Church of Spies: The Pope's Secret War Against Hitler - Rilegato

Riebling, Mark

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0465022294 ISBN 13: 9780465022298

Casa editrice: Basic Books, 2015

Riassunto

The Vatican's silence in the face of Nazi atrocities remains one of the great controversies of our time. History has accused wartime pontiff Pius the Twelfth of complicity in the Holocaust and dubbed him "Hitler's Pope." But a key part of the story has remained untold.Pius ran the world's largest church, smallest state, and oldest spy service. Saintly but secretive, he skimmed from church charities to pay covert couriers, and surreptitiously tape-recorded his meetings with top Nazis. When he learned of the Holocaust, Pius played his cards close to his chest. He sent birthday cards to Hitler-while secretly plotting to kill him. Church of Spies documents this cloak and dagger intrigue in shocking detail. Gun-toting Jesuits stole blueprints to Hitler's homes. A Catholic book publisher flew a sports plane over the Alps with secrets filched from the head of Hitler's bodyguard. The keeper of the Vatican crypt ran a spy ring that betrayed German war plans and wounded Hitler in a briefcase bombing.The plotters made history in ways they hardly expected. They inspired European unification, forged a U.S.-Vatican alliance that spanned the Cold War, and challenged Church teachings on Jews. Yet Pius'secret war muted his public response to Nazi crimes. Fearing that overt protest would impede his covert actions, he never spoke the "fiery words" he wanted.Told with heart-pounding suspense, based on secret transcripts and unsealed files, Church of Spies throws open the Vatican's doors to reveal some of the most astonishing events in the history of the papacy. The result is an unprecedented book that will change perceptions of how the world's greatest moral institution met the greatest moral crisis in history.

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Recensione:

Other scholars...have written about the Vatican s connection with the German Resistance, but never with the detail, insight, and proof Riebling marshals here.... [A] groundbreaking new history of the Vatican-German Resistance.... Writing with the craft of a novelist and the conscience of a meticulous scholar, Riebling has produced a masterly account of these events. --National Review

Mark Riebling takes readers into the seldom-explored mysterious world of Vatican espionage with a deeply researched and fresh account that reads like a spy thriller. The crackling narrative of Church of Spies delivers an important and compelling addition to the debate over the legacy of Pius XII, the most powerful and complex Pope of modern times. --Gerald Posner, author of God s Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican

Riebling, an expert on secret intelligence, compellingly explores the papacy s involvement in espionage during World War II.... This book has much to surprise, especially the many German officers, separately and together, involved in attempts on Hitler s life.... Pius, vilified by critics who believed he ignored Germany s atrocities, comes off as a politically savvy man who realized his interference would precipitate Hitler s mortal overreaction against German Catholics. Not only a dramatic disclosure of the Vatican s covert actions, but also an absorbing, polished story for all readers of World War II history. --Kirkus

Descrizione del libro:

In this stunning revision of the role of "Hitler's Pope" in WWII, one of our top intelligence experts recasts Pius XII-allegedly a Nazi sympathizer-as an anti-Nazi spymaster

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Basic Books
• Data di pubblicazione: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0465022294
• ISBN 13: 9780465022298
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero edizione: 1
• Numero di pagine: 375