanding book is based in part on documents from the archives of the Vatican that were made public in spring of 2020. Click here for a March 2020 article by author David I. Kertzer which gives an overview of what controversies the opening of the archive were expected to generate. Click here for an August 2020 article from the NY Times on Kertzer’s slow progress through the Vatican archives.

I say “slow” because (according to The NY Times) the long-anticipated opening of the archives started on March 2, 2020, but then was closed again from March 5 until June 2020 due to the pandemic. They were closed again in August 2020 for summer holidays. In addition, researchers looking at the physical documents were “limited to asking to see three documents in the morning and two in the afternoon.” The NY Times remarks drily: “It can be slow going.”

Normally I don’t write to authors, but maybe I will this time, because I’d love to know exactly how this in-person research at the Vatican archives worked. First of all, how is a “document” defined? From my days long ago in a large government bureaucracy which will remain nameless, the experience was that any document request was something of a crap-shoot, in the sense that it could yield anything from a single paragraph to a giant pile of rodent-chewed papers tied together with a string. Do you have any information that allows you to game the system, meaning, do you know how big your requested document is likely to be? If your three documents turn out to all be one side of a page, do you just take the rest of the morning off and start your three-hour Roman lunch early? If you are not careful in this case, you will not be in any condition to receive your two afternoon documents. On the other hand, what if you get a giant pile of musty, stained meeting notes just before you are planning to go off and enjoy an excellent bottle of wine with your pasta marinara?

Discussing this with the Long-Suffering Wife (LSW), we imagined the process of requesting Vatican documents as hopelessly dusty and analog, wherein you must must scrawl with a stub of a pencil on a tiny slip of paper, which is then taken by an unhappy-looking man in priestly garb, who then trudges silently away, leaving no clue as to when, if ever, he is likely to return with your document. (Except for the priestly garb, this is pretty much the way it was at the Boston Public Library in the early 1980’s, a time of undergraduate research for self and LSW. The desk where you requested documents had a home-made sign designed to inform you of the estimated wait time for your document, which was usually, in my memory, set to the symbol for “infinity”.)

(Oh, and although the Vatican has made documents available for inspection, the archive of the Jesuit order and the archive of the local church authorities in Rome are still closed, which may hold important information, with no indication that they will be open any time soon.)

Maybe the whole process was not as slow-moving as I imagined, because now, in 2022, Kertzer has managed to combine a lot of newly-available documents with previous research to produce a narrative of Papal behavior during WWII which is, to put it mildly, not flattering. It’s almost impossible to exaggerate how bad Pope Pius XII and his administration look in this version of events. Although men of at least above-average education, they whole-heartedly buy into the lamest and silliest anti-Semitic stereotypes on the one hand, and suck up to anyone they consider an aristocrat, no matter how oleaginous, hypocritical and ill-mannered, on the other. They are completely unconcerned with the lives of non-Catholics and put a priority on the protection of church property. Requests to speak out against the Nazis are met with mumbled promises to consider taking action, but no action follows. Self-preservation of the organization is the only imperative. The Vatican won’t even defend its own priests against Nazi and Fascist cruelty, earlier in Poland and later in Italy. Occasional ambiguous statements buried deep in incomprehensible sermons and articles are pointed to, post-facto, as evidence of great moral courage, even if the statements did not change the behavior of anyone at the time the communications were made. The hypocrisy marches on and on, often driven by institutional self-pity and the unshakeable conviction that the Catholic Church has a monopoly on the correct interpretation of both past and present.

Late in the book, the author says he is engaged (with an Italian colleague) in a “larger research project of which this book is one product”. I hope this means that they are still at it, five documents a day (not including holidays and pandemics), and that further books as interesting as this one will be forthcoming.

In conclusion: An excellent book, sometimes galloping along at the pace of a good historical novel, always easy to read for a serious historical narrative, seemingly well-researched, clear and unambiguous in its conclusions.

Read an interesting article here by Kertzer about some research from the Vatican archives about an episode in France in 1953 (and therefore not covered in this book) where the Vatican attempted to obstruct the return of Jewish children (who had been baptized as Catholics during World War II) to their surviving relatives. It was published in The Atlantic in August 2020.

I received a free electronic advance copy of this book for review from Penguin Random House via Netgalley. Thanks.

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was profoundly upsetting to me, since I was raised as a Catholic, albeit a lapsed one for decades, and after reading this, it wasn't surprising. I have suspected for years that the RC Church is basically a giant corporation, concerned with preserving the status/wealth of the Church and being much less concerned with the individual people who believe in it. This book served to confirm that viewpoint for me, which is horrifying, sad and disappointing.

Pius XII pretty much did the opposite of the previous Pope Pius XI in that he worked with the Fascist and Nazi governments, both before and during WWII, in order to preserve the Church in Europe. While he managed to maintain the church in some of the Axis countries, like Italy, others like Poland experienced their clergy tortured and killed in concentration camps, churches looted, schools closed, and so on. Pius XII was more concerned with maintaining the Church's presence in schools and government than in helping people who were being brutalized by the Nazis and Fascists, people who often considered themselves good Catholics who just happened to kill Jews, Roma, gay, and other minorities because they were "inferior" to the Aryans. How Pius XII and others in church leadership during that period could KNOW of and still do nothing to prevent these atrocities against so many people boggles the mind. OTOH, considering this same leadership in the Church knew of, and hid, evidence of sexual abuse for years and years, even before WWII, proves that those leaders were NOT infallible, and did more to harm the Church than protect it in the long run.

I want to thank NetGalley for loaning me the ARC of this book--this did not influence my opinion whatsoever. I wish all "good" Catholics, indeed all good Christians, would read this book, as it should raise a lot of questions that the Church cannot easily or honestly answer.

[Colleen Browne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a well-researched and sourced book on the papacy of Pius XII. Kertzer looks at the pope in an objective and fearless manner, recognizing the challenges the Holy See encountered in the face of the fascist Mussolini and nazi Hitler. If Jesus himself had been faced with the dilemma faced by this papacy, it would have been a major challenge but one can be sure that he would have exhibited moral courage and better decisions.

Recognizing that ministering to the flocks in places like Germany and Poland would have been more difficult than in Italy but Pius did not speak out against the abuse and terror suffered by Poland's Catholics. It is difficult to believe that he could not have at least done that much. In Italy, he supported the fascist Mussolini and the fascist king. In a country that is overwhelmingly Catholic, he had an obligation to them, and most particularly to the Jews from Italy and from around Europe that were transported to the death camps. Even in his speech at the conclusion of the war, he spoke about the hardships that Catholics in Italy had suffered but did not make one mention of the hardships of the country's Jews.

The author concludes that Pius's greatest fault was a lack of moral leadership and I am inclined to agree. His concern was the safety of the Vatican and its riches and yet there is little evidence that those things were ever in danger.

[Kristjan · Rating 5 out of 5]

“ The world suffers a lot. Not because of the violence of bad people, but because of the silence of the good people. ” — Napoleon


This was a very difficult book to read, partly because of the considerable outrage at the unbelievable evil conduct of the Nazi and Fascist regimes, but mostly anger and shame at the silence from communities with whom I still have ethnic and religious connections. The book itself is very well written and organized into four (4) parts: Pre War, Early War (Axis favored to win), Mid War (Toss Up) and Late War/End (Allies favored to win). The book is also pretty big, with over 400 pages of content and 200 pages of citations … so it is not a quick read.

Most of the book covered behind the scenes maneuver and machinations that puts the Pope and the Church is a very unfavorable light; however, unlike Cornwell’s “Hitler’s Pope”, Kertzer seems to recognize that Pius XII (and the Church) was a product of the times and cuts him some slack with regard to current mores. Unfortunately, that still leaves a flawed man who obviously struggled between hubris and fear, and who was willing to throw pretty much anybody under the bus to save his institution and his own skin. Ultimately we see a man who, despite the august nature of his calling, was focused more on being a good politician/diplomat and not so much on being a good moral leader. The jury is still out on the former; I am pretty confident that he failed in the later.


