edited by Carol Rittner and John K. Roth. London and York: Lerk: Leicester University Press, 2002. 291 pp. $66.95 (c); $24.95 (p). The current desire of the Roman Catholic Church canonize as saint Pope Plus XII has produced in its wake a flurry of publications, both pro and con, revisiting his performance during the horrendous period of the Second World War, and, in particular, his attitude and behavior regarding the fate of the Jews in the Holocaust of Shoah. That entire issue has been even further charged with the publication of John Cornwell's (1999) Pope: The Secret History of XII (New York: Viking Press). This present volume, edited by two well-known and well-respected scholars of the period, is the result of a meeting convened by them of the fifteen contributors at Kings College, Wilkes-Barre, PA, in April of 2000 to assess the state of scholarship about Pope XII and the Holocaust...without the hype surrounding John Cornwell's intentionally provocative Pope or the polemical defenses of Pius (p. 5). That they have succeeded admirably well and brought reasoned inquiry and civil discourse what, at times, has been a tendentious confrontation, is a tribute not only their own critical objectivity, but the contributors as well, who, most assuredly and not unexpectedly, are not of a unified voice. The book itself is divided into three parts (with the various contributors noted), preceded by both an Introduction and Chronology, and succeeded by a Postscript and Select Bibliography. Part I: Exploring the Controversies Surrounding Pope XII and the Holocaust: Michael R. Marrus, John T. Pawlikowski, Eugene J. Fisher, Sergio Minerbi, and Doris L. Bergen. Part II: Understanding the Man and His Policies: Eva Fleischner, Gershon Greenberg, John Morley, and Richard L. Rubenstein. Part III: Evaluating XII and His Legacy: Susan Zuccotti, Michael Prayer, James J. Doyle, John K. Roth, Albert Friedlander, and Carol Rittner. In their Introduction, the editors ask the following questions: how should the Vatican's wartime policies be understood?...could Pope have curbed the Holocaust by vigorously condemning the Nazi killing of the Jews? Was XII really Hitler's pope, as Cornwell contended, or has he unfairly become a scapegoat when he is really deserving of canonization as a Roman Catholic saint instead?...what implications flow from the legacy of Pope Plus XII and current interpretations of his true identity? (p. 5). Three pages later, they provide the reader with some understanding of what is follow by enumerating four themes which underlie the book itself: (1) Pope XII must be understood in his particular historical context; (2) XII put the Roman Catholic Church -- as he understood that well-being -- first and foremost; (3) In retrospect, Plus XII's priorities -- understandable though they are -- not only make him an ambiguous Christian leader but also raise important questions about post-Holocaust Christian identity; (4) Jewish and Christian memories of the Holocaust will remain different, but reconciliation can continue grow (pp. …