Holy Diplomacy: The Secret Power of the Vatican

Vatican City under the leadership of Pope Pius XII opted to pursue a policy of neutrality during World War II. Although the city of Rome was occupied by Nazi Germany from September 1943 and the Allies from June 1944, Vatican City itself was not. The actions of Pius and the rest of the Vatican leadership during the war have been closely scrutinized and criticized. Pius's supporters state that Pius employed diplomacy to aid victims of the Nazis and directed his Church to provide discreet aid to Jews and others, thereby saving thousands of lives. Critics, by contrast, have asserted that the Italian Church the Vatican oversaw was overtly pro-Fascist and that Pius's response to the Holocaust and other Axis atrocities was characterized primarily by inaction and silence.