Hitler's Pope; The Secret History of Pius XII

New York: Viking, 1999. First Printing. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. xii, [2], 430, [4] pages. Sources, the "Silence" Debate, and Sainthood. Notes. Select Bibliography. Index. John Cornwell (born 1940) is a British journalist, author, and academic. Since 1990 he has directed the Science and Human Dimension Project at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he is also, since 2009, Founder and Director of the Rustat Conferences. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He was nominated for the PEN/Ackerley Prize for best UK memoir 2007 and shortlisted Specialist Journalist of the Year, British Press Awards 2006. He won the Scientific and Medical Network Book of the Year Award for Hitler's Scientists, 2005; and received the Independent Television Authority-Tablet Award for contributions to religious journalism (1994). In 1982 he won the Gold Dagger Award Non-Fiction for Earth to Earth. He is best known for his investigative journalism; memoir; and his work in public understanding of science. Before his election to the papacy, Pope Pius XII served as papal nuncio to Germany, and Cardinal Secretary of State, in which capacity he worked to conclude treaties, most notably the Reichskonkordat with Nazi Germany. In Hitler's Pope, Cornwell accuses Pope Pius XII of assisting in the legitimization of the Nazi regime through the pursuit of a Reichskonkordat in 1933 and of remaining silent after information about the Holocaust was released to the public in late 1942 and early 1943. Owen Chadwick praised the book's scholarly approach and the abundance of new information Cornwell had managed to unearth. When the shocking story of Pope Pius XII that "redefined the history of the twentieth century" (The Washington Post ) was published, it sparked a firestorm of controversy both inside and outside the Catholic Church. Award- winning journalist Cornwell's overall thesis was that Pius XII, weakened the Catholic Church with his endorsement of Hitler-and sealed the fate of the Jews in Europe.