[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] 57 of 63 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Well-researched and thorough book, May 2, 2001
By "dan@actmicrodevices.com" (Blacksburg) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Unholy Trinity: The Vatican, The Nazis, and The Swiss Banks (Paperback)
This is a thorough book. Contrary to what the critics on this page have written, the book includes: (1) Interviews with catholic priets directly involved with smuggling Nazi collaborators (2) Intelligence documents from France, the US, British and Russia (3) Media reports from Italy and other places at the time (4) interviews with some of those who were smuggled through the Vaticans 'Ratline', and of course photos and miscellaneous personal testimony from others involved or affected. In other words, the authors bring an enormous amount of evidence to bear on the issue of Vatican complicity in helping war criminals escape from justice.
The other critics on this page, it seems, have either not read the book, are talking about another book, or believe that the Vatican is mankinds sole connection to God or whatever and can do no wrong.
The critics charge that the Vatican was pro-communist is ludicrous. Communist persecution of Catholics behind the Iron curtain was a principle motivation for the Vatican to protect ex-Nazis. See, the Nazis hated the Communists as well. The vatican and the Pope desperately wanted to stop the eastward expansion of the communists. So they turned to ex-Nazi leaders (who still had connections, military equipment and money) for help. That is a key part of the story (theres more to it, though).
Even so, the Vatican was not a monolithic entity. There were elements within the church that hated the Nazis, and elements that supported them (most notably the Catholic priests connected to the Pavelic regime). Like any large organization, different people had different opinions. But the evidence is very strong that the highest levels of the Vatican supported helping ex-Nazis. US intelligence infiltrated the Vatican and reported that known war criminals were hiding in the vatican, where they had diplomatic immunity.
I would not give the book 5 stars, however, because it is not well organized. Some of the writing is confusing. The information is extremely somplex, since it relates many events involving different people at different places. Its a very complicated story thats difficult to tell.
One mor thing: if the Vatican is so virtuous and infalliable, then why are they still refusing to reveal what they know about the 'Ratlines'? Why are they refusing to provide public access to their internal documents of the period? Methinks they have something to hide.
So buy this book. It is a revealing story about power politics behind-the-scenes. To simply deny the evidence is naive.