The Pope and I

Kluger offers up an engaging autