The Pope at War: The Continuing Controversy over the Silence of Pope Pius XII during the Shoah - David I. Kertzer

Pope Pius XII’s decision not to speak out against the German attempt to exterminate the Jews of Europe has long generated bitter controversy. The opening of the Vatican archives for his papacy in 2020 permits new insight into the reasons why the pope acted as he did. Focusing on the pope’s actions in October 1943 as the German SS rounded up over a thousand Jews in Rome, Kertzer, who has examined thousands of documents from the newly opened archives, offers a new perspective on what the pope did and why he acted as he did.

David I. Kertzer, Dupee University Professor of Social Science Emeritus at Brown University is currently Research Professor at Brown where from 2006 to 2011 he served as Provost. His book, The Pope and Mussolini, was awarded the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and has been published in eleven languages. Among his many other books, The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara was a finalist for the 1997 National Book Award for Nonfiction and has been published in eighteen foreign editions. He co-founded and served for many years as co-editor of the Journal of Modern Italian Studies. In 2005 he was elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His 2022 book, The Pope at War, based on research in Vatican, Italian, German, French, British, and American archives, tells the story of Pius XII’s relations with Mussolini and Hitler during the Second World War. Editions have appeared in the U.S., Italy, Germany, and Britain.

Tuesday, January 28, 2025 • 314 Royce Hall • 2 PM

The Pope at War: The Continuing Controversy over the Silence of Pope Pius XII during the Shoah

David I. Kertzer (Brown)
Moderator: Aliza Luft (UCLA)

Viterbi Program in Mediterranean Jewish Studies

Sponsored by the UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies

Cosponsored by UCLA Center for the Study of Religion, the UCLA Department of History, and the UCLA Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies