Meticulously researched (using recently released papal documents) story of the role of Pope Pius XII in WWII. I realized out of all of the WWII history I have read, very little (any?) was about Italy's role and none even mentioned the Vatican so this highly detailed account was both eye-opening and engrossing.

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

In the efforts to continue my reading related to FDR and World War II, I chose this book because of the title. I honestly never really thought about the Pope as the leader of a nation, more as just a religious leader. This book shows Pope Pius XII as both. He is the head of the Vatican state which even though it is located within the Italian nation, Rome in particular, it is still considered a sovereign state and during WWII Pope Pius XII made every effort possible to remain neutral.

However, IMHO he was a coward. It appeared to me in the revelations in this book that the Pope was afraid of both Hitler and Mussolini and would not take a stand on any political issue. He watched as the Nazis and later the Fascists slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Jews without raising an objection. He was afraid that saying anything against the Nazis would cause Hitler to take action against the German Catholics. He tried to make it appear that he was neutral so that he could serve as peacemaker at the end of the war, however, the Axis powers believed he was an Allied sympathizer while the Allies felt that he turned a blind eye to the atrocities of the Axis regimes.

Would lives have been saved if he had spoken up, condemning the actins of Hitler and the axis powers? That we will never know, but IMO he still should have tried.

This was a great book, very well written and it covers a part of the War that up to this point we have been left with more questions than answers.
After 77 years there are still so many questions about World War II that have not been answered and some major questions surround the Vatican and the Pope. What did the Pope know, why did he take almost no action, if he had spoken out would that have made a difference and finally what did he think would be the repercussions for any of his actions? The archives have finally been opened for this period of time and like so many things in life the answers to these questions are not black and white. The Pope saw his role as being the head of the Catholic Church for the entire world, this included not just in Italy but also Germany, Austria and Poland where the Nazis had a firm hand on. When they moved through Western Europe and it looked like they would invade England it appeared that the Axis would win the war. How does the Pope balance the lives of his flock with the lives of the Jews or any other group? If he attacked Hitler what would he do? Hitler had already taken funds away from the churches and schools in those areas and many of the Catholic leaders had been throw out of the country, sent to camps or were killed. If the Pope attacked him what would Hitler do at that point? How much worse could he make it for the millions of people that the Pope was responsible for?
Then the problem changed again when it became clear that the Allies would win the war but Germany and fascist Italy were still in control of so many lives, both Catholic and non-Catholic. Throughout the entire War the Pope was hoping that at some point he could be the one to bring peace to the Continent and be hailed as a hero. But in order to due that he recognized that he would have to stay on everyone’s good side as much as possible. However; towards the end of the war the Allies made it clear that the only peace that could be achieved would have to come from total surrender. So, once again the Pope had to change his goals as well as which side, if either, he would support.
“The Pope At War” by David Kertzer puts the reader right in the middle of the Vatican, he gives us the players, along with their motives and helps us to see the situation as it was happening. It is always easy to look backwards and think we know what we would have done but individuals who are in the middle of the situation with millions of lives in their hands are not given the opportunity to see the future, they can only deal with the here and now.
I seriously recommend this book if you are interested in the War, the Catholic Church, the pressures that a Pope faces or if you want to finally have greater insight into that time, those people or the struggle that Europe was going through.

This outstanding book is based in part on documents from the archives of the Vatican that were made public in spring of 2020. Go here

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/what-vaticans-secret-archives-are-about-reveal/607261/

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. Go here

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/28/world/europe/pope-pius-xii-jews-vatican-archives.html

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

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/08/the-popes-jews/615736/

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.

“ The world suffers a lot. Not because 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 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.

<spoiler>
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
</spoiler>

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

#ThePopeatWar #NetGalley

Illuminates a controversial period in the history of the papacy and the man steering the pontificate through one of the most turbulent times in its history (and that's saying something!) Highly recommended!

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.

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, wihch is horrifying, sad and disappointing.

Pius XII pretty much did the opposite of the previous Pope 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.