num_pages: 375
description: Pope Pius XII is perhaps the most detested pope in modern history vilified for allegedly appeasing Hitler and betraying the Jewish people by remaining silent during the Holocaust. But this conventional narrative is not the full story.In Church of Spies the intelligence expert Mark Riebling draws on a wealth of recently uncovered documents to argue that far from being Hitlers lackey Pius was an active anti-Nazi spymaster. He directed a vast network of Vatican operativespriests and laypeople alikewho partnered with the German resistance tipped the Allies off to Hitlers invasions of France and Russia and involved themselves in three separate plots to assassinate Hitler.A fast-paced and gripping tale of secrecy danger and self-sacrifice Church of Spies takes readers from hidden crypts beneath the Vatican to Nazi bunkers in Germany to chart the true legacy of Piuss secret war. Although these revelations do not excuse Piuss public silence during the war they provide us with a deeper understanding of the man reviled by so many.
language: English
title: Church of Spies: The Pope's Secret War Against Hitler
publisher: Basic Books