of Nazi Germany. The book won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography in April 2015. In 2020, after decades of pressure, the Vatican archives were finally opened, and David Kertzer was among the first historians to access them. At the time of the death of Pius XII, in 1958, all the documents of the pontificate were locked up: by preventing scholars from consulting them, many questions remained unanswered, making Eugenio Pacelli one of the most controversial popes in history. With the support of thousands of unpublished documents, in his 2022 book A Pope at War: the Secret History of Pius XII, Hitler, and Mussolini , Kertzer uncovered the existence of secret negotiations between Hitler and Pius XII already a few weeks after the end of the conclave. He also showed to what extent Mussolini relied on the Italian clergy and religious institutions to obtain popular support for entering the war, and how both Mussolini and Hitler managed to manipulate the Pontiff to their own advantage. Above all, Kertzer explains why, despite having irrefutable evidence of the ongoing extermination of the Jews, Pius XII never denounced the Nazi atrocities, as he preferred to abandon the role of moral guide, rather than put at risk continued existence of the Church. Honors and awards 1969: Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude, Brown University 1972–1973: Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellow 1978: Fulbright Senior Lecturer, University of Catania, Italy, winter–spring 1982–1983: Fellowship, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford 1986–1987: Guggenheim Fellowship 1995–1996: National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship Fall 1999: American Academy in Rome, Department of Education Professor May–June 2000: Fellowship, Rockefeller Foundation Study Center, Bellagio, Italy Spring 2000: Fulbright Chair, University of Bologna 2005: Elected Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences 2015: Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography 2015–2016: Rome Prize for Modern Italian Studies Book Awards 1985: Marraro Prize (Society for Italian Historical Studies) for the best work on Italian history category in 1984 for Family Life in Central Italy. 1991: Marraro Prize (Society for Italian Historical Studies) for the best work on Italian history category in 1989 for Family, Political Economy, and Demographic Change. 1997: National Jewish Book Award in the Jewish-Christian Relations category for The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara Finalists 1997: National Book Award for Nonfiction for The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara. 2002: Mark Lynton Prize for History for The Popes Against the Jews. Written works Comrades