“Church of Spies: The Pope’s Secret War against Hitler

Mark Riebling, “Church of Spies: The Pope’s Secret War against Hitler,” Basic Books, 2015, 250 pgs. Plus 80 pages of notes

One of the lingering controversies of World War II concerns the role of the Roman Catholic Church, and whether its leadership — specifically, Pope Pius XII — provided meaningful opposition to the Nazi regime and why Pius remained silent about the holocaust.  I know I certainly questioned the Pope’s behavior during the war and my assessment has changed completely after reading this book.

Author mark Riebling has gained access to Vatican files apparently not viewed by any previous author.  Why these files have remained secret for so long is still not explained.  Also, this book provides evidence that there were a great many more ‘decent’ Germans opposed to the genocidal actions of the Nazis’ than I previously thought.

In any event, Hitler intuitively and correctly considered the Catholic Church to be a mortal enemy.  As explained by the author, “The Vatican remained the crossroads in the plot to kill Hitler: all roads truly led to Rome.”  All four known plots were known to the Pope who promised that he would serve as an intermediary to get a just peace from the allies.  Of course, Roosevelt’s later policy that only an unconditional surrender would suffice put a dent in that role.

The book begins with a tense scene with one Josef Müller being marched to the gallows having been denounced as a traitor to the Third Reich and sentenced to death. This is how we are introduced to “Joey Ox.”  While the book is ostensibly about the role that Pope Pius XII played in plots to bring down the Nazi Party by killing Adolf Hitler, it is Josef Müller who is the major character.  Although Müller took his direction from the pope, Muller is the one who makes the connections, drives the work, and conscripts others to join.

The explanation for the Pope’s silence during the war is given by Mueller after the war:  “Dr. Müller said that during the war his anti-Nazi organization in Germany had always been very insistent that the Pope should refrain from making any public statement singling out the Nazis and specifically condemning them and had recommended that the Pope’s remarks should be confined to generalities only.”

My Notes:

Pg. 12:  Pius XII early in his pontificate equipped his library with an audio recording system.  This surveillance system would remain one of the Vatican’s best-kept secrets.  Only seven decades later would the last living member of the Church’s Nazi-era underground, German-Jesuit Father Peter Gumpel, confirm its existence.  Audio spying came of age just as Pacelli became pope.  Over the next few years, Hitler, Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt would all make covert recordings.

Pg. 86:  In January 1940 Hitler began an investigation on the feasibility of invading Switzerland to cover his left flank.  Mueller had found out about it and informed Admiral Canaris.  Canaris then argued with Hitler that a full conquest of Switzerland would take more than the six weeks some had suggested.  Hitler abandoned the Swiss plan.

Pg. 131:  Pius XII was aware of the January 20, 1942, meeting in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee, chaired by Reinhard Heydrich, to plan the liquidation of European Jewry.  Five weeks after the meeting, Father Pirro Scavizzi reported to the Pope that the Germans had begun exterminating whole populations.  Scavizzi had accompanied an Italian military hospital train through occupied Poland and Russia, where conscience-stricken officers told him of the deportations into concentration camps from which few returned alive. 

Pg. 142:  For most of 1942, Germans sleepwalked with Hitler.  As the Wehrmacht slashed into the Caucasus, as Rommel rolled toward Cairo, Hitler seemed invincible.  Then at year’s end, everything changed.  Russian tanks encircled the Sixth Army at Stalingrad.  By Christmas, the SS reported mutterings of domestic discontent.  The average German now sensed that a retreat had begun which would not stop at Germany’s borders.