Dr. David Kertzer at Drew University 

Drew University held its annual George and Alicia Karpati Lectureship on April 3, featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Kertzer in conversation with Drew’s President Hilary Link, an Italian scholar. With YouTube viewers from 26 states looking on, the two scholars discussed “World War II and the Holocaust: What the Vatican Did – and Didn’t Do.”

In 2019, Pope Francis announced the opening of the Vatican’s archives from Pope Pius XII, where Dr. Kertzer would look through tens of thousands of pages about the Catholic Church’s actions and silence during World War II and the Holocaust.

Among the topics of the dialogue, Dr. Link asked Dr. Kertzer about the power dynamic between Hitler, Mussolini, and Pius XII, the Catholic Church’s attitude and approach to fascism versus Nazism, and how the Pope reacted when the Nazis began rounding up Jews in Rome for extermination.

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The online event was free to the Drew University community and general public, with support of Michael and Noémi Neidorff, in honor of her parents. The George and Alicia Karpati Lectureship Series brings outstanding authors and scholars in Jewish studies, Eastern European history, and Holocaust studies to the university.