Chamberlin Free Public Library Catalog

Church of spies : the Pope's secret war against Hitler /

Riebling, Mark,

Church of spies : the Pope's secret war against Hitler / - viii, 375 pages ; 25 cm

Includes bibliographical references (pages 331-357) and index.

Darkness over the earth -- The end of Germany -- Joey Ox -- Extraordinary affairs -- The Pope is very interested -- Luck of the devil -- The Keller affair -- Absolute secrecy -- The X-report -- Warnings to the West -- The brown birds -- Forging the iron -- Conversations in the crypt -- Prague fatale -- A bottle of cognac -- The Siegfried blueprints -- Interrogations -- Prisoner of the Vatican -- D-Day -- X-Day -- The trove -- Hell -- The gallows -- Shoot them all! -- We cherished the hope.

History has accused wartime pontiff Pius the Twelfth of complicity in the Holocaust and dubbed him "Hitler's Pope." Riebling shows that, in reality, Pius ran the world's largest church, smallest state, and oldest spy service. Skimming from church charities to pay covert couriers, and surreptitiously tape-recording meetings with top Nazis, Pius played sent birthday cards to Hitler-- while secretly plotting to kill him. Fearing that overt protest would impede his covert actions, he muted his public response to Nazi crimes.

9780465022298 (hardcover : alk. paper) 0465022294 (hardcover : alk. paper)

2015024814


Pius XII, Pope, 1876-1958.


Catholic Church--Foreign relations--Germany.


World War, 1939-1945--Vatican City.
World War, 1939-1945--Religious aspects--Catholic Church.
Anti-Nazi movement--Vatican City.


Germany--Foreign relations--Catholic Church.

BX1378 / .R54 2015

282.09/044