NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The most important book ever written about the Catholic Church and
its conduct during World War II.”—Daniel SilvaKertzer 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 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 • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The
New Yorker 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.”
