Hello, friends. Welcome back to a very special edition of the Bill Press Pod with a very special

guest today, author of a new and very controversial, very powerful book. You know, one of the most

interesting questions of modern history is,

what role did the Vatican and Pope Pius the 12th play in World War II? Also one of the most

hotly debated questions, by the way. Well, until recently, while there were many theories about that,

it was really impossible to answer

that question because the World War II Archives of the Vatican were closed to the public.

But Pope Francis changed that, opening up the archives a few years ago, and David Kurtzer,

our guest today, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian and professor

at Brown University, was one of the first to gain access. Based on those never-before-seen

Vatican archives, Kurtzer has just published a new book called The Pope at War, which tells the full story of what actions,

if any, Pius X-12 took in face of Hitler's attempt to round up and murder all Jews in Europe.

So, did Pius XI.12 say or do anything to stop the Holocaust?

David Kircher's book has the answer. David Kurtzer, good to talk to you,

and thanks so much for joining us today on the Bill Press pod. I'm happy to be with you.

So I must say, I read every single word of a book. Your book, David, I found it very powerful,

very authoritative,

certainly very well documented and very well written, I might add. At the same time, I felt it as a Catholic, totally shocking because it contradicted everything growing up as a Catholic

and through Catholic high school and college that I was ever

taught about Pope Pius the 12th. So first of all, I want to ask you, tell us about your sources.

You wrote this book based on new Vatican archives. Is that correct, that were released? When were

they released and by whom?

...