Will I love The Pope at War?

I feel that stylistically and in terms of passion, this is non-fiction at its best; it reads like a thriller.

Kertzer is a master of narrative, and his indictment of the indifference of the church before the German occupation of Europe and the Holocaust troubled me deeply as a person of faith. Despite being a professional historian, I was impressed by the humanity of his treatment of real people.

His description of the round-up of the Jews of the Rome Ghetto is genuinely moving, highly disturbing, and brought tears to my eyes. My particular enjoyment of the book came from… show more.

Whether Pius XII collaborated with Fascism and Nazism during the 1940s remains controversial.

Pope Francis’ decision to open the Vatican’s files relating to the Second World War in March 2020 has been game-changing. David Kertzer was the first scholar to access these files and publish an in-depth study on Pope Pacelli’s role during WWII.

The result has been both moving and disturbing in equal measure. Kertzer reveals in his lyrically written book the Pope’s disturbing willingness to negotiate with Hitler and Mussolini, maintaining a rigid diplomatic silence on the atrocities they committed. Despite this, Pius XII was often willing to… show more.