Hitler and the Vatican: Inside the Secret Archives That Reveal the New Story of the Nazis and the Church

by Peter Godman

Documents the controversial relationship between the Catholic Church and the Nazis, citing how a communist-wary Vatican maintained a policy of non-interference in Nazi persecutions and withheld crucial information about Nazi activities. 50,000 first printing.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World War II, War, Religion

304 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2004

About the author

Born in Auckland in 1955, Peter Godman lectured at Cambridge and Oxford universities, before taking up a professorship at the University of Tübingen from 1989 to 2002. He now lectures at the University of La Sapienza in Rome. He specializes in medieval and modern religious history.

Reviews

[Lewis Weinstein · Rating 1 out of 5]

Godman purports to defend the Vatican against what he calls the "self-appointed prosecution" of Daniel Goldhagen and the "fantasies" of John Cornwell. Godman does so on the basis of new documents belatedly released by the Vatican in 2003 and which he was among the first to gain access.

But Godman misses the point completely.

For instance, he never discusses the Vatican's (both Pius Xi and Pacelli) fanatical obsession with Communism and the Reich Concordat and how this, in the crucial years of 1932/33 when Germany still had a viable choice, led to the passage of the Enabling Act and the dissolution of the Catholic Center Party, thus creating Hitler's dictatorship.

The Catholic capitulation engineered by Pacelli meant that the game was over, almost before it had started. Hitler totally out-negotiated Pacelli, then violated the Concordat at will, and patiently implemented his steady anti-Jewish moves on the path to incineration.

Godman makes no mention of the strong Catholic opposition to Hitler before Pacelli's maneuvers. The German bishops were unanimous in their moral and political condemnation of Hitler and Nazism until Pacelli cut their legs out from under them.

An incident in late 1933, after the signing of the Concordat, not reported by Godman, makes clear that all interpretation and negotiation regarding the Concordat would come from Rome. After this emasculating rebuke (see below), the German bishops were done. Pacelli had taken power and he stands solely responsible for how he used it or failed to do so. To consider this man for sainthood is, in my opinion, a travesty which insults not just the Jews but all of the 70,000,000 who died in WWII.

Here is the incident, as reported by Klaus Scholder in Vol II of his "The Churches and the Third Reich" ...

... Cardinal Grober of Freiberg tried to take initiative regarding the transference of Catholic youth associations into Hitler Youth. Pacelli responded quickly and decisively, through Kaas, who informed Grober by telephone: "this is a causa major, which can only be negotiated between Rome and Berlin." Grober reported immediately to Cardinal Bertram: "Since Rome has spoken, things are no longer up to us. I personally am very happy that I have thus been relieved of any responsibility." ... One dire consequence of this action was that no Catholic bishop ever again emerged as a figure of Christian resistance to Hitler and the Nazis.

[Genie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting history but of the earlier Nazi regime relationship to the Vatican and (mostly) Pope Pius XI, not so much at all of Pius XIi. Story of course is so much more complicated. No criticism of Nazis until late 1938,right before Kristallnacht. And right before Pius XI died. They were worried about Catholics in Germany and much more worried about communism. Even though Pius XII was the one known as "Hitler's Pope", the book really ends with the deAth of Pius XI. I would like to have heard more abiut the next era. Author's writing style was distracting and too polemical in places for me.

[Michael Braithwaite · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was not nearly as engaging as I'd hoped. Also, I thought some crazy shit was gonna come out, but it was just a thorough re-hashing of everything everyone already knows.

[Kenneth Barber · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book traces the history of relations between the Vatican and Hitler. It focuses primarily on the papacy of Pius XI. It shows how the Church walked a thin line between negotiations and condemnation of Nazi policies. The Church and Hitler signed a concordat in 1933, that would protect the Church in religious matters while promising to stay out of political matters. Part of the agreement was the dissolution of the Catholic Center Party in Germany. Hitler proceeded to violate the concordat from the beginning. Pius tried to negotiate the rights of the Church in accordance with the agreement. While Pius became mor and more disillusioned with the Nazi regime, he tried to avoid a public condemnation of Nazi actions. He feared more severe reprisals against the Church and wanted to avoid a complete break with the regime. As time passed he contemplated an encyclical denouncing the Nazis, but he always held back by issuing papal letters that denounced their actions without naming Hitler or the Nazis specifically. He attempted to use the agreement as a legal basis for negotiations. The Pope was hampered in his efforts for a consistent policy by division among the Curia and the belief that communism was a greater threat to Christianity than the Nazis.
His efforts to walk this path was aided by his Secretary of State, Pacelli, who would become Pope Pius VII. The vacillating from the papacy resulted in no clear policy emanating from Rome. The author used the inconsistency of Pius XI to combat the image of Pius XII as being ‘Hitler’s Pope. He contends that Pacelli was just continuing the policies of his predecessor. I found this argument to be less than convincing. By the time Pacelli became pope events had progressed to where it was obvious that no accommodation with Hitler was possible. Rather than continue the failed policies of his predecessor, Pius should have been more forceful in condemning Hitler’s policies. But fear of more reprisals against the Church and it’s prelates held him back this is an interesting study in papal politics and church’s role as the moral compass for the world.

[Robert LoCicero · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the next big religious controversy. Recent public appearances by the radio host, Rabbi Shmuley, have included his emphatic statement that under no circumstances will he ever consider that the Roman Catholic Church would be correct in canonizing Pope Pius XII. The Rabbi considers that Pope Pius XII's failure to take a strong, public stand against Hitler and the atrocities perpetrated by the German Third Reich mark him as a moral failure and unworthy of sainthood. Many people may agree with the Rabbi's assessment from the standpoint of viewing it in the lens of 2010. It may be necessary to delve more deeply into the issue and look at it from the context of events occurring in the prewar period in Germany and Italy, as well as during the events from the start of the Pontiff's reign beginning in early 1939.
This book is a good place to start. The author has done yeoman research in the field of church history and politics utilizing original documents both in German and Latin, including some from the depths of the Vatican archives. He shows us how Eugenio Pacelli, Pope Pius XII, developed his reasoning and strategic outlook through his years of working as the Secretariat of State for his predecessor, Pope Pius XI. The Vatican and its numerous offices and action arms can only be considered a vast bureaucratic organization in which simultaneously, different paths could be explored with individuals serving two objectives and having several agendas.
The book in a detailed manner presents us with all the main characters in the life and death decisions involving Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and the Roman Catholic Church in Germany, Austria and Italy. This is not a subject lightly taken and hence quick verdicts condemning individuals and institutions are to be avoided. Not everybody is aware of the extent of the existing records concerning the deliberations and missed chances that populate the time period in question. Mr. Godman has to be generously praised for his excellent effort at shedding light on some of the most bothersome moral questions arising from the horrors of the Holocaust.

[Simon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Godman takes on both Daniel Goldhagen and John Cornwell, and succeeds in mounting a meager defense of Pius XII, while dragging Pius XI in as the chief culprit in the Catholic passivity in the face of Nazi encroachments upon both the Church and the German Jewish community. Godman dismisses Pacelli as essentially a yes-man to his predecessor as Pope; Pacelli served for nearly a decade as Pius XI's Secretary of State, and negotiated the Concordat with the Third Reich. Godman's chief criticism is the degree to which that treaty hamstrung the Vatican, as the Holy See clung to it long after it should have been obvious that the Nazis were using it to box the Church out of Catholic criticism of Hitler's religious and racial policies. Pacelli emerges as temperamentally the wrong man for the job, both as the instrument of Vatican foreign policy (no one seems to have taken the papal nuncio to Germany seriously) and then as Pope. He was by nature a cautious Roman aristocrat, whereas Pius XI was too opposed to Bolshevism to give Nazism his full attention. I was fascinated to learn that they had been warned quite early by St. Teresa Benedicta (Edith Stein) about the potential consequences of Nazi treatment of the Jews, as well as by a prominent Jesuit. Others, including the deplorable Bishop Hudal, played both ends against the middle. While the book doesn't really have a "New" story to reveal, it does offer a welcome corrective to Hitler's Pope, a title that Godman dismisses as silly. It is legitimate to criticize Pius XII's unwillingness to endanger Vatican City or the Catholic European hierarchy, but it is mendacious to assert the Pope ever supported Hitler or the Nazi movement.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting analysis of Vatican-Nazi relations prior to the beginning of WW II. Godman relies on Vatican documents and memos to construct a case that the allegation that Pacelli was 'Hitler's Pope" is ill-founded. Godman writes like an historian, and one suspects an historian whose first language isn't english. The book is a valuable piece but just a piece into the problem of the Church and The Nazis.

[Nathan Albright · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I was growing up as a kid, the dominant view of the Papacy during World War II being promoted at the time was that the Papacy was in cahoots with Hitler and that Pius XII was Hitler' Pope.  Obviously that was not the case, and it was inevitable that there would be a reaction to this view.  This book is part of that reaction, but more than simply presenting a nuanced and balanced (and admittedly critical) view of the Papacy during the 1930's, the book also manages impressively to discuss what has allowed the Catholic Church to fail so spectacularly in the current crisis relating to predatory priests and leftist political agendas and the infamous lavender mafia, to the point where contemporary Catholic leaders can even wear tide pod vestments to show their true colors.  Therefore, while I read this book to get a better context of the Papacy during the rise of fascism and Nazism in Europe [1], this book also was very useful in demonstrating the cross-currents in Vatican politics that have made things so problematic for contemporary Catholicism, which is certainly worthwhile as well.

This book of a bit more than 200 pages (if one includes its diglot Latin-English appendices that provide the texts that demonstrate the Papacy's anti-fascist attitude during the 1930's as well as their caution in antagonizing Hitler) and it demonstrates its point not through ferocious rhetoric as much as a nuanced analysis of sources.  The book itself contains fourteen chapters and the main part of the book consists of 170 pages before the texts are shown that have been quoted and referred to earlier in the appendices.  The author begins with a look at some unanswered questions about the papacy of the 1930's and how the author proposed to answer them (1).  After that the author looks at the two Romes--that of Fascism and Catholicism (2) and the various divisions and complexities that took place within the Vatican of Pope Pius XI (3).  The author looked at the influence of the divided voices from Germany that also influenced the activity of the Papacy (4) in its desire first to attain and then to continue the Concordat established with Nazi Germany.  The author examines the politics of condemnation (5), the relationship between the Jesuits and racist church leaders (6), and the thin line between appeasement and opportunism in the Catholic response to Hitler's obviously racist and anti-Catholic behaviors (7).  After that the author discusses three strategies the Vatican could have undertaken against Hitler (8), the grand design conducted by the Vatican (9), and various outbursts and intrigues by others in the Catholic hierarchy that made the Papacy's strategy untenable (10).  The author then talks about the court theologian of the party and his blunders (11), the true villain of the tale, the pro-Nazi Hudal, as well as the attempt to broaden the condemnation to include Communists as well (12).  The book then concludes with Pius XII's "With Burning Concern (13)," and the plans, never executed, for the excommunication of Hitler because of his obvious heresies and sins (14).

In my mind, this book fulfills two different but interrelated goals.  On the one hand, this volume does a great job at defending Cardinal Pacelli (future Pope Pius XII) from accusations that he was pro-Hitler.  A look at the sources demonstrates that while there were some pro-fascist and pro-Nazi leaders within the Catholic hierarchy, that they were not particularly important in the key positions of the Vatican establishment in the period before World War II.  Perhaps even more noteworthy, though, is the way that this book gives insight into some of the contemporary problems of the Roman Catholic Church in that even where an evil is glaringly obvious, that when that evil is powerful, the Catholic hierarchy will often have a great deal of "tames" in charge who are unable to take the firm stances necessary against it.  That was the case in the run-up to World War II when all of the burning concern of the future Pius XII didn't mean that the Catholic Church took a strong position against Nazi Germany, despite all of the writings against racalist views that it undertook during this time.  To speak out against powerful evil requires moral courage, and that is often lacking by those who seek positions within diplomatic hierarchies.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2014...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2018...

[Anderson Paz · Rating 4 out of 5]

No livro “O Vaticano e Hitler”, o historiador Godman apresenta a política do Vaticano diante do avanço dos nazistas. Analisando vários documentos do próprio Vaticano, a obra abrange o período do pontificado de Pio XI até 1939, ano do início da Segunda Guerra Mundial.

Em 1933, o Vaticano assinou uma concordata com Hitler em que reconhecia o governo deste na Alemanha em troca da promessa de proteção jurídica dos católicos alemães de perseguições antirreligiosas. A partir disso, o Papa Pio XI assumiu uma postura hesitante e reticente.

As coisas pioraram. Mesmo com graves denúncias de perseguição antissemita do regime, o Papa Pio XI e seu braço direito Eugenio Pacelli – que se tornaria o Papa Pio XII em 1939 – mantiveram-se em silêncio.

Apesar de fortes sugestões dos jesuítas por uma crítica severa à “religião política” dos nazistas, em 1935, Pacceli e o Papa escolheram a diplomacia de apaziguamento e melhor oportunidade. Basicamente, o Vaticano criticava os nazistas por violarem os termos da concordata.

Se não bastasse, o bispo Alois Hudal cedeu e começou a apoiar a aproximação da Igreja ao nazismo. Mesmo o Vaticano se afastando dessa ideia absurda, em 1936, o Papa voltou suas críticas apenas ao comunismo, com receio de criticar e piorar a situação na Alemanha.

Em 1937, diante de um cenário já desolador, o Papa publicou uma encíclica com críticas não severas ao regime nazista. Mesmo após a Noite dos Cristais, em 1938, o Vaticano não rompeu totalmente com os nazistas.

Até a morte do Papa Pio XI, em geral, o Vaticano limitou-se a emitir textos gerais de crítica à violação dos termos da concordata. A lição é: a sabedoria nem sempre é o silêncio e o apaziguamento. Diante do mal absoluto, calar-se é um mal absoluto.

[JerryDeanHalleck · Rating 2 out of 5]

This has to be about the 3rd book I've read about the Vatican and the Nazis during WW II. None of them seem to be well written and some had axes to grind. This one doesn't, and has been attacked by the ax-grinders and anti-Catholic haters. But just because some leftists and extremists don't like it, doesn't make it good.

Stalin famously said "How many divisions has the Pope?" - which more or less puts all the "Nazis and the Catholic Church" in perspective.

In any case, the book really doesn't make clear what the Pope was trying to do in any great detail. He was manuevering between two materialistic political philosophies. And of the two, Soviet communism was far the biggest threat and most anti-Christian. Say what you want about Hitler, he wasn't looting and burning down Catholic Churches or murdering Priests and Nuns simply because they were Christian.

But this book, like every book I've read about Vatican Diplomacy is too vague and verbose for my tastes, and we get too much guess-work and mindreading of the Pope.

[Lupo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Il libro espone la storia delle relazioni tra Vaticano e Germania nel periodo del papato di Pio XI. Non entra quindi nel periodo più drammatico del nazismo quando in Trastevere sedeva Pio XII. Un libro ben scritto e documentato, privo di una tesi preordinata. Il ruolo del cardinale Pacelli è chiaro e le differenze con Pio XI evidenti, il secondo essendo molto più dubbioso sull'opportunità di stabilire un concordato.

[bridget Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

read for research