The Myth of Hitler's Pope

Pope Pius XII and His Secret War Against Nazi Germany

De: David G. Dalin

Narrado por: Michael Floyd

Rabbi Dalin explodes the resurrected, widely accepted, yet bankrupt smearing of Pope Pius XII, whom Jewish survivors of the Holocaust considered "a righteous gentile". With devastating scholarship and unblinking honesty, he sets the record straight in an audiobook that should shame haters of the pope, inspire conservative Christians, and sound a warning about the deep roots of Islamofascism.

©2005 David G. Dalin (P)2014 Regnery Publishing

Setting the story straight.

This is a magnificent book. It clearly sets out a solid defense of Pope Pius XII, particularly in reference to his efforts to protect European Jews during World War II. The fact that this story is told from a Jewish perspective makes it that much more valuable.

great information, great reader, case made well

as a student of History, I have always been a bit puzzled by the accusations of Pope Pius the 12th being a friend to Hitler. it did not fit with his past when he was a cardinal and in the Diplomatic Corps of the Vatican.

Rabbi Dalin absolutely Torpedoes any conception that Pius the 12th did anything except act as a friend of the Jewish people before, during, and after World War II.

the book is direct, entertaining, and provides the reader with information that is not commonly at one's fingertips.

the reader, Michael Floyd, does a marvelous job!

as a result of the combination, it took me very little time to finish the entire book.

I cannot suggest the book enough oh, it is one that I will need to buy a hard copy of as well.

Dispels many misconceptions!

I had heard there was controversy on weather the pope had done enough to try and prevent the holo cost. This book does an excellent job in defending the popes actions in defending the Jews!

Great Book - Very Poor Reading

This is a very interesting and informative book, but the reader almost ruins it by mispronouncing many key words including the name of the main subject of the book. Very disappointed with the performance. Otherwise very much worth a listen.

Clearly written and well documented

Puts to rest any lingering myths or lies about papal collaboration with Nazis or Hitler.

Mit indeffiteegabel schloppiness

Any additional comments?

It's a great pity that such an important book is narrated so badly. The author deals with significant historical and religious issues and I wanted to listen with all possible concentration, but was often pulled up short by bad or peculiar pronunciation by the reader — in English and other languages. Examples:

Apostolic: e-POS-te-lick or even e-posse-lis-tic
Calumny: calmuny (unless I'm guitly of mishearing)
Eichmann: eck-men (but later on the standard English pronunciation "eick-man")
Bramante: bra-min-TAY
Pisa: pee-ZAH
Mantua: men-TOOHA
Padua: pe-DOOHA
Balfour: bal-FOUR
Mit brennender Sorge: mit brennender SAW-DGZ (audio pronunciation clips of the phrase can be found on the Web with no difficulty at all)
Anschluss: ahn-slosh (like "schloss", a castle)
Nasser: nah-SAIR
Egidio da Viterbo: egidio DAAH viterbo
Fichte: fitch (I guess it was Fikh-tuh or /ˈfɪxtə/, because Knee-Chee was mentioned in the same context)
Kulturkampf: kul-cher kampf
Zeitung: zee-tong
Norwich: nor-witch
Indefatigably: in-deffi-teeg-e-bli (or something impressively similar)

If you are going to narrate a book of this nature, you could surely make some attempt to find out how to use a generally acceptable pronunciation of unusual or non-English words or proper names. For the listener, one of the added advantages of an audiobook is to hear standard pronunciations by professional readers of uncommon terms or names. "Pe-selli" is acceptable for "Pacelli", but the occasional "pe-silly" is not. (Perhaps /paˈtʃɛlli/ would have been preferable for this text.) The reading is all the more silly because the narrator seems to be striving for a nasal, Brit-imperial academic lecturing tone. It is to be hoped that other readers will forge ahead indeffiteegabli and stay the course for the sake of the content of this compelling book.

Rabbi Dalin certainly has his own scimitar to grind, but he does so with scholarly integrity. By all means buy this audiobook, and try to mis-listen the mispronunciations.

Good information but a bit dry

A very insitful book on Pius 12th, but a bit dry. I would have like more personal story on Plus. Large portion on Muslim and Liberal antisemitism.

Audible should also offer Cornwell's book

There is much scholarship on Pope Pius XII (both critical and defensive) but little here at Audible. Rabbi Dalin details the things the Vatican (on the orders of Pope Pius XII) did to alleviate the plight of Europe's Jews. Dalin defends the Pius' silence during the Holocaust, arguing by speaking out forcefully - condemning Hitler, Nazism and Nazi atrocities - he might have jeopardized even more lives.

John Corwell (a primary subject of Dalin's book) wrote: "...as war began, (Pope Pius) was determined to distance himself from any appeal on behalf of the Jews at the level of international politics.

"This did not prevent him from issuing instructions to alleviate their plight at the level of basic charity. Given this background, we are obliged to conclude that his silence had more to do with a habitual fear and distrust of the Jews than a strategy of diplomacy or a commitment to impartiality. He was perfectly capable of partiality when Holland, Belgium, and Luxemburg were invaded in May 1940...."

I've been an Audible member since 2005. The thing I like about Audible is the availability of controversial books and authors. One such author I found soon after the September 11, 2001 attacks was Robert Spencer, best-selling authority on Islam, the Qur'an, Muhammad, etc. Spencer is not without his critics as is John Cornwell, author of "Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII." I have Corwell's excellent book (the subject of Rabbi Dalin's book) on audio cassette tape. Audible offers books and authors on controversial subjects but why not this subject? In fairness, Audible should offer Cornwell's book on Pope Pius XII and let the reader decide.

great work defending the pope

but he turned around and applied the same "logic" to anti-arab rhetoric in the end.

we should take his method in the first part and leave his method in the second part- essentially, he succumbs to a racist, broad stroke vilification of an entire race group based on nothing else but race. by the same treatment, he would condemn any group.
this leaves a vile taste in the mouth.

however, he does exonerate the Papcy from many anti-Catholic bigoted claims. it is simply that he drops his critical thinking when he ends the book. it's as if ge says "the Catholics are cool but the Muslims are evil" it can't be that simple.

Jewish Propaganda

I didn't like the fact that the author cherry picked favourable pieces and in the end we have another book of Zionist propaganda with a smidgen of truth woven in.