History has accused wartime pontiff Pius the Twelfth of complicity in the Holocaust and dubbed him "Hitler's Pope." Riebling shows that, in reality, Pius ran the world's largest church, smallest state, and oldest spy service. Skimming from church charities to pay covert couriers, and surreptitiously tape-recording meetings with top Nazis, Pius played sent birthday cards to Hitler-- while secretly plotting to kill him. Fearing that overt protest would impede his covert actions, he muted his public response to Nazi crimes

Darkness over the earth -- The end of Germany -- Joey Ox -- Extraordinary affairs -- The Pope is very interested -- Luck of the devil -- The Keller affair -- Absolute secrecy -- The X-report -- Warnings to the West -- The brown birds -- Forging the iron -- Conversations in the crypt -- Prague fatale -- A bottle of cognac -- The Siegfried blueprints -- Interrogations -- Prisoner of the Vatican -- D-Day -- X-Day -- The trove -- Hell -- The gallows -- Shoot them all! -- We cherished the hope