The Myth of Hitler's Pope: Pope Pius XII And His Secret War Against Nazi Germany [Hardcover]

David G. Dalin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 25, 2005

In Rabbi David G. Dalin's controversial new book, he explodes the newly resurrected, widely accepted, yet utterly bankrupt smearing of Pope Pius XII, whom Jewish survivors of the Holocaust considered a righteous gentile.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This is a stunning book. I wish I had known more of this material years ago. -- Michael Novak, George Frederick Jewett Chair in Religion and Public Policy, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research

From the Inside Flap

Was Pope Pius XII secretly in league with Adolf Hitler? No, says Rabbi David G. Dalin—but there was a cleric in league with Hitler: the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husseini. As Pope Pius XII worked to save Jews from the Nazis, the grand mufti became Hitler’s staunch ally and a promoter of the Holocaust, with a legacy that feeds radical Islam today. In this shocking and thoroughly documented book, Rabbi Dalin explodes the myth of Hitler’s pope and condemns the myth-makers for not only rewriting history, but for denying the testimony of Holocaust survivors, hijacking the Holocaust for unseemly political ends, and ignoring the real threat to the Jewish people. In The Myth of Hitler’s Pope, you’ll learn: · The true history of Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust—how the Catholic Church did more than any other religious body to save Jewish lives · The real history of the Church and the Nazis—including the Nazi plan to kidnap the pope · The real agenda of the myth-makers: hijacking the Holocaust to attack the very idea of the papacy—especially the papacy of the late Pope John Paul II—as well as Christianity and traditional religion as a whole · Hitler’s cleric—Hajj Amin al-Husseini, who advised and assisted the Nazis in carrying out Hitler’s Final Solution · How Pope Pius XII rescued Jews—and deserves to be called a "righteous gentile"—while the grand mufti of Jerusalem called for their extermination Full of shocking and irrefutable detail, The Myth of Hitler’s Pope is sure to generate controversy, and more important, to set the record straight. If you want the truth about Pope Pius XII, about the Catholic Church, the Jews, and the Holocaust, and about how the myth of Hitler’s pope plays into the culture wars of our own time—and how the fact of Hitler’s mufti is a vital source of radical Islam today—you must begin here.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 209 pages
• Publisher: Regnery History; annotated edition edition (July 25, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0895260344
• ISBN-13: 978-0895260345
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.9 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (65 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #74,375 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #57 in Books > History > World > Religious > Judaism

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

285 of 326 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Documented Refutation of Slanders Against Pius XII July 22, 2005

By Oswald Sobrino VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Rabbi Dalin is a credible source both because of his Jewish identity and because of his academic credentials which include a doctorate from Brandeis University. He refutes in page after page of documented facts the great and repeated lie that Pope Pius XII was sympathetic to the Nazis. The truth that emerges again and again from each documented fact is that Pius XII spoke out against Nazi racism both before and after he became pope, that Pius XII instructed papal diplomats to aid persecuted Jews in the occupied nations of Europe, that he contributed money to aid desperate Jews, that he opened Catholic facilities in the Vatican and in other parts of Rome and Italy to shelter thousands of Jews from the Nazis, and that he gave direct face-to-face orders to protect Jews from the Nazis. This book is so well documented that Pius's detractors have to either put up or shut up. In fact, the detractors should apologize and formally retract their slanders. Of the many outrageous slanders against Pius XII, one in particular stands out to show the level of distortion used by the haters of this Pope. Rabbi Dalin recounts how Pius hater John Cornwell even uses a misleading cover for his book Hitler's Pope that makes it seem to the uninformed reader that Pius, who was then the papal nuncio (ambassador) to Germany, is just exiting from a meeting with the Nazis when in fact the picture is from 1927, well before Hitler took power, and in fact shows the future Pius XII, in the course of his formal diplomatic duties, emerging from a diplomatic reception for the elected President of Germany in 1927 during the democratic and pre-Nazi Weimar Republic (pp. 62-63). The book reads quickly, gets to the point, and has copious footnotes and a convenient index. Rabbi Dalin has performed a righteous deed. For a more detailed review, see my website link above.

191 of 228 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Facts to refute the misinformation about Pius XII and more July 19, 2005

By Craig Matteson HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

Rabbi David Dalin has given us a book that makes at least three important contributions. First, it provides information that refutes the popular notion of the past several years that Pope Pius XII was an anti-Semite and complicit with the Nazi Regime. He demonstrates it to be not only false, but a deliberate misrepresentation of the truth. A simple example is the famous photograph on the jacket of both the English and American editions of the Pope leaving what looks like a Nazi meeting. In fact, it was a diplomatic meeting with Hindenburg in 1927! Both before the Nazis were in power and before Pacelli had been elected Pope.

This book provides evidence upon evidence of how Pope Pius XII walked a swaying tightrope to save thousands of Jews while avoiding provoking the Nazis into attacks upon Catholics. He wrote encyclicals, gave Jews asylum even to the point of decloistering a nunnery so it could shelter Jewish boys. The author also points out the use by these authors of bad translations of texts and then carefully trimming these to twist the meaning to their purposes. Rabbi Dalin also demonstrates the good relations that Pope Pius and the Church had with Jewish leaders and how those leaders even asked the Pope to not be more provocative in his public statements and actions.

Second, the author demonstrates how these authors have as part of their agenda an attack on the Catholic Church and are using political means to try and foist their liberal agenda on the Church in all sorts of ways: changes in doctrine, changes in Church governance, changes in policy and all to the purpose of bending others to their views. We see their double standards in purporting anti-Semitism onto Pope Pius XII while ignoring the very real and very great anti-Semitism in the Muslim world from WWII to the present. Some of these authors have even supported the political motives of Yassir Arafat and denied his self-proclaimed anti-Semitism and acts of violence against Jews.

The third benefit flows from the first two. We get a better sense of where some of the battle lines are drawn in our present culture wars, the tactics being used, and in the service of what strategy. It is fascinating to see the inversion of values in our modern culture where what was called good is now called false and deviant and what never was good or an ideal is now held up as a virtue worth fighting for. Rabbi Dalin does us all a service by telling the truth in this concise and informative book.

56 of 64 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A sobering defense of of Pius XII January 22, 2006

By Anthony Dilley

Format:Hardcover

When John Paul II sought forgiveness and understanding from Jews he asked for nothing in return - whenever the Church or its representatives were at fault,he said, I am sorry. In our age of spin doctoring, most of the press reports were sceptical of the sincerity of JP2 and the Church (I guess actions speak louder than words). This book represents a carefully detailed and well referenced defence of Pius XII and his dealings with Nazism and Jewish persecution before and during WW2. That it comes from a Rabbi may help support the view that for JP2, the actions of the Church during the Shoah did speak for themselves. More humbling for me, the actions of Rabbi Dalin in researching and providing this defence will also do much to continue the brotherly dialogue between Jews and Christians. Dalin has set a standard for scholarly integrity that he challenges others interested in this field to meet. Dalin also compares and contrasts the words and deeds of Pius XII with Hajj Amin al-Husseini, and concludes that Husseini and his legacy are representative of (if not responsible for) anti-semitism today. The challenge for Jews, Christians and Muslims today will be to create a track record of words and deeds between these faiths of the Book so that a Jew or Christian may one day write a defense of mainstream Islam when describing 21st century history. I hope that all who read Dalin's book accept his challenge to look past the sensationalist reporting of our media, and recognise goodness when it does exist.