Rating: 
Summary: Excellent scholarship; disturbing and unsettling;a must read
Review: As an American raised in under the doctrine separation of church and state, it is amazing and appalling at the degree to which the Vatican could be involved in the internal affairs of European states, even Protestant ones. John Cornwell's excellent work, Hitler's Pope, is a detailed look at the period from World War I to the late 1950's. Decisions made, alliances forged in this period that set the stage for the Holocaust and Word War II will haunt us well into the next millenium. Cornwell puts it all in context going back to medeval times and in detail the 19th century showing a Vatican threatened by the growing independence of its bishops in Germany and Netherlands, restive stirrings of democracy throughout pre-World WarI Europe, and subsequently, the Vatican's compromises with the Fascist in the 1920's when it need not have done so, in order serve and solidify its own authoritarianism. But it was the Fascists who were afraid, as Hitler himself acknowledged in Mein Kampf. Afraid of the Catholics as a threat, really the only potentially organized moral and politcal threat to his ascension to power. While the Nazis were gaining strength in among German voters in 1931 and 1932 the Catholic political party, the Center Party, was also gaining strength! However, with the Vatican so intent on crippling the independence of the German bishops, Cardinal Pacelli (later pius XII) went over the heads of these Bishops and by mid-1933 signed a concordat with Hitler that effectively eliminated German Catholic political opposition to the Nazis, despite the fact that many German Catholics were ready to go with mass counter demonstrations. In the pitiful few instances of peaceful, political resistance to the Nazis, as cited by Cornwell, when German non-Jews (usually Catholic inspired) mounted organized opposition, they were successful, the brown-shirts mysteriously muted. Had the concordat not been signed and the Vatican not sought to favor the "stability" of totalitarianism over the restive pluralist spirit of its brethern in Germany in the 1920's and early 30's, world history would have been changed forever.I highly recommend this book to all readers, especially Americans, who often are spoon fed a sugar-coated version of history (when they can get any history at all) and must face up to some harsh realities about former heroes and potential saints who contributed mightily to an evil past that continues and will continue to haunt the world.
Rating: 
Summary: Poorly written, riddled with gross errors and inaccuracies.
Review: Its unfortunate that there could be such a scathing attack on such a holy and significant man of history. The author's facts were inaccurate, and his assertions didn't make sense.
Rating:
Summary: Alarming Ignorance, Shameful Proposition
Review: Just when Catholics are trying to actively promote good relationships between themselves and Jews, as is the instruction of Pope John Paul II, this bombshell drops. All Catholics should and do respect the Jews for their Biblical influence (the entire Old Testament), and certainly as a good God-fearing people. This book is absolutely false. The very idea that the Pope "didn't do enough to save the Jews" was the theme of a popular post-war play, and has since become falsely accepted fact. The Holocaust is the saddest tradgedy of the twentieth century, and the Catholic Church tried its best. It made numerous statments at the time speaking out against the persecution of any people due to race or religion, although the Jews were not mentioned by name because the very word (Juden) threw Hitler into a rage. The Vatican, having done so once, witnessed the assimilation of thousands of Catholics from Jewish ancestory, such as St. Edith Stein. No one seems to remember that Catholics died in the concentration camps as well, or that the Church saved thousands of Jews by hiding them in convents, monasteries, and private residences. For a more historically acurate view of the Vatican's involvment during the Holocaust, see the article featured in "Our Sunday Visitor" this past month.
Rating:
Summary: Horrible Trash
Review: If you are interested in World War II, don't buy this book! It is more fiction than reality, and the author uses his own methods to present information. For instance, he chooses damaging letters concerning people which the Pope did not prefer, and uses them as hate mail. He leaves out the evidence that the Pontiff protected the lives of many Jews, and that Pope had the best intentions. Correct ediquette would be to acknowledge that the Pope was stuck between "a rock and a hard place."
Rating:
Summary: Questionable History, Questionable Conclusion
Review: In his six volume history, The Second World War, Sir Winston Churchill never once mentioned the Holocaust against the Jews. Nothing about gas chambers, not a word about genocide. Yet we know that Europe's Jewish leaders provided Churchill with substantial materials on the war against them. After the war ended, Chaim Weizmann wrote to Churchill asking why he had been silent on the matter. He had no reply. What should we conclude from this fact? That Churchill did nothing to help Europe's Jews? That conclusion would be, prima facie, frivolous. Likewise are Cornwell's conclusions about Pope Piux XII.
Rating:
Summary: FILE UNDER FICTION
Review: Simply this is not scholarship or research, it is propaganda. Mr. Cornwell's allegations really hold no water and are simply a regurgitation of Hockhuth's THE DEPUTY. With this book, and the recent fantasized biography of Ronald Reagan we have entered a whole new era in book publishing, in that by simply getting one's point of view and prejudices published that therefore makes them true. If Pius XII was truly "Hitler's Pope" as Mr. Cornwell states, then why did the Nazi regime plan to assasinate the Pope? Enough said.
Rating:
Summary: despite the papists' acrimony, read this book!
Review: Regardless of papist nitpicking,it appears that the Vatican has been virulently anti-Semitic for many years. The negative reviews of this book are most likely from guilty parties seeking to limit their personal liability, IMO. I also believe that that this book exposes the unreasonable fear and pathological hatred of ANY other religion, as exhibited by the papists.
Rating:
Summary: Anti-catholic propaganda contradicted by NYRB article.
Review: Completely contradicted by Columbia University Jewish historian's (specialist in Jewish history of the period) evaluation of Pius XII in "Catholics, Jews, and the Holocaust," in the New York Review of Books around the time of the convent controversy. The author goes on to describe the official Lutheran church support of Hitler and states that more Catholic nuns and priest died and went to prison for the Jews than any other religious group. Am retrieving article and citation for you. I also have personal knowledge of the Pontifical Biblical Institute's life-risking cooperation with the Dutch resistance in the succesful effort to disseminate abroad documentation of the nazi atrocities. 0 is my rating of the book!
Rating:
Summary: A Man on a Bandwagon
Review: An unfortunate addition to the slander of Pius XII. Cornwell apparently wants to cash in on the current Holocaust bandwagon, for, despite his claims to the contrary, he has done little original research, but has simply built a circumstantial case largely on conjecture and distortion. He counts upon his readers' ignorance of the topic, or their preconceptions, to carry his argument. It certainly fails to stand on its own. Useful to see the lengths some will go to shift the blame for the Holocaust from the Nazis, but of little value beyond that.
Rating:
Summary: a brilliant work
Review: It's time to face up to the overwhelming historical evidence that does show the institution of the Catholic Church to be complicit with the Nazis. People below who cite out-of-date quotes and news sources are making a feeble attempt to distort the historical record and try to wipe a dark mark off the Church's slate. But let the truth be known.
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