 In 1963 , Rolf Hochhuth 's controversial drama Der <unk> . Ein <unk> <unk> ( 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 <unk> 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 " . 
