Britain and the Vatican during the Second World War

Owen Chadwick (Author)

9780521368254, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 24 June 1988

344 pages
23 x 15.2 x 2.3 cm, 0.57 kg

'… admirably succinct and readable account of diplomatic life in the Vatican … his lively narrative provides a fascinating picture of the Vatican under siege'. Daily Telegraph

The book studies the use made by the British government of its envoy, immured inside the Vatican from 1940 to 1944, and what the envoy made of such opportunities during the Second World War to help the Allied cause. We see the Vatican, the Fascist Italy, from 'inside', and so gain a new and rare perspective into the predicament of the papacy. Owen Chadwick gives insight into the workings of the Vatican, including such questions as the struggle to keep Italy out of the war, the relations between the Vatican and the Fascist government, the use which the British sought to make of Vatican radio, the question of condemning atrocities, the bombing of Rome, the fall of Fascism, the armistice between the Allies and Italy, the German occupation of Rome, and the escape line for British prisoners of war. The author has used several groups of hitherto unexplored archives, and makes a fresh contribution both to the history of the Second World War and to the modern history of the papacy.

Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
1. Britain and the Vatican in the last years of Pope Pius XI (1935–39)
2. The conclave of 1939
3. The peace plans of Pius XII
4. The winter war, 1939–40
5. The Italian entry into the war
6. First months in the Vatican
7. Surveillance I
8. Surveillance II: the bag
9. The Jews in 1942
10. The bombing of Rome
11. The Italian armistice
12. The German occupation
13. Aftermath
Select bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Second World War [HBWQ], British & Irish history [HBJD1]