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Summary: another perspective on the disastrous 30's
Review: Cornwell makes a strong case that pope-to-be Pacelli inadvertently helped Hitler gain and keep power by silencing Catholic opposition. The book is most disturbing when quoting Pacelli's writings which certainly fulfill any definition of anti-semitism. Pacelli is personally stained by this outrageously unsaintly bigotry, so stained that Cornwell's lack of empathy with the Vatican is almost beside the point. Sadly, many readers will easily equate 'Catholic' and 'fascist' without considering the shocking treatment of priests by leftists in Mexico, Spain, and Russia during civil wars between 1917-37. As Cornwell points out, though, the Nazis could murder Catholic leaders without any real protest from Pacelli (particularly if he considered them opponents). And the notion that crimes of Hitler's magnitude could be committed without comment from the Pope is staggering, even nauseating.
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Summary: Finally
Review: Hitler's Poep: The Secret Life of Piux XII is a fantastic work of scholarship and vindicates many people who worked on this frate issue of the Roman Cathloic Church and the Second World War. Cornwall does not directly convict Pius XII of direction collaboration with the Nzis, but rather convicts him of moral hyporacey. This biography of the wartime pope is well written and clear states the point that the Papacy did not do enough, if anything for the Jewish communities across Catholic Europe. Cornwall points out the major falacies in the Vatican Foreign Policy that directly impilcates them in some sort of chots with the Nazi regime. Eugenio Pacelli, Pius XII, was a diplomat, first and foremost. He sought to keep at any cost the Roman Catholic Church in power of some sorts. In 1933, he sealed the fate of democracy in Germany by forcing the last "hold out" politcal party, the Centre Party, to fold; thus allowing for Hitler's unopposed declaration of being Furher and the creation of a dictatorship. Cornwall accuses the Church of covering up the exeact role of the pope. Cornwall throughout the biography concludes that the mass externination of European ethnic minorites: mainly Jews and Gipseys, could have been avoid if Pope Pius XII said something along the lines of "this is wrong and should not be done." Instead the pope remained silent. The pope while thousands of Roman Jews marched across Rome, in view of Vatican City, watched and did nothing. The Christmas 1942 address did not devreed the Nazis one bit and if anything angered teh Allies. The pope had a moral duty to save and he did nothing. Cornwall conclusion of Pius XII is correct and unforchante. This biography creates Pius XII in a way that makes him so undesirable and dispicable that is makes you sick to believe that this man was cannonized by Pope John Paul II. Anybody who is remotely interested in the topic should read this book.
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Summary: Appeasement
Review: In 1933 when the treaty with Germany was signed, the major concern of the Catholic Church was the safety of it's own people. In 1939, Munich was the same event for nations. To place a burden upon a single man for the downfall of a nation, stretches the imagination. Self-centered and myopic, yes, that does describe most of the curia. However, to place the Concentration Camps and the death of 13 million people on one treaty, no, that makes no historical sense. The book is well written and reads fairly smoothly, but lacks a wide view of the whole world view needed to represent the whole truth. What I found was a smattering of truth, followed by conjecture, "if", "had" "what if", as I tell my students, "what if" doesn't matter, it is "WHAT IS" that matters in history.
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Summary: Revealing fascinating expose of Pope Pius XII
Review: John Cornwell who is a Catholic teacher, writes a fascinating biography on Pope Pius XII. John had access to many secret documents on this Pope and shows that he did nothing to help the Jews in WWII. I was schocked to discover that Pius XII never once condemned the nazis or Hitler during WWII. He also never once condemned the persecution and killing of the Jews by Hitler during WWII. This book is very well written and explores Pius XII's life in much detail. I recommend it highly to anyone who wishes to probe more deeply into the history of the popes.
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Summary: Finally the Truth!
Review: This book finally clears the air on a controversy that has raged for five decades by providing the documentation that conclusively demonstrate the WWII Pope's antisemitism, his lack of a desire to condemn Hitler, and his myopic singleminded devotion to establish Papal hegemony over all countries at all costs. It is also a well balanced book on the pluses of Pius XII. A very well researched book that calls it like it sees it.
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Summary: Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII
Review: Simply marvelous. This book probes both insightfully and objectively into the history of the Papacy during World War II and the preceding five decades. Importantly, the author has elucidated the consolidation effort of the Catholic Church around the papacy by Pius XII and offers damning testimony about Pius XII and the lack of official response against the Nazis. I certainly one of my favorite books of all time.
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Summary: Boring, boring, and oh yes, boring
Review: This book is incredibly factual. Simulatenously, it didn't hold my interest for more than 10 minutes at a time. I read this book for my international relations class, as a choice book. I thought that it would be an interesting subject, and thought that I would enjoy it. I was completely wrong! It offers plenty of information regarding Pacelli, but the way that it is presented resembles that of a history textbook. I found this book a chore to read.
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Summary: Revisionist account not convincing
Review: I personally could care less whether Pope Pius XII was a good pope or a bad pope. Anyone who knows Vatican history knows that there have been both kinds of popes in the history of the Church... and it's certainly possible that Pius XII was the callous, immoral fraud that Cornwell depicts him as being. But there are two things that have always troubled me about this denunciation of Pius XII plainly also despise the Catholic Church for other reasons; and, more significantly, (2) the people who actually LIVED through World War II (including the former Chief Rabbi of Rome) had only PRAISE for Pius XII's courage when dealing with the Nazis (who were, by the way, stationed with tanks about 100 yards from where the pope slept!). Cornwell fails utterly to explain why, if Pius XII was so bad... 1. Golda Meir, the former prime minister of Israel, said upon Pius XII's death that " During the ten years of Nazi terror, when our people passed through the horrors of martyrdom, the Pope raised his voice to condemn the persecutors and to commiserate with their victims." 2. Elio Toaff, the Chief Rabbi of Rome during the Nazi terror, said, "More than anyone else, we have had the opportunity to appreciate the great kindness, filled with compassion and magnanimity, that the Pope displayed during the terrible years of persecution and terror." 3. Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Jewish Congress, said that, "with special gratitude we remember all he has done for the persecuted Jews during one of the darkest periods in their entire history." 4. The Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, Isaac Herzog, sent the Pius XII a personal message of thanks on February 28, 1944, in Holiness and his illustrious delegates, inspired by the eternal principles of religion which form the very foundations of true civilization, are doing for us unfortunate brothers and sisters in the most tragic hour of our history, which is living proof of divine Providence in this world." 5. The New York Times, in its Christmas editorial of 1941, said of Pius would be expected to express in time of war. Yet his words sound strange and bold in the Europe of today, and we comprehend the complete submergence and enslavement of great nations, the very sources of our civilization, as we realize that he is about the only ruler left on the Continent of Europe who dares to raise his voice at all." 6. Former Israeli diplomat and now Orthodox Jewish Rabbi Pinchas Lapide stated that Pius XI "had good reason to make Pacelli the architect of his anti-Nazi policy. Of the forty-four speeches which the Nuncio Pacelli had made on German soil between 1917 and 1929, at least forty contained attacks on Nazism or condemnations of Hitler's doctrines. . . . Pacelli, who never met the Führer, called it 'neo-Paganism.' " 7. Lapide, in his book "Three Popes and the Jews," insisted that the Catholic Church saved more Jewish lives than all other relief efforts (such as those of the International Red Cross, the Haganah, and American Jewish organizations) Catholic Church had been the instrument is thus at least 700,000 souls, but in all probability it is much closer to . . . 860,000." 8. Albert Einstein, again someone who fled Hitler personally and lived through the the Hitlerian onslaught on liberty. Up till then I had not been interested in the Church, but today I feel a great admiration for the Church, which alone has had the courage to struggle for spiritual truth and moral liberty." In conclusion, it is plainly obvious that Pius XII didn't do enough to save Jewish refugees in Europe -- anyone who has visited Dachau or Yad veh-Shem, as I have, knows that -- as it is obvious that the Allied Forces, the International Red Cross, and American Jewish groups in the U.S. didn't do enough. No one did enough. Eleven million people were murdered in cold blood. But why is the Catholic Church in general, and Pius XII in particular, singled out for attacks? For Cornwell and other critics of Pius XII to be credible, they have to explain, once again, why SO MANY people (including the most prominent Jews who survived) heaped PRAISE on Pius XII for his efforts on behalf of the Jews. Until Cornwell CAN explain this, his book will appear to be yet another screed against the Vatican by a former Catholic. It is scholarship in the service of rage, a sad waste of talent and time. END
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Summary: A story that needs to be told
Review: Whatever one's misgivings about the author's conclusions, one thing of great value is his discussion of the Latin church's scandalous behaviour towards Orthodox Serbs...Even if the author has an animus towards the Latin church, enough important information makes it to the light of day to make this book worth reading. END
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Summary: Cornwell Doesn't Live Up To Hype
Review: With a title like "Hitler's Pope" it is clear that John Cornwell was aiming at more than scholarly kudos--he was aiming for the jugular. The dust jacket eagerly proclaims that this is a "firm and final indictment of Pius XII's papacy" and points to Cornwell's new documentation and access to secret archives. But when the dust settles, Cornewll just doesn't deliver. Cornwell does tell a compelling--and critical--story. But "Hitler's Pope" pretends to have the scholarly backup it just doesn't have. Frequently, Cornwell quotes without even naming sources. Even when he does name sources, they are often second and third hand. What makes Cornwell's book disturbing is that he maintians his argument that the Catholic Church was cowardly in failing to criticize the fascist governments of the Second World War, but then recounts the enormous risk that Pius XII made in his role in the assasination attempt against Hitler. Is this really Hitler's Pope? Moreover, that is not the only weakness of Cornwell's book. Cornwell criticizes the Catholic Church for alleged mass killings in Croatia. He acknowledges, however, that Rome had little knowledge and no control over such actions. Yet, Cornwell's central thesis is against that increased central control which presumably would have prevented such atrocities. But then again, why should the facts get in the way of a good story? Cornwell tells a gripping story, but he doesn't live up to the scholar in the dust jacket with access to secret archives. If he wanted to be truly convincing, he should have done his homework. As a result, this will hardly be the "final" word on this compelling story.
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