"A historical study based on documents previously locked in the Vatican's secret archives: The Popes Against the Jews graphically shows how the Catholic Church helped make the Holocaust possible." "It traces the Vatican's role in the development of modern anti-Semitism from the nineteenth century up to the outbreak of the Second World War. Kertzer shows why all the recent attention given to Pope Pius XII's failure to publicly protest the slaughter of Europe's Jews in the war misses a far more important point. What made the Holocaust possible was groundwork laid over a period of decades. In this campaign of demonization of the Jews - identifying them as traitors to their countries, enemies of all that was good, relentlessly pursuing world domination - the Vatican itself played a key role, as is shown here for the first time." "Despite its focus, this is not an anti-Catholic book. It seeks a balanced judgment and an understanding of the historical forces that led the Church along the path it took."--Jacket.
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