Pope John Paul II was, in my opinion, one of the better Pope's that the Vatican housed. During his service, he attempted to improve relationships between the Church and a lot of different groups. This book focuses on his effort to improve relationships with Jewish people. He allowed the author to have access to Vatican archives and papers in an attempt to uncover any dealings that the Catholic Church had with Axis powers and Jewish people around the World War II years. He was actually the first Pope to ever visit Auschwitz, subsequently publishing his thoughts on the Holocaust and members of the Jewish faith. He also visited Yad Vashem.

During World War II, Catholics fought on both sides of the conflict. Pope Pius XI was not a fan of Hitler and his Nazi Party, saying that he was waging war against the Church and people's faith, which was true. Hitler was not into religion, really, and was openly hostile and restrictive about it. He had a lot of churches dismantled, and church officials arrested. When Pope Pius XII took over, he was the only world leader at the time who spoke out against Hitler and what was happening to the Jewish people. He also tried to help out the Jewish people by giving them aid via diplomacy.

This book serves as a wake up call to people who think that organized religion isn't criminal. I know that the Catholic church in particular has had a landslide of bad publicity for sexual abuse, coverups, cultural genocide, manipulation, and other atrocities. I know that most everyone else knows it too. A lot of people are unaware of the role that the Catholic Church played in World War II and the Holocaust. While they did condemn actions, attempted to help out where they could, they maintained an overall stance of neutrality. They did not want to become too involved and increase the target on their own backs since Hitler hated the Church as well. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that Pope Pius XII knew all about the Holocaust and what was happening to these people, but did next to nothing so he wouldn't "undermine aid efforts behind the scenes". In cases like this, silence is criminal, and the fact that they gave food and clothes and hid some people in churches doesn't really make up for the neutral stance they took.