Part One - War Clouds
- 1 Death of a Pope
- 2 The Conclave
- 3 Appealing to the Führer
- 4 The Peacemaker
- 5 “Please do not talk to me about Jews.”
- 6 The Nazi Prince
- 7 Saving Face
- 8 War Begins
- 9 The Prince Returns
- 10 A Papal Curse
- 11 Man of Steel
- 12 A Problematic Visitor
Part Two - On the Path to Axis Victory
- 13 An Inopportune Time
- 14 An Honorable Death
- 15 A Short War
- 16 Surveillance
- 17 The Feckless Ally
- 18 The Geek Fiasco
- 19 A New World Order
- 20 Hitler to the Rescue
- 21 The Crusade
- 22 A New Prince
- 23 Best to Say Nothing
Part Three - Change Fortunes
- 24 Escaping Blame
- 25 Papal Premiere
- 26 Disaster Foretold
- 27 A Thorny Problem
- 28 An Awkward Request
- 29 The Good Nazi
- 30 Deposing the Duce
- 31 Musical Chairs
- 32 Betrayal
Part Four - The Sky Turned Black
- 33 Fake New
- 34 The Pope’s Jews
- 35 Baseless Rumors
- 36 Treason
- 37 A Gratifying Sight
- 38 Malevolent Reports
- 39 A Gruesome End
Epilogue
Final Thoughts


I was given this free advance review copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#ThePopeatWar #NetGalley

[Marsha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This meticulously researched book by Pulitzer-prize-winning David Kertzer is definitive on Pope Pius XII's controversial relations with Hitler and Mussolini. Making extensive use of newly opened archives, there can now be no doubt about the damning moral choices that the Pope made when it came to appeasing Hitler and closing his eyes to the Holocaust. Apologists might say that he had no choice because communism also posed an existential world threat, plus, it's easy to judge in retrospect. However, one only has to look at his contemporary, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, who was the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Sheptytsky not only spoke out publicly against both communism and Nazism, he hid Jews in his own library. Pius XII had the choice, but he took the weak way out.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a important book but one that should be seen as part of a long continuum stretching back to the publication of 'The Kidnapping of Edgaro Mortara' through two further books on Pius IX, an account of Catholic antisemitism and two books on Pius XI. Throughout all of them Kertzer has gone back into the archives of the Vatican and elsewhere to resurrect a history that the Catholic Church wants forgotten. 'The Pope at War' is the capstone (not the culmination because I hope there will be many more books from Professor Kertzer) of that work. It is not the final work on Pius XII, the Catholic Church, the church in Italy or the history of Italy during the period of Mussolini before and during WWII, but is definitely the beginning of the end of the lies and obfuscations that for to long have created a fraudulent history upon which not simply the reputation of Pius XII but Catholicism has sheltered.

It is hard to resist regurgitating in a concise way the wealth of information in Kertzer's 'The Pope at War' but although I will resist I can't help bringing the following to any readers attention:

- In 1943 the papal delegate in Istanbul requested the help of the pope in the matter of arranging for 1,000 Jewish children to be evacuated from Slovakia. The request was sent to the Vatican Secretariat of State for evaluation and in rejecting any intervention the following assessment regarding why there had been so little Jewish immigration to Palestine came back:

"Now it is known that most Jews are mainly dedicated to industry and, for the most part, commerce. This commerce remains quite profitable for them when they find themselves living among Christians. If, on the contrary, all and only the Jews come together, one has an enormous gathering in of...swindlers, while lacking those to be swindled. Therefore, most Jews had no desire to migrate to Palestine."

- please note that the ellipsis before 'swindlers' is in the original document (for full details see Chapter 27 'A Thorny Problem' pages 274-78 in my edition).

I would suggest that this excerpt be placed against the numerous and insistent denials of antisemitism within the Catholic Church at this time and the church's insistence that whatever did exist was substantially and qualitatively different to that of the Nazis.

- This excerpt is of interest because it provides a clear context for why after Mussolini was toppled that neither the Vatican nor the Badoglio government sheltering behind Allied Lines, showed any interest in, intention of, or enthusiasm for and only hostility to, the revocation of Mussolini's 1938 antisemitic legislation (pages 334-5).

- An interesting light on the enthusiasm of high Vatican and Italian Catholic Church figures for forgetting, excusing, overlooking, denying and providing testimonial for various high ranking Fascist government employees is given an interesting light by the efforts these Churchmen made to have their young male relatives excused the necessity of serving their nation in any position which might have endangered their lives (that the same churchmen were loudly and continuously preaching for the well connected to go off and die for their nation should, but hardly needs, to be emphasised). The Fascist officials were only too happy to comply and were richly rewarded when the church gave retrospective absolution to their Fascist pasts (page 293).

I could go on and on - but really you need to read this book, and Kertzer's others.

Interestingly although there have been many reviews of this and Kertzer's other books I have never seen any response from anyone who believes in the nobility of the actions of Pius XII and the church's actions in WWII or of Pius XI or Pius IX. There has certainly been no sustained or even half hearted refutation of challenge on an academic level. All is silence.

Kertzer has barely skimmed the surface of the Pius XII archives released in 2020 and there will be many further important discoveries and revelations - the Vatican's actions, or lack of them, with regards to Poland's Catholics is awaiting a proper history. What he has managed to confirm, what many scholars have suspected, is that the volumes of documents the Vatican had released on its role in WWII were highly selective. He has also shown they are mendacious in redacting, without acknowledgement, sections which reflect badly on Pius XII and the Church.

Although I have barely mentioned it the totality of this book also demolishes the legend of Italy as a country which was different to Germany and who never had any interest in antisemitism (I do hope Kertzer's book encourages more English language readers to read Simon Levis Sullman's 2018 'The Italian Executioners).

It is hard to stop, I haven't even mentioned Kertzer's demolition of the legend of Pius XII ordering Catholic institutions to shelter Jews, but I will end on discussion of sainthood. It would be nice to think that the canonisation of Pius XII is now forever halted but I have my doubts. You only have to recall That Pius IX was made a saint in 2000 despite all the revelations of inadequacies, including utterly repellent antisemitism, by David Kertzer. That he was canonised by John Paul II, whose own lavish and speedy canonisation of many saints and whose own indecently rapid elevation to sainthood is deeply problematic in terms of his long and persistent refusal to look into, never mind acknowledge, the widespread clerical sexual within the Catholic Church, does not seem to have stemmed the sanctification of questionable individuals. Unfortunately Sainthood, or of the steps on the way to it like the status of Venerable (Pius XII position in the sainthood stakes), are not reversible. Secular authorities can divest they are no longer happy to be associated with of the baubles, knighthoods, peerages, honours, degrees, etc. that they have lavishly bestowed. The Catholic Church once it elevates an individual to sanctity it can not backtrack.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

We like to think that our religious leaders are people of faith who are not afraid to speak against worldly powers of oppression and destruction. We expect a moral vision and example from them, that they will even risk their lives to do the right thing. You won’t find that leader in these pages. Pope Pius II was primarily concerned with protecting his flock of Catholics. He heard the heartbreaking stories of the rounding up and extermination of Jews. But he would take a stand. By staying neutral, insisting the church had no political voice, he fantasized being able to broker peace at the end of the war.

David I. Kertzer’s book on Pope Pius XI, The Pope and Mussolini, won the Pulitzer Prize. At his death in 1939, the outspoken Pope Pius XI was replaced by Pope Pious XII, the preferred choice of Germany, as he had lived in German and spoke the language fluently. Unlike his predecessor, Pope Pius XII determined to do nothing that would bring repercussions to Catholicism. He went out of his way to not upset Hitler or Mussolini. He silenced the Vatican press, insisted the church had no interest in politics, and even preached that heads of state were God-ordained.

Pope Pius XII’s archives have been finally opened and Kertzer’s study of thousand of pages of these documents, and other government declassified documents, brought about startling revelations.

Mussolini needed the pope and the halo of Catholicism, and the pope cooperated. H truly believed that the Nazis would win the war and rule Europe. He didn’t want Catholics to be victims of fascist wrath.

Catholic oppressions of Jews was ingrained with practices that kept them separated, impoverished, and unable to exert power. The Nazis claimed they weren’t really doing anything that the Catholics weren’t already doing. Somehow, they skipped over the death camps.

Perhaps the pope did protect some Catholics from fascist repercussion. The Polish Catholics pleaded for him to intervene. His acquiescence allowed Hitler free reign in his crusade of genocide of all Jews. The pope fought to protect baptized Jews, but remained silent even when the Nazis came for Rome’s own Jewish population.

It’s a broad history with a large cast that takes us into the complicated relations between Italy, Germany, and the Vatican.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

[Immigration Art · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before the publication of "The Pope at War," the prior book that was widely accepted as the definitive account of the weak and publicly silent (willfully silent, in fact) Pope Pius XII was, "Hitler's Pope, The Secret History of Pius XII," by John Cornwell.

Cornwell painted Pius XII as a puppet of Hitler, who sided with Hitler, Mussolini, and the cause of the Nazi, Fascist, Axis Powers. Cornwell taught us about a biased Pope pretending to be neutral during WWII, while he looked the other way as Italian Jews were deported to the horrors of Auschwitz, literally right under the Pope's Vatican windows. And the Pope publicly kept quiet, deliberately so, about Hitler's murder of Jews in Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Norway, Finland, the Balkans . . . All across Europe, it seemed, the Pope saw nothing to speak up about, nor to speak out about, as morally wrong. He was Hitler's Pope, according to Cornwell.

In "The Pope at War," written with the benefit of Vatican archives newly released to the public, and unavailable to Cornwell, we learn that while the facts recited by Cornwell were true, his interpretation of the motives of Pius XII were much too simple. The Pope did not cower in the shadow of Hitler while repeating the Nazi party line. Far from it.

Pius XII was not (repeat: NOT) "Hitler's Pope." He favored the policy of Hitler only when it suited the Catholic Church.

Pius XII was in fact the Pope's Pope -- his main motive was to preserve Vatican City from ruin, and guard the assets and riches of the Catholic Church. He was aware that many of Hitler's loyal Nazi henchmen, forcing Jews to dig their own mass graves, were ALSO Catholics. Catholic Nazis worried the Pope.

Speaking out in support of Jews, and against the immorality of Nazi atrocities, could split the church (we wouldn't want to offend the murderous, sadistic, CATHOLIC Nazis, oh no -- can't have that).The Pope's goal was to protect the power of the Catholic Church worldwide, and to preserve his own hide. He chose (over assisting the improvement of the well-being of the innocents being persecuted) Catholic institutional stability, and the prestige and comforts of the office of the Pope itself. He wanted to preserve the hierarchy of Cardinals, Bishops, and parish priests worldwide.

He was not Hitler's Pope; he was the Catholic institution's Pope. He stayed silent as Hitler killed innocent Jews, murdered Catholic priests (who spoke out, during Sunday mass, against the atrocities of Hitler), slaughtered innocent gypsies, butchered homosexuals, and exterminated other "undesirable" elements offensive to the Aryan race.

Pius XII chose the Church over speaking out to condemn, and offering aid to lessen, the suffering of the people in the lands conquered by the homicidal megalomaniac Hitler.

So, if you believe the job of the Pope is a moral one, in which he is compelled to speak out, in the name of God the Father, in condemnation of genocidal mass murder, then Pius XII was an abysmal failure -- a coward and a weakling. A disgrace.

But, if you think the job of the Pope is to protect the power of the Catholic Church worldwide, and to preserve Catholicism as an institution (and in doing so, to protect his own hide), then he was a roaring success. A few Jews, gypsies, priests, and other unfortunates be damned. Oh well, these things -- like mass murder -- happen, but we can shrug it off in order to serve the greater good of the Church.

In my personal view, as an anti-theist who rages against the Catholic Church (they run the place like it's the General Motors for God), this Pope (God's CEO on Earth) turned a blind eye to pure and unadulterated evil. Pure Evil. I find this WWII Pope to have been a spineless worm, who put altars of gold above the lives of people (just like a corporate CEO would do). It is my hope that this Pope is burning in the very Hell about which he warned when he pontificated.

But, you may read this exact book and conclude the exact opposite -- that this Pope was a WWII hero, who did what had to be done to save the Vatican and the institution of the Catholic Church. And because of this artful crafting of "The Pope at War," the book truly deserves 5 Stars.

[Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was going to read a different book about Pius XII but I saw this one was a 2022 release and the author had access to previously sealed records from the Vatican library. A lot of the really troubling parts for me ended up being actual documents that reveal the pope was worse than I thought. To be clear I thought he should’ve acted differently but I was under the impression that he was a prisoner in the Vatican and mouthed the fascist party line or remained silent due to specific threats. I still didn’t think his actions were right but I understood his difficult position.
This book reveals that he was silent largely because the physical structure of the Catholic Church, especially in Italy, and the preservation of its role in society as a leading force, was more important than the lives of Jews, communists and other non-Catholics for him. He seemed to care only for those Catholics who were, “good”, meaning baptized individuals who were obedient to Catholic doctrine. He was an a diplomat and secretary by training and lacked a forceful personality. Unfortunately, he was dealing with two of the most forceful men in the 20th century in Hitler and Mussolini and he wasn’t up to the challenge. Reading about him reminded me of Benedict XVI, another scholarly man deeply involved in Vatican politics who wanted to restore and then maintain the institution of the church. Both men ended up seeming out of touch and overwhelmed by the papacy and probably never should’ve been elevated. Of course Pius XII is much worse than Benedict as his silence cost countless lives. He could’ve done so much more. Reading this gave me a sense of his personality and his inability to see his own mistakes. He seemed to think he’d done the right thing even as priests begged him to intervene and save at least the Polish Catholics the Nazis were slaughtering. He just couldn’t step up. An intelligent man but with a peculiar set of blinders to the demands of the historical moment.
The book is a tough read as the author doesn’t shy away from the details of what happened to the people Pius didn’t protect. It’s also infuriating to read how so many pro-fascist church officials got off scot free or with minimal consequences after the war. Pius was also given a pass and his fascist leanings were carefully erased. I knew some of this but not all. Seeing the actual quotes from documents I understand why the Vatican sealed his records after he died. There’s no way to argue that he, “did everything he could”. He did the bare minimum and when the Italian or German government pushed back he went silent and put his protests aside.
As a leader of an organization he was weak and not up to the task. He kept the Vatican and the Italian churches who towed the line intact and that’s the extent of his victory. If he was just a head of state I could say fine, he did what he had to in order to survive and preserve the institution but the fact is he wasn’t just a head of state. The Pope is supposed to be Christ’s Vicar on Earth and act as Jesus himself would and this is where Pius failed horribly. The Church is the people not the Vatican and Pius of all people should’ve known that the status of this life means nothing and we are put here to care for each other without judgment. If he’d stood up he might’ve died and Germany might’ve looted the Vatican but as Pope that’s what you do. That’s why you’re the Pope. Instead he was concerned with the morality of dance halls and women’s outfits during one of the worst times in history. What a colossal failure of a spiritual leader.

I know the Catholic Church is like this being more interested in wealth and power than people ( I was raised Catholic), but this was worse than I thought. I can’t believe they want to canonize this man. Anyway, read the book. It’s long but a solid read especially with the new documentation. It’s grim though so be prepared. I gave it three stars because although it’s a good read it’s not one I’ll revisit and it left me wanting a little bit more on the aftermath of the war.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Pope at War: The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitler by David I. Kertzer is a fascinating look into the role of Pope Pius XII during WWII.

This is the first book that I have read by this author, and it most certainly won’t be the last. Truly fascinating and eye-opening. The amount of things that happen behind closed doors is astounding.

The amount of research, time, effort, and passion that the author has placed into this book is beyond impressive and evident with how it is written, presented, and displayed. This was nonfiction, but it read as smooth as a fictional novel.

I highly recommend this novel to anyone that is interested in WWII history.

5/5 stars

Thank you NG and Random House for this wonderful arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication on 6/7/22.

[Steven Z. · Rating 5 out of 5]

For many, one of the most polarizing figures of the Second World War was Pope Pius XII. Up until 2019 the Vatican archives did not allow access to most of the documents related to Pius XII’s actions before and during the war. Under the current leadership of Pope Francis, the archive has been made available to historians and has brought about a reassessment of Pius XII’s relationship with Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in addition to his attitude toward the Holocaust.

Until the opening of the archive, historians were of two minds; either Pius XII was too close to Mussolini and Hitler and did not confront them publicly concerning their murderous atrocities and said and did little in relation to the genocide of European Jewry or he did as much as he could in balancing the protection of the Catholic clergy in Germany and working behind the scenes to assist Europe’s Jews. It is understood that Pius XII was in a very difficult position and Pulitzer Prize winning historian, David I. Kertzer, the author of THE POPE AND MUSSOLINI: THE SECRET HISTORY OF PIUS XI AND THE RISE OF FASCISM IN EUROPE has availed himself of the opportunity to consult newly released documentation and has written what should be considered the definitive source in dealing with Pius XII in his latest work, THE POPE AT WAR: THE SECRET HISTORY OF PIUS XII, MUSSOLINI, AND HITLER. Kertzer’s book documents the private decision-making that led Pope Pius XII to stay essentially silent about Hitler’s genocide and argues that the Pope’s impact on the war is underestimated – and not in a positive fashion. As David M. Shribman writes in the Boston Globe, for Pius XII “silence was easier, safer, more prudent. Silence was deadly.”*

Kertzer’s presentation is excellent as it is grounded in his previous research and his recent access to the newly opened Vatican archive. The book is clearly written and tells a story that many have heard before, however it is cogently argued, and he has unearthed new material which may change or reinforce deeply held opinions by many when it comes to Pius XII. Kertzer makes the case that Pius XII’s obsessive fear of Communism, his belief that the Germans would win the war, and his goal of protecting church interests motivated him to avoid angering Mussolini and Hitler. The Pope was also concerned as the book highlights, that opposing Hitler would alienate millions of German Catholics.

Kertzer does an excellent job tracing Pius XII’s relationship with Mussolini; the evolution of Italy’s military failures which negatively impacted Hitler’s plans, i.e.; Italy’s failed invasion of Greece; and Hitler’s growing dissatisfaction with Mussolini. Kertzer relies heavily on the comments and diaries associated with foreign ambassadors to the Vatican, particularly those of England and France and their negative commentary related to the Papacy. The descriptions of these ambassadors focused on Pius XII’s lack of action, periodic support for the war effort in Italy, and obsession with German power. Further, Kertzer focuses on Pius XI’s opposition to Mussolini’s adoption of racial laws targeting Italian Jews. Despite this opposition, Pius XII would not comment on the increase in Italy’s oppression of Jews and racial laws in general.

Pius XII’s predecessor, Pius XI had been somewhat of a thorn in the side of fascist dictators. He saw Mussolini as a “buffoon,” and believed that Hitler was a danger to all of Europe. Both dictators feared he was preparing an encyclical denouncing Nazi racism and anti-Semitism and feared that the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli who would succeed him as Pontiff would try and talk him out of it, as well as any other anti-fascist comments. When he died a few days before he could release his encyclical, Mussolini and Hitler experienced a great deal of relief.

Kertzer correctly points out that Mussolini never felt comfortable around priests and complained bitterly about Pius XI barbs. He was worried as he was aware that Hitler viewed him as a role model and did not want the Pope’s commentary to ruin their relationship. Once Pius XI died and was replaced by Cardinal Pacelli criticism was reduced and if any were made it was done in private. Hitler’s main complaint concerned articles in the Vatican’s daily newspaper, Osservatore Romano that focused on Nazi anti-Catholic policies from arresting and beating Catholic priests to closing Catholic schools in Germany. Pius XII immediately made overtures to Hitler to relax the pressure on German Catholicism and refused to comment publicly on Hitler’s seizure of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, in addition to remaining quiet as Hitler’s pressure on Catholic Poland over Danzig escalated.

Mussolini resented Pius XII’s diplomacy as his ego would not allow anyone to detract from his role as the dominant figure in Italian politics. Kertzer’s comments concerning Mussolini, his son-in-law Count Galeazzo Ciano, the Italian Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, the Nazi Foreign Minister, and countless other figures is insightful and at times entertaining, but it does not detract from the danger and derangement of these individuals.

In a very important chapter, Kertzer provides details of secret meetings between the Papacy and Germany before and after the war began. The conduit for Germany was Prince Philip von Hessen whose goal was to bring about an accommodation with the Papacy and keep the Pope out of politics. Hitler resented the clergy’s meddling in German domestic politics and wanted the Pope to refrain from comments on Nazi racial policy. Pius XII’s, his main goal was to protect the German clergy and Catholicism in general, but he expressed the belief that an honorable religious peace was achievable, and in all instances talks should be held in secret.

Once the war began Pius XII refused to break his silence concerning Nazi aggression arguing he would not endanger the church’s situation in Germany. This argument was repeated throughout the war, but he promised he would pray for the Polish people or whatever nationality was endangered by a Nazi onslaught. Morality, rights, honor, justice were always met with methods, practicality, tradition, and statistics on the part of the Vatican. When priests were sent to concentration camps Pius XII did nothing, no statements, no audiences with the Pope in Rome etc. The only diplomacy Pius II seemed to engage in was to try and talk Mussolini out of following in Hitler’s footsteps as it was clear, even to Il Duce, that Italy was totally unprepared for war.

One could argue that Pope Pius XII evolved in his approach toward fascism and the war. At first, at least up to 1943 he waffled between neutrality and making general statements structured “as not to be offensive by either side.” At first the Papacy believed the Germans would win the war and once it was concluded Pius XII was convinced that in a few years the anti-Catholic policies would dissipate and fade away. As the war progressed and when it was clear that the Russians had broken out of Stalingrad and made their way westward, and that the United States and England would invade Italy, Pius XII’s attitude shifted. Pius XII priority was to prevent allied bombing of Rome and Vatican City (particularly as England was bombing Turin, Milan, and Genoa) which led to messages to President Franklin D. Roosevelt who responded with a demand that Mussolini be replaced, and Italy should drop out of the war. Pius XII’s other priority was to warn allied leaders (apart from Stalin) that Communism was as large a threat to Europe as Nazism, and he worked to manufacture a peace agreement with the US and England and organize in response to the Soviet threat to all European Catholics.

As to the Holocaust, Pius XII received increasing numbers of reports of Nazi atrocities and extermination camps. This information came from reliable sources and churchmen like Father Scavini, an Italian military chaplain that the Pope had great faith in. However, Pius XII refused to publish details contained in these reports to stay on the good side of Hitler and Mussolini. The only area that the Pope did complain about to the German and Italian governments was the application of racial laws to those he considered Catholics – baptized Jews and the children of mixed marriages. Pius XII accepted advice that there was no confirmation of Nazi atrocities and was told not to even use the word, “Jew.” In relation to the Vatican’s attitude toward the roundup of Italian Jews right under their noses provoked little response as Kertzer quotes Lutz Klinkhammer, the foremost historian of Germany’s military occupation of Italy, “it is more than clear that all their efforts were aimed above all at saving the baptized or the ‘half-born’ from mixed marriages,” the Jews who did not fit this category would wind up dying at Auschwitz.

Pius XII’s actions are clear even when he was approached to try and mitigate the actions of Roman Catholic priest Jozef Tiso, the head of the Slovakian government who was about to send 20,000 Jews to Polish concentration camps. When a move was made to try and send 1000 Jewish children to Palestine, Pius XII did little to facilitate this plan as he was anti-Zionist and he argued that he held little sway with the Nazis and their minions and any Papal criticism risked provoking a backlash against the church in German occupied Europe. No matter the circumstances Kertzer’s conclusions that Pius XII’s messaging was always weak and vague to protect the church’s interests.

Pius XII’s silence and overall inaction emerges as the dominant theme of Kertzer’s work. It is clear that any other conclusion is a result of Church propaganda, obfuscation, and analysis that conveniently avoids the facts. Kertzer’s work is to be commended as it should put to bed once and for all the truth concerning Pius XII’s role during World War II.

*David M. Shribman, “A Deadly Silence: Assessing the Moral Failings of Pope Pius XII during World War II,” Boston Globe,” May 26, 2022.

[J.R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well written. The story highlights the complicated behavior of Pope Pius XII, who led the Roman Catholic Church through WWII.

If one judges his papacy by his ability to protect the church's institutions and property during the world's most destructive wars, then he was an extremely successful pope. If you judge him by his willinging to display moral courage by condeming the atrocities committed by European Fascists, then the Holy See was an adjunct failure.

I very much enjoyed the book.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

“In His exalted mission the Holy Father must maintain strictest neutrality. However, I believe that in His heart he cannot wish for the victory of the Jews, the Bolsheviks, and the Lutherans.”

- King Victor Emmanuel about Pius XII

“The Vatican will be the only State which has not condemned the persecution of the Jews.”

- Francis D’Arcy Osbourne, British Envoy to the Vatican

“His horizon is bounded by the Alps and the Sicilian straits. The robbed and starving in Greece, in France, in Belgium, Holland, Austria, in concentration camps—religious, priests, seminarians, the enslaved workers—does their liberation mean nothing to Vat[ican]? Sad, sad.”

- Rev. Vincent McCormick, former head of Georgetown University

Questions about whether Pope Pius XII’s silence on the persecution of Jews during the Second World War was principled opposition in trying times or active collaboration with German Nazis and Italian Fascists have lingered ever since they were first asked in 1939. It is only with the 2020 opening of the Vatican archives to the public that definitive answers could be reached, answers that cut through an intentional fog created by church authorities over decades beginning with the fall of Mussolini in 1943. This narrative takes the controversy and now, as author James Carroll noted, “the dispute [is] resolved, case closed.” Literally, with not a spark of sunlight in the case file.

Pius, for his part, concentrated all of his efforts on protecting the Church and ensuring its unchanged administration and status in Italian society, preferably with the ruling Fascist government.  The abolition of separation of church and state was made public policy in the Lateran Accords, which also granted the Vatican independent statehood, with Mussolini’s approval.  Before being elevated to pope, Pius served for more than a decade as nuncio to the German government, in the immediate aftermath of WWI and through the most tumultuous time of the Weimar Republic.  During that time, he learned to love all that was German and loathe anything that upset order.  It was an attitude that would not wane and likely intensified during his papacy.  He never expressed any interest in helping Jews except for those who had converted to Catholicism, and his inattention led to many of them being exterminated in death camps.  The only time he spoke publicly about a wartime event in Rome was when its railyards were bombed by the Allies late in the war.

Although he claimed his actions were to protect the Church, as one historian pointed out, “He did not take a stand in defense of the suffering of the Polish Catholic nation, or of the Christian victims of the Nazi euthanasia program, or of the Jews of his own bishopric in Rome…[with respect to threats to Church] it is still not clear just how, when, and by whom that survival was threatened…”  Pius believed “there were bad Fascists and good Fascists…Those who respected the church’s prerogatives, showed deference to the Catholic clergy, and offered the resources of the state to strengthen the church were good.  Those who threatened the church’s influence, undercut its institutional activities, and threatened its property and reputation were bad.”  Or as Kertzer sums it up succinctly, “as a moral leader, Pius XII must be judged a failure.”

[David Bush · Rating 1 out of 5]

Shoddy scholarship, hugely overrated work
This book is much ado about nothing. It adds nothing significantly new to the debate and it abysmally fails to change anything in the minds of the perceptive, informed reader. If anything, it only confirms and reinforces their previously held viewpoints.
It is pretty obvious this writer has an axe to grind, given his zealous and persistent body of work on this subject, as he continues to recycle old material to justify his skewed opinions. This is more consonant with the output of a modern-day Jewish Torquemada, no more no less.
The judgmental and biased author’s mind cannot grasp the metaphysical nature of the Catholic Church, and neither can the masses of the people in the secular world. So there’s no doubt about which readership the author is pandering to in order to ensure the success of his treatise. He seems to project the controversial behavior of the state of Israel onto the Vatican. For his country, it is natural and acceptable; In the case of the Vatican, it is scandalous.
David Israel Kertzer approached the project with preconceived ideas and shifted through the “many” papers until he came up with a handful, that when spun, fitted in nicely with his ideas. There is no way that anyone can shift through that massive cache of documents in the archives and produce a book in such a short time. Mammoth tasks of that scale take many years, maybe even an author’s lifetime. This handful of papers documenting new papal meetings or conversations is merely the small individual pieces of a huge jigsaw puzzle. But in the author’s hands, they became the entire puzzle. He reconstructed the entire puzzle in one side of his brain from those few new pieces, and so his much-lauded book came into being. Ditto with the puerile Jewish opposition against the canonization of Maximilian Kolbe on the basis of the saint’s writings taken out of context accusing him of being a rabid anti-semite. It’s ironic that the author rails against apologists who use selected information, ignoring the unsavory ones that may refute their idea.
The book is one-dimensional and sensationalistic. Judging from the authors’ previous works, it is evident the author does not have ability or the will to produce a three-dimensional opus. Most of his arguments are flawed. They are an academic extension of the wild premise of a Communist German playwright, at a time when Stalin was trying to subjugate the Catholic populations of Eastern Europe. Herzter has a large blind spot in his analysis, which is dry, repetitive, and obsessive.
When writing about the past, the protagonists have to be assessed against the standards of those times and not with those of the present. That is what intellectual honesty is about. The social mores, circumstances, and milieu of times past are completely different. One must have the skill of empathization to place yourself in the protagonist’s shoes, see with his eyes and attempt to take the same decisions the protagonist has to take. The acclaimed historian, Lady Antonia Fraser does this brilliantly. Even better, the historian has to present all the facts dispassionately and allow the reader to make his own conclusions, rather than manipulate the reader by doing the opining for any reader.
It is ironic, that the author’s rabbi father was in Rome at the final stages of the war, and his public opinions about the Vatican in World War II were diametrically opposed to those of his son, a celebrated history professor.
Kertzer moans about the stubborn apologists who will criticize his book even though they would not have even read it. It’s a rich statement, considering he has done the same. Then he whines that he never receives invitations from Christian organizations for his erudite talks. It’s no wonder, remembering the bad faith with which Michael R. Marrus of the International Catholic–Jewish Historical Commission operated when tasked by the Vatican to comb through a limited stash of newly opened archives. The aggressive partisanship of the World Jewish Congress and the repeated breaching of the mandate’s terms, lead to the initiative being disbanded with mutual recriminations.
What’s in this for the author? He rushes to gain access to the archives, beating all the other researchers, in a frantic sprint to get publish his book first. Think of the sprinter first off the blocks in a marathon, sprinting ahead of the others to soak up the attention, accolades, and influence—knowing full well that any work of anti-Catholic bashing is a goldmine. He makes millions in the process, not unlike that other sensationalistic book by John Cornwell, “Hitler’s Pope”. Ditto for the top five publishing companies who are only in it for money-making rather than for the truth. The unimpressive hyperbole in the attendant promotional material intended to overwhelm the fickle masses is so contrived, that it underwhelms.
A neutral reader may be forgiven for thinking the author is referring to the modus operandi of the author’s namesake state when referring to the Vatican’s policies. The state of Israel is founded on racial grounds, having a universal influence extending beyond its boundaries. A state that practices apartheid politics in Palestine. A state that defends its right to exist with any means possible, legal, illegal or unethical. The means justify the end. Any threat to its power base is countered vengefully in the fascist way. It’s the trademark Zionist idea of justice. Anyone who criticizes their methods is subjected to an inquisition and summarily condemned as an anti-Semite, a discredited racist to be ostracized internationally. What’s in the anti-Catholic bashing for Israel? Of course, it’s the refusal of the Vatican to recognize the state of Israel unconditionally. What’s in the anti-Catholic bashing by the secular media? Of course, it’s the Vatican’s uncompromising position against abortion and the lifestyle that engenders abortion. Israel and the libertine media have a common interest in having the Vatican’s prestigious permanent observer non-member status in the United Nations rescinded, so as to curtail the Vatican’s influence. The Jews suffered at the hands of the Nazi regime in pre-war Germany: dehumanization, expropriation, ghettoization, humiliation, intimidation, and discrimination. And now, Israel inflicts those same woes on the Palestinians. The United Nations acknowledges that but its influence is neutered by the US and others.
That, in short, is the mindset of the author. He delights in the role of grand inquisitor, whipping up a trial by media style of mob justice. He self-righteously declares that the truth has to come out for the good of mankind. He claims that the Catholic Church does not want the truth to come out (sic) They opened the archives for heavens’ sake, but then he condescendingly states that some Catholics are secretly grateful for his book. His erudition is misplaced and could have been put to better use if he were to investigate the activities of his own namesake state—the wholehearted support the World Jewish Congress afforded to Hitler’s pre-war discriminatory laws and enforcement. The Zionists considered it a boost for their efforts to organize the illegal immigration of German Jews to British Palestine. The refusal of the west to increase the Jewish immigration quotas despite frantic Vatican diplomatic efforts. By 1942, Hitler’s top military brass realized that the war was lost and that Germany was imploding. There were brave plans to carry out a coup and surrender, thereby ending the war prematurely. Pope Pius was supportive and interceded with Churchill who stubbornly refused to countenance a coup. Churchill was after the unconditional surrender and destruction of Germany as a military power. This prolonged the war unnecessarily, and with the connivance of the naïve Roosevelt, enabled the Soviet army to advance further and further into the heart of Europe. General Patton was the most insightful when he stated, “We are fighting the wrong enemy”, but his saying was ignored, not him being particularly known for his political correctness. Patten’s opinion justified Pius’s view that the real threat to future world order was communism rather than unsustainable Nazism that was already petering out. That is one of the myopic author’s derogatory claims against the pope. To my mind. It shows how farseeing the pontiff was. He saw things in a way none of his more powerful peers did, and history has proven him right. The point is, that Hitler’s armies after 1942 were beaten on the battlefields, so if he couldn’t destroy the enemies outside German borders, his violent psychology drove him to mercilessly destroy the Jewish enemy within German territories. Would the author in his sanctimonious crusade for the good of mankind, direct his erudition against the Zionist terrorists, Churchill, Roosevelt, and the allies? No, it would not be politically correct. He won’t get the adulation any author craves. Neither can one factor in the pecuniary and influential lure of such a venture.
No matter how much comes out of the archives, nothing will change. No matter how much comes out of the archives, nothing will change. The apologists will continue to acknowledge the four-fifths of Pius’ cup that is full, whereas the naysayers will focus on the one-fifth that is empty. The smoking gun will never be produced for either side. The adage comes to mind, judge a man not by his words but by his deeds. And Pius was just that man—a man of few words, but whose deeds did the talking. He realized that words were useless with the Hitler regime as Churchill did. And he worked tirelessly to bring the war to a premature conclusion through diplomacy, but his efforts were rebuffed by the allies. The worst of the extermination of the Jews would have been averted had he had his way.
All these execrable events reflect the metaphysical transcendence of Jesus’ trial. The Nazi regime was the accusers and executioners (the 20th century Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, Romans) and the Jews were the imprisoned Messiah. The roles have now been reversed, with Israeli Jews the accusers cum executioners and the Palestinians fulfilling the victim role of Jesus. In a sense, the same applies to the posthumous Pius XII trial. The Jews, media, intelligentsia, and the libertines are the accusers/executioners and Pius is the Jesus figure. But the striking feature is that all the accusations directed against the person of Jesus revealed more about the inner nature and machinations of the accusers and nothing dirty about the accused. So, it is with Pius—he is like a mirror, impenetrable, but reflecting the thoughts, nature, self-interested motives, and secret agendas of his accusers. The Catholic Church had the integrity to reopen the trial after the Joan of Arc tragedy. The evidence was laid out dispassionately, the crime of her unlawful execution was uncovered, and her dignity and honor were rehabilitated. That is a task too far for David Israel Kertzer, Susan Zuccotti, and many others of their ilk.
In essence, these authors have a cartoonish idea of Pope Pius as the superhero magician, who could have single-handedly saved 100% of European Jewry, but who was too biased to wave his magic wand. In their book, saving any number less than that is unacceptable, for he is the giver of life! But even worse, he cast a spell on the Nazi movement to pursue its racist policies because he was a Nazi lover. He wanted to puff up the power of the Catholic Church in preparation for the upcoming battle against communism. Hear! Hear! All you gullible folks!

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pope Pius XII appears to be one of the most controversial popes in the history of Catholicism – at least, in recent history. He is gifted the moniker the “wartime pope” due to the fact that his nineteen-year papal reign began only months before War World II broke out in 1939, ending in 1958, over a decade after the war’s end and thus the collapse of Nazism and more importantly to the Vatican, the Fascist-Catholic Italian state. The “wartime pope” is not intended to criticize the former pope; just used as a statement of fact by his defenders and opponents alike.

For over sixty years, a fierce debate ensued among scholars, Catholics, journalists and the common man alike – over Pius XII’s role and influence – especially regarding the treatment of European Jews - during those wartime years. Considering successors of his have been already canonized and Pius XII has yet to even be beatified, there’s obviously controversy within the Church itself over the matter.

His defenders have claimed that he did “all he could” to intervene with Nazism’s liquidation process of the Jews, and thanks to that interference, countless lives were saved due to the Pope’s influence. Many of those same defenders have spoken out about him being Hitler’s “staunchest opponent”, stating that despite popular rumors, Pope Pius XII was “no pushover” when it came to Hitler and didn’t hesitate to denounce his treatment of the Jewish population.

On the other hand, his biggest critics allege that Pius XII “looked the other way” upon hearing of Nazi atrocities, as well as allowing himself to be too easily manipulated by the Italian Fascist Party and its leader, Benito Mussolini, conceding to their every demand long before the war and the extreme persecution of the Jews even got underway. Much worse, some insist that Pius XII’s antisemitic beliefs not only gave way to complete inaction during the war, but allowed him to become complicit in the racial laws against the Jews; agreeing to their mass roundups and subsequent deportations – hence the nickname, “Hitler’s Pope.”

The curiosity of the public and historians, as well as the fight among the Catholic Church over his canonization, led to the Vatican Secret Archives on Pius XII’s wartime actions and statements in 1939-1945 finally being unsealed in 2020. While I have not read any books in his defense (and am thus open to recommendations) – I have read articles praising his greatness - yet they all seem to appear before 2020.

I feel as if David Kertzer presented the results of what he found in the archives as fairly as he could. He mostly refrained from offering his opinion throughout the book, up until its very end – where he does make note of Pius XII’s profound silence – in the aptly named chapter, “The Silence of the Pope.”

You are mostly just given the history as if you were reading the archives yourself: many references are made to government officials and Catholic clergy members from Vatican City, Italy, Poland, Germany, England and France – who all held audiences with Pope Pius XII – and thus had written opinions of him. These opinions could be found in reports to their government, personal or state requests, or their own handwritten account/assessment of his character, demeanor, attitude, etc. They all seemed to share the idea that Pope Pius XII was too easily manipulated (this was appeared to be a major reason why his own cardinals were the only Catholic electorate to not support his elevation to the papacy - his "timidity" was often cited in reference to his personality).

I feel referring to him as “Hitler’s Pope” is extreme and unfair, as Pius XII was clearly no genuine fan of Adolf Hitler or the Nazis. No evidence surfaced in these archives to show that he was actively involved in Jewish extermination policies set forth by either the Nazis or the Fascists. To anyone that says he actively pursued antisemitic policies, I would ask, where? Which policies?

What was incredibly disturbing, however, was his total indifference and repeated failures to denounce Hitler’s actions, Nazism’s policies, or even utter the word “Jew” in sympathy to their plight during the war. It is doubtful he withheld his objections because he hated Jews – I would owe his inaction more to his fear of Hitler and Mussolini, and the techniques they used to intimidate him. It was a bit more understandable that he tolerated some of the initial policies when many in Europe truly thought an Axis victory was inevitable, and the Vatican would be forced to live under German rule.

What is not at all tolerable, however, is the fact that even before the Allied victory became inevitable, he failed to speak out against the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939. Some of his most trusted cardinals, archbishops, and priests in Poland cabled him not only to inform him of the extreme violence and systematic murdering of the Jews – but of the Catholic Church and its Polish parishioners as well. The very people he was purportedly most concerned with saving.

At best, Hitler would allow the Catholic churches to remain open but a few hours a week – at worst, the Catholic clergy and parishioners themselves were sent to concentration/labor camps. When Pius XII responded to one of these cables detailing the horrific abuses in Poland, stating that “he was assured by the Germans that Catholics could still attend Sunday mass”, he received a response that while that was technically true, could Mass be held when "there were not enough priests or parishioners left to attend the Sunday service?"

It’s quite sickening that Pius XII refused to carry out even the most basic humane gestures in which “God’s messenger on Earth” is tasked with: offering his support and prayers to the Polish population (many, his own Church's population) after the unwanted invasion. Now that the archives have been unsealed, I don’t know what policies people could argue to claim that the Pope did anything to save the Jews, let alone Italian Jews.

He gave speeches denouncing the Allied bombing of Catholic churches and institutions in Rome, yet intentionally left out the reason the Allies were targeting those areas: they were being used by the Germans for their military bases. Yes, the Allies had given their word they would not indiscriminately bomb Church property, but that was before Germans captured Rome and set up headquarters at many of these properties. How exactly would one defeat an enemy in a war if the Church is arguing that they can’t bomb the enemy’s headquarters?

To Pope Pius XII's defenders, I'd ask a similar question I asked of his opponents, who claimed he was complicit in Nazi extermination policies regarding Jews: where were the speeches given in which you claim he denounced this treatment? Which speeches, and on what dates - and using what words - did he specifically state his opposition to these atrocities?

It wasn’t that the Allies went back on their word: if the Church and Pius XII (given he was the supreme authority of the Church) had kept their word and “stayed neutral” and not allowed the Germans to take over their institutions (as Pius XII always insisted he was doing by not condemning the horrific actions of the Nazis) – the Allies wouldn’t have been forced to bomb them.

It’s unbelievable just how many people begged for Pius XII to speak out against the atrocities for the possible hope of ending the war. He was, after all, the only man in Europe whose charisma and authority could match that of Hitler’s, as well as that of Mussolini’s. And it certainly should go without saying that his moral authority far exceeded either of the two dictators. Yet, he remained silent. Even when his own Catholic colleagues and parishioners begged him to speak up. Why?

It’s hard to conclusively say why. I suppose it would be a combination of feeling intimated by Mussolini and Hitler, as well as a fear of losing the faithful Catholics (who numbered 40 million, I believe) in Germany that supported Hitler. Yet, popular opinion polls at the time tell us that most Germans only “supported” Hitler out of the fear of what might happen to themselves and their families if they opposed him. Not to mention, if that was an argument to made in his favor, then he certainly didn't seem very concerned with the Catholic populations of France, Poland, or other nations.

Also, the argument that he “spared so many Jewish lives” and “took many Jewish refugees” in at the Vatican institutions is flawed. The only Jewish lives he seemed concerned with sparing, the only Jewish refugees he seemed concerned with helping - weren’t “Jewish” in his eyes: they were born Jewish, yes, but had been baptized into Catholicism, either at a young age or upon marriage. Others he “spared” were Jews-converted-to-Catholics or Catholics with well-established connections to the Vatican.

While it was true that many Vatican and Church institutions harbored Jewish refugees, I am very hesitant to believe that this was ordered by Pius XII. Rather, I believe many cardinals and other sympathetic clergy took them in. Once the Germans found out about these refugees, Pius XII demanded that all Church officials provide him with a list of just whom the Church was protecting – with the intent of evicting those deemed to be practicing Jews, anti-Fascist or anti-Nazi demonstrators, and alleged military draft dodgers. It seemed Pius XII only reversed the eviction after many powerful Catholic colleagues vocalized their complete objection to the order.

I really do think the unsealing of the Vatican Archives tells us once and for all that Pius XII had no part in “saving” any of Europe’s Jews – and was FAR from being World War II’s “savior” who brought peace to the continent (as the Vatican’s rewriting of history would later claim).

As the author points out, “if Pius XII is to be judged for his action in protecting the institutional interests of the Roman Catholic Church at a time of war, there is a good case to be made that his papacy was a success.” On the other hand, if one is to consider his responsibility as the world’s most authoritative leader on morality and humanity issues, “Pius XII clung firmly to his determination to do nothing to antagonize Mussolini or Hitler. In fulfilling this aim, the pope was remarkably successful.”

When you’re the only person in the world who has a powerful enough voice to potentially stop the mass murder of innocents and you elect not to use that voice – then I am of the opinion that you are nearly as guilty as the perpetrators themselves.

The argument that “speaking out against the situation would only worsen things for the Jews” is laughable. How can you make things worse for a population that is being indiscriminately slaughtered? Also, I say innocents, because no matter what antisemitic beliefs someone may hold and their reasoning for these beliefs, one must certainly acknowledge that babies and children are innocents. Yet they were not spared from the death camps by the Germans – such was Hitler’s policy, Mussolini’s assent, and Pope Pius XII’s apathy.

[Lesley · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Kertzer is a dedicated scholar, gifted writer of many award-winning books, and a man who steps back to see the whole picture in his areas of historical study. He has spent years in the Vatican archives researching his books but not until 2020 were documents dealing with Popes Pius XI, Pius XII and World War II available; these particular documents had been sealed since 1958 until Pope Francis opened them for scholarly research. The Pope at War has a lot of pages - about 400 text and 200 notes and sources - but it doesn't FEEL like a long book when you read it. Professor Kertzer has spent so many years researching 20th century (and earlier) Italy, especially the workings of the Catholic Church, that the dramatis personae must seem like living, breathing people to him. And with his exceptional writing skills, he makes two popes, Hitler, Mussolini, and many other participants in the creation of World War II come to life for the reader of this book. Kertzer works hard to understand the motivations of these people rather than slap labels and over-simplified analyses on them. It is excruciating to visit the minds of sociopaths (and the period covered in this book had more than its share) but how and why they make their choices needs to be known when they are the shot callers of history.
Kertzer has studied especially whether the old accusations against Pope Pius XII were/are justified, i.e. whether he turned a blind eye while millions of Jews were tortured and massacred. Those who are pushing for the canonization of Pius (ironic name) insist that he did his best to save many Jewish lives. As Professor Kertzer discovers, this pope worked to save the lives of Jews who had converted to Catholicism, asking Mussolini to treat them as equal to other "Aryan" - his word - Christians. For some, this may indicate that Pius' apparent lack of concern for Jewish people was not "racial" in origin but rather spiritual. That is, their religious beliefs and practices made them unworthy of saving by the Catholic church. This is the stuff of nightmares.
Pope Pius XII hoped to become a "great pope" but rather than accomplishing that by being a great spiritual leader and moral compass in the world, he focused on appeasing Fascists (including Franco) out of fear that the destructive forces running amok in Europe would seize church properties and persecute Catholics, especially the clergy. He envisaged the end of the Catholic church entirely and thought he could manage tyrants. Rather, they managed him.
Pius was convinced that Communism was the greatest danger to Christianity. He believed that Europe's Fascist dictators would prevent Christian Europe from being overrun by Communists. After all, Hitler was raised Catholic, and Franco and Mussolini were nominally members of the church, and Pius believed for too long that this would anchor them morally.
There is so much in this book to contemplate and apply to the present day, particularly, the war against Ukraine. Its lessons about the use and misuse of power and the abnegation of responsibility will give readers plenty to think about.

[littlemiao · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a examination of the wartime career of Eugenio Pacelli, aka Pope Pius XII, with a focus on the dynamics between Pacelli, Mussolini, and Hitler, using recently released secret Vatican archives. Through Pacelli’s actions, inactions, speeches, internal and backchannel communications, we get a thorough sense of Pacelli’s unwavering indifference to the fate of Jews, his support for Italian race laws that echoed the Vatican’s own historical antisemitic policies, and qualified support for fascism, qualified in the sense that fascism was not seen as problematic so long as the fascists were not anti-Catholic.

When he was elected Pope, Fascists in Italy and Germany breathed a collective sigh of relief because they knew that Pacelli, unlike his predecessor and rivals for the position, would be easy to work with and promote an agenda that was not at odds with their own goals. They were right. Upon election, Pacelli took immediate steps to harmonize the strained relations that were developing between the Vatican and Germany. He did not protest the domestic treatment of Jews under fascist race laws, he did not protest the deportation of Jews, he did not protest their systematic murder. He attempted to intervene in a small number of cases involving baptized Jews, because the Catholic Church, unlike the Third Reich, did not consider them Jewish any longer. Additionally, his support for and promotion of Fascist and Nazi-friendly cardinals and other Vatican functionaries during and after the war speaks volumes. Pacelli was undoubtedly an unrepentant antisemite and his actions reflect this.

Kertzer shows with compelling archival evidence Pacelli’s inaction and unwillingness to take a moral stand against fascism, Nazism, the conquest and subjugation of Catholics across Europe, and the systematic extermination of Jews. Kertzer documents in meticulous detail Pacelli’s ongoing efforts to maintain cordial relations with Nazi Germany. Kertzer also neatly demolishes all of the revisionism and apologetics casting Pacelli as some kind of moral or heroic figure. Unfortunately, Pacelli is still venerated by many and on his way to a speedy sainthood. This will not change unless the Vatican truly acknowledges its past, which it has steadfastly refused to do. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to better understand this period of history.

[W. Whalin · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Engaging Audiobook

In July, bestselling novelist Daniel Silva recommended several books including THE POPE AT WAR on the Today Show. I found this audio book about Pope Pius XII during World War II to be fascinating. Pulitzer Prize winning journalist David I. Kertzer poured incredible storytelling skills combined with detailed research to reveal new information about this period of history. As the head of the Catholic church in the center of Rome, Pope Pius XII walked a fine line between Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, and the Allies throughout this period. I found THE POPE AT WAR held my attention and I heard it cover to cover. I recommend this title.

W. Terry Whalin is an editor and the author of more than 60 books including his recent 10 Publishing Myths, Insights Every Author Needs to Succeed .

[Thea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had read articles about Pope Pius XII before but this book was enlightening. How any Catholic would think that this monster should be a saint is beyond me. He was a monster that only thought about his status with the dictators and how he could preserve the church’s influence. He was as bad as Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini combined because he hid behind the walls of the Catholic Church. He ignored please from his own clergy as well as Jews to help to save them but he refused to decry the atrocities. This man was the devil.

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was a bit of a slog, but it certainly was pretty damning for Pius XII and the moral failure of the Catholic Church during World War 2. In line with what the Church has repeatedly done over their history, the Pope chose self-preservation instead of speaking out against the genocide of the Jews throughout Europe or taking any action to help. Sadly, this mentality reminded me of how the Church would later respond to the child abuse scandals. One could argue that the Pope's silence ensured the survival of the Church and that meant his efforts were successful. But given the cost to the Church's moral standing, what did he really save?

[Ira Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pope Pius XII has been a controversial figure since the end of WW2, seen as either the Pope who saved the Church from the Nazis, or one of moral failings for not condemning the Nazi atrocities, including the Holocaust. Pius XII’s archives were sealed after his death, compounding the issue. Pope Francis recently unsealed these records, and Mr. Kertzer had the opportunity to research these archives.

What emerges is an unflattering portrait of Pius XII. According to the archives, and unbeknownst to historians, he entered into a secret agreement with the Nazis, in which he would not criticize them, and in return, the Catholic Church in Germany would be left alone. This agreement was censored from a Vatican summary of the war years. Pius XII was also deferential to Mussolini.

Pius XII’s failure to condemn atrocities committed against the Jews is also examined at length in the book. He was only interested in saving those who had converted to Catholicism. Compounding this were the antisemitic views of many of his advisors, and others advisors who felt that condemning the atrocities would endanger the Church.

Incredibly well documented (1/3 of the book is made up of the citations), The Pope At War is a new look at Pius XII, making for both fascinating and grim reading.

My thanks to Random House and to Netgalley for providing an ARC of this important book.

[Wayne Baker · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a long book filled with great information. It has clarified some questions I’ve had over the years. Like, when did the Italian people stop being Romans and be Italians. How did Mussolini come to power? How did it end for him? How could Italy change sides in WW2? Italy has a king? Really?
The chain of command in the Catholic Church is explained quite well. Lots of terms also defined well. Another book in which I learned a lot. It is a long read but worth the time investment. Took patience at times.

[Alli · Rating 5 out of 5]

book: excellent
pope: flop

[Jung]

The Pope at War: The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitler - Book by David I. Kertzer

Get a history lesson about a “great” pope and learn why sometimes silence is the worst crime of all.

History remembers Pope Pius XII in one of two ways: he’s either known as “Hitler’s Pope,” or as a hero to the Jews during World War II.

In 2020, the Vatican released millions of documents by and about Pope Pius XII that had never before been made public. These documents reveal new insights into the man beneath the regalia. They also reveal a new character in the drama of the Axis leaders and their negotiations. This “Nazi Prince” acted as a go-between during a series of secret negotiations between the pope and Hitler.

What emerges is a more complete understanding of why this pope made the decisions he did. We also get a larger, longer-lasting story – the criminality of silence when you’re in a position of power.

In this book, we’ll look at the lead-up to Pacelli’s election as pope, the secret negotiations at play, his inaction at the height of wartime, and how everything fell out at the end.

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The death of a pope

Sometimes you can see the future coming a mile away. Eugenio Pacelli, who served as secretary of state to Pope Pius XI, left a very distinct impression on those he interacted with. From ambassadors to statesmen to fellow cardinals, people viewed him as a devout and pious man but essentially lacking in will or character. Those opinions should have been a warning sign.

At the beginning of 1939, an aging and ailing Pope Pius XI was going head-to-head with Il Duce, otherwise known as Benito Mussolini. Disgusted with his racial policies and fearful of his connection with Hitler, Pius XI was preparing an encyclical along with a speech. Both would take a hard-line stance against Nazism and the anti-Jewish laws of Italy’s fascist regime.

Unfortunately for the world, on February 10, just days before the speech was to occur, the pope succumbed to his deteriorating health and died. Pacelli was immediately petitioned by representatives of Mussolini to put a stop to the printing and distribution of his predecessor’s speech. Pacelli agreed that it would be best to destroy any existing copies.

The papal conclave which followed saw Eugenio Pacelli elected as pope. He took the name Pius XII after his predecessor even though the two men shared very little in common in terms of personality and character.

Pope Pius XII was determined to be the pope of peace. He wanted to strengthen the church in terms of morality and piety. He was a conservative, in this way, and he viewed the church’s role as independent of nationalism. One day he’d give a speech based on Romans 13:1 which commands Christians to submit to the authority of their governments.

These early days of Pius XII’s papacy were prophetic of what was to come. His immediate withdrawal from his predecessor’s plans along with his focus on peace without regard to justice were early signs of how he’d manage the rest of the war.

While he generally demurred from taking political stances, Pius XII was anxious to participate in brokering peace. One of his first acts was to attempt to bring together a peace meeting. He was given platitudes by Mussolini and Hitler who ultimately rejected his idea, and no such meeting occurred.

But meetings of another sort did occur.

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The secret files

When the Vatican first began releasing files on Pius XII in 1965, four Jesuit editors worked to actively expunge all evidence of the pope’s secret negotiations with Hitler. Then, in 2020, the Vatican unsealed millions of those original documents. Through these, we’ve learned of secret meetings between the pope and Hitler’s envoy, the so-called “Nazi Prince.”

The Nazi Prince was a prince named Phillipp von Hessen – one of Hitler’s trusted associates. Married to Princess Mafalda, daughter of the king of Italy, von Hessen had a foot in both nations and was active in helping maintain the relationship between Hitler and the pope.

The first secret meeting resulted in a few changes. The pope brought to the prince’s attention the poor treatment of Catholics in Germany. Not only was there propaganda actively harming the church’s reputation, but Catholic education had also been suppressed. The pope requested the restoration of the church’s ability to operate in Germany.

Hitler would only consider the terms provided the pope made all of his proposals and requests through the secret channel they had built with von Hessen. After this first meeting, Hitler had the German media ease up its “persecution” of the church.

A quick word on that persecution: The Nazi party in Germany had unearthed case after case of sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests. Pope Pius XII ordered records of such cases in Austria to be destroyed. He assured Hitler that the church would deal with cases harshly but that ultimately he hoped Germany would keep quiet about such things. 

In the second meeting, von Hessen brought up the topics of racial issues and the German clergy’s outspokenness. He requested the pope continue to remain silent on Germany’s policies towards the Jewish people, and he asked that the pope rein in his people so that they’d stop saying anything against Germany. The pope acquiesced.

By the third meeting, war had begun in earnest and Hitler’s policies toward the German Catholic clergy were considerably different from what he’d promised. Pius XII requested that the church’s freedoms be restored.

Regardless of what had been promised on Hitler’s part, Catholics in Germany continued to suffer.

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The war escalates

In situations like this, there’s no such thing as neutrality. By insisting on silence, the pope was effectively choosing a side.

His pattern throughout the beginning of the war was to leave room for the churches in each nation to respond to their individual governments as they saw fit. His motto could easily have been, “It’s best to remain silent.”

When Hitler invaded Poland, the Polish people wrote to the pope begging for him to speak out against this atrocity. The pope remained silent, though he was visibly uncomfortable at the level of brutality happening in the war.

For a moment, Pope Pius XII seemed to have had enough. After Hitler invaded Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, the pope was upset and worried. The people of those nations cried out to him for help and he responded by sending the leader of each nation a telegram expressing his heartfelt prayers and regrets. In the telegrams, he affirmed his belief in the injustice of what was happening, albeit in very mild terms. The pope used the Vatican’s newspaper to publish his telegrams as a sort of statement of his policies.

Mussolini was angered by the telegrams and called out the pope directly. Uncomfortable about the backlash, Pope Pius XII actively silenced the Vatican paper and made sure never to publish anything that spoke out against Hitler or Mussolini going forward.

It could be assumed that the pope was a fearful, cowardly man. It could also be assumed that he was a friend of Hitler’s. Both assumptions would be wrong, or at least, incomplete. Everything that has come to light about the pope suggests that he truly wanted to be the pope of peace. He was anti-Semitic, as so many in the church were, but he wasn’t pro-gas-chamber.

The pope’s priority above all was the church. He saw the war as a temporary state and was looking beyond the war at the future of the church. He wrongly assumed that the leaders of the world at that time would be Hitler and Mussolini, so he capitulated to their whims in order to maintain the church’s positive relations with the governments.

In the next section, we’ll get a better idea of how the pope viewed his world by seeing what he prioritized during the war.

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The pope’s priorities during the war

While the pope remained silent on the issues of nations falling, soldiers dying, and innocent people being slaughtered, one subject he felt strongly enough to speak on was the issue of purity.

He gave a speech to 4,000 girls all dressed in white about the importance of fighting immorality. Throughout the war years, he continued to encourage young women to dress modestly and remain pure.

Another topic of great importance was the issue of the nation’s entertainment. The pope denounced the government’s lack of intervention and moderation of entertainment programs on television. Young people were being exposed to immoral behavior on variety shows and in movies, and yet the government did nothing.

When he wasn’t crusading on behalf of moral positions like the purity of young girls and the lack of virtue in television, he was busy having a movie made.

To understand the movie, you first have to understand the prophecy of Saint Malachy. Back in the twelfth century, Saint Malachy purportedly had a vision of 112 future popes. He named them all with cryptic phrases. The 106th pope was called the Pastor Angelicus, the angelic shepherd.

This pope was, of course, Pius XII who took to heart his name and entitled the movie about his life Pastor Angelicus.

Of course, the pope was also concerned about war. At the forefront of his mind was a rumor he’d heard that Hitler wanted to eventually do away with the Vatican. The pope asked Mussolini and many others if this was true and they all told him that it wasn’t. Nevertheless, he remained fearful of the possibility.

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The tides turn

The landscape of the war began to change after the United States joined the Allies. In his third Christmas speech in 1942, the pope spoke out against the atrocities being committed by the Axis powers. Of course, it was couched in verbose sentences and located all the way on page 24 of his speech, so it didn’t make much of an impact.

Surrounding nations continued to criticize the pope despite his speech, which he found upsetting. For a pope so used to silence, he no doubt considered his speech to have been a hard and strong statement. It wasn’t.

As the Allies began to chip away at Axis gains, the pope found himself in communication with envoys from Britain and America. He made requests that no troops of color be stationed in Rome should there be an Allied occupation. He hoped it would be America rather than Britain that did the occupying because America would eventually leave. He pleaded on behalf of his city that Rome be spared from bombings. These were his concerns.

The Allies promised nothing regarding bombing Rome except that they’d stay away from churches and Vatican city. On the other hand, at one point in the war, Mussolini had hundreds of church bells melted down and turned into artillery.

When the Allies first bombed Rome, they managed to keep all but one church building safe. In the aftermath, the pope visited the damaged basilica and hosted prayers there. He valued being seen in moments like these and shepherding his people during difficult times.

But the one subject he continued to remain silent on was Germany’s policy toward Jewish people. The unsealed files from 2020 show that the pope had confirmation of Germany’s wholesale killing of Jewish people. It wasn’t speculation to him, it was a confirmed fact. And when asked about it by the Allies, the pope kept it all secret.

He was complicit in his silence during Germany’s invasions of sovereign countries. He was complicit in his silence during Hitler’s racial solutions within Germany and Austria. And worse, he was complicit in his silence concerning Rome’s Jewish population.

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Best to remain silent

When Italy surrendered conditionally to the Allies, allowing them to land on Italy’s southern tip, Germany rolled in and began occupying Italy to keep the Allies from advancing.

With Germans occupying Rome, Hitler’s policies of rounding up and exterminating Jewish people continued. In Rome, right outside Vatican City, Nazis gathered up over 1,200 people and kept them in an old college building for two days.

During those two days, Pope Pius XII frantically searched the lists and identified over 200 Jewish people who’d converted to Catholicism. Their baptisms confirmed, he was able to have them freed.

For this reason, many hail him as a hero – a real Pastor Angelicus. On the other hand, Jewish families sent letters and cried out to him for help. His reply was that the Vatican was doing everything it could.

Over 1,000 Roman Jewish people were put on a train and sent directly to Auschwitz. The strong were separated from the weak and sent to a labor camp where most of them died. Those deemed too weak were marched directly into the gas chambers. Records suggest that there may have been some survivors of the event – a grand total of 16 survivors.

Throughout all of this, the pope remained silent.

We know the rest of the story of the war. Hitler was systematically beaten back and beaten down by the Allied nations. Mussolini was executed and his body given to the people of Italy who’d never wanted a war to begin with.

The pope, now with the ability to see the lay of the land, became more outspoken. He no longer had a Hitler or a Mussolini to worry about. There were no more consequences to becoming an outspoken leader.

A year after the liberation of Rome, an association of Catholic youths celebrated him as the defender of the church and the one who saved Rome. Some years later, after his death, the church began the process of beatification, or declaring him a saint.

While Pius XII was declared venerable in 2009, Pope Francis put an end to the process of sainthood in 2014 due to there being insufficient miracles attached to his name.

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There is a time for silence and there are conditions under which peace should be pursued. But that time and those conditions didn’t exist from 1939 to 1943. Whether it was anti-Semitism, pacifism, or a combination of both that kept Pius XII silent during Hitler’s atrocities, it’s difficult to forgive that silence.

Millions of people died in the war, labor camps, or gas chambers while the leader of the largest, most powerful religious organization on Earth remained silent. It’s impossible not to wonder how things might have been different had he used his power to speak out against what was happening to the Jewish people.

Was Pope Pius XII a hero or a villain? It probably depends on where and when you’re standing – but with hindsight and the evidence of those unsealed documents, it can absolutely be concluded that, whatever his reasons, the pope actively aided in Hitler’s murders by keeping silent when speaking up could have helped.

[Leslie (updates on SG) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kertzer does an excellent job of synthesizing documents (some of them only available in the past two years) and vignettes of real people (even Bob Dole as a soldier!) to tell the story of Pope Pius XII during WWII. I am a lapsed Catholic, but I am ashamed by how Pope Pius cared more about preserving good relations with Hitler and defending the Church from Communism than he did about the Jews or even the Catholics in Poland. His unwillingness to document certain actions and his attempts to reframe narratives demonstrate that he knew he was on the wrong side of history. More importantly, he failed as a moral leader.

This book includes a large cast of characters at the beginning, but I found that I didn't need it because Kertzer tells vivid stories about a handful of them, including Mussolini's main mistress and son-in-law. In addition, there is an interesting similarity between Italy and the U.S. in their unwillingness to deal with their racist pasts.

[John Liston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well researched and insightful read that sheds new light on the Vatican during WWII. Older WWII books often vary in their treatment of the Vatican during this period and this book draws directly on Vatican papers to settle a lot of those questions.