About the book: 2024 / In March 1939, on the threshold of World War II, a conclave of cardinals met in The Sistine Chapel to choose a new pope - Pius XII, whose figure is still controversial. Critics accuse him of collaborating with Hitler and Mussolini and failing to act during the Holocaust. The pope's defenders believe that his prudence saved many lives, and that he himself is worthy of canonization. The book by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and anthropologist David Kertzer is an attempt to answer the question of the role of Pius XII during the war in an unbiased and reasoned manner. In it, the author used previously unpublished Vatican archives, which recently became public knowledge. This fascinating and authentic account of the Vatican's relationship with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, based on a careful analysis of historical documents, contains lessons that will be useful to the modern world. Fierce disputes over the relationship of Pope Pius XII with the German Nazi and Italian Fascist regimes are still raging. about his activities during World War II.Ratings and awardsThe New York Times bestseller, Amazon Editor's ChoiceLonglist for the 2023 PEN America Awards, The New Yorker Book of the YearWithin months of his election, war has broken out in earnest, and the pontiff is very cautious composed his remarks so that each of the two warring parties seemed to support it. For whom: For those who are interested in the politics and history of the Second World War, who want to know about the attitude of the Catholic Church to the Holocaust, about the connections of the top officials of the Vatican with fascist and Nazi the top. No one outside the narrow circle of initiates knew about the negotiations between the pope and Hitler, which were conducted during the first year of the pontificate of Pius XII, but the whole world was supposed to know about his upcoming meeting with the Fuhrer’s Foreign Minister.