 In 1963 , Rolf Hochhuth 's controversial drama Der Stellvertreter . Ein christliches Trauerspiel ( The Deputy , a Christian tragedy , released in English in 1964 ) portrayed Pope Pius XII as a hypocrite who remained silent about the Holocaust . The depiction is described as lacking " credible substantiation " by the Encyclopædia Britannica . Books such as Dr. Joseph Lichten 's A Question of Judgment ( 1963 ) , written in response to The Deputy , defended Pius XII 's actions during the war . Lichten labelled any criticism of the pope 's actions during World War II as " a stupefying paradox " and said , " no one who reads the record of Pius XII 's actions on behalf of Jews can subscribe to Hochhuth 's accusation . " Critical scholarly works like Guenter Lewy 's controversial The Catholic Church and Nazi Germany ( 1964 ) also followed the publication of The Deputy . Lewy 's conclusion was that " the Pope and his advisers — influenced by the long tradition of moderate anti @-@ Semitism so widely accepted in Vatican circles — did not view the plight of the Jews with a real sense of urgency and moral outrage . For this assertion no documentation is possible , but it is a conclusion difficult to avoid " . In 2002 the play was adapted into the film , Amen .. An article on La Civilità Cattolica in March 2009 indicated that the accusations that Hochhuth 's play made widely known originated not among Jews but in the Communist bloc . It was on Moscow Radio , on 2 June 1945 , that the first accusation directly against Pius XII of refusing to speak out against the exterminations in Nazi concentration camps . It was also the first medium to call him " Hitler 's Pope " . 
