Pius XII: The Hound of Hitler (review)

This book by a noted British Catholic journalist, editor, and author has received considerable notice in the United Kingdom. Its purpose is the rendering of a well-balanced and positive portrait of Pope Pius XII, but the author’s shortcomings as a historian mar the volume. Its pages are studded with mistakes and misprints, such as the two instances of Field-Marshal Albert Kesselring rendered as “Koshering.” The author is described as the translator of a volume of Actes et Documents du Saint Siège relatifs à la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, 1965–1981,¹⁰ yet there are only two references about these important works in the bibliographical notes. Introducing these notes Noel expresses his “particular debt . . . paying tribute” (p. 205) to the dubious and debatable biography of Pius XII by John Cornwell (New York, 1989). A vast amount of quotations and references are taken from La Popessa, Paul I. Murphy’s probably problematic biography of Mother Pasqualina, the pope’s confidante and companion (New York, 1982).With all due respect to this commendable nun, some of her recollections may be questionable; as seen, for example, in her startling assertion that the then-nuncio Eugenio Pacelli received the young, ragged Adolf Hitler in Munich in 1919 and gave him money for his anticommunist propaganda. Some of the quotes culled from Pasqualina may be authentic, alas—for example, when she blames the Allies: “How unfair that His Holiness was forced to suffer so much of the blame. The self-righteous Allies—particularly Roosevelt, who would accept nothing short of unconditional surrender, even though it meant prolonging the Holocaust—were devious enough to shift responsibility” (p. 191). But “unconditional surrender” had nothing to do with the Holocaust. If Pasqualina really spoke these words, they cast a shadow on her and the pope’s judgment and record.

The nub of the trouble is that this book furnishes little assistance to those who approve the thoughts and acts of this pope during World War II, while it—probably unwittingly—furnishes some evidences to his detractors. In his portraiture of Pius XII Noel contradicts himself. On page 111, he notes, “For most of his career Pacelli failed to take risks when, perhaps, he should have taken them.” But on page 195, he states, “With the purest and noblest intentions [he] was at no moment aware of himself as other than the divinely appointed guardian of the world’s most precious heritage.” In reality, Pius XII underestimated his powers, or, more precisely, his potential influence. Certainly he thought that nazism was execrable; but he loved Germans and Germany. He feared communism more than he feared nazism, and this fear affected his judgments and acts during the war.

In Pius XII: The Hound of Hitler Noel fails both as a historian and biographer. The very title of his book is as misleading as it is inaccurate. This pope had no sympathy for Hitler, but hounding him he did not.