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