Sacred Betrayal tells the untold story of how Catholic and Jewish leaders in France responded to the Holocaust, revealing how private negotiations, broken promises, and misplaced trust shaped the fate of tens of thousands.
Drawing on archival research across four countries and three languages, the book moves beyond familiar accounts of Nazi officials and heroic resisters to uncover the behind-the-scenes reality of institutional life during genocide. Catholic bishops offered private sympathy while remaining publicly silent. Vichy officials made promises they never intended to keep. Jewish leaders, struggling to protect their communities, placed their hopes in relationships that often proved tragically misguided.
Yet Sacred Betrayal also restores French Jews as active participants in their own history. Their leaders challenged the racial foundations of Nazi and Vichy persecution, insisting that Jews were not a separate race but French citizens entitled to the same rights and protections as anyone else.
At its heart, Sacred Betrayal examines how people make decisions when the world around them is falling apart. It reveals how genocide unfolds not only through hatred and violence, but through trust, misjudgment, and institutional betrayal — raising urgent questions about the institutions we rely on to protect us.
SACRED BETRAYAL
How the French Catholic Church Broke Its Pledge to Protect Jews During the Holocaust
Harvard University Press, Sept. 2026
★ Starred review, Kirkus Reviews
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Press Reviews
“Thought-provoking…An exceptional addition to the genre of Holocaust histories.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Brilliant…A well-paced narrative bolstered, never weighed down, by archival evidence.”—Phoebe Maltz Bovy, Canadian Jewish News
“Well-written and meticulously documented.”—Robert Low, Jewish Chronicle
Praise
“Uncovering the interpersonal ties that linked the Catholic Church and Jewish organizations in wartime France, Aliza Luft reveals how bishops not only accommodated the Vichy regime but also shaped French Jews' perceptions of risk. Sacred Betrayal is a powerful reminder that, in contexts of extreme violence, institutions matter. A historiographical tour de force.”―Claire Zalc, author of Denaturalized
“A necessary and compelling examination of how the French Catholic Church failed to protect Jews during the Holocaust. Deftly handling the sources, Luft traces how local bishops collaborated with the Vichy regime while also misleading French Jews with false gestures and promises of protection. This important book sheds new light on the troubling reality of misplaced faith in religious institutions and on the incremental radicalization that became the Holocaust in France.”―Wendy Lower, author of Hitler’s Furies
“A compelling and damning history of the French Catholic Church’s complicity in the Holocaust. From its heartrending first pages, Sacred Betrayal shows how the Church assured Jewish citizens of its continued adherence to French republicanism―while at the same time, allying itself with the Vichy regime and abandoning the nation’s unifying values of liberté, égalité, fraternité.”―Christopher C. Gorham, author of Matisse at War
“A powerful account of how the French Catholic Church’s silence and selective interventions during the Holocaust shaped Jewish leaders’ perceptions, decisions, and ultimately survival. This is a major contribution to Holocaust studies and sociology, showing how institutions can generate misguided hope, distort risk, and inhibit collective action.”―Geneviève Zubrzycki, author of Resurrecting the Jew
“In this persuasive and sophisticated study, Aliza Luft shows how the Catholic Church falsely reassured French Jews amid Vichy and Nazi persecution―even as the bishops themselves drifted from silence to sporadic protest to complicity. With its account of appeals to moral authority, wavering resolve, and the choices behind public silence, Sacred Betrayal complicates the easy binary between resistance and collaboration.”―Anna Grzymała-Busse, author of Sacred Foundations
Book Talks, Interviews & Courses
To invite Aliza Luft to speak about Sacred Betrayal or to request an interview, contact Amanda Ice (US) or Ellie Andrew (UK/Europe). See all upcoming talks and events.
Instructors can request an exam or desk copy from Harvard University Press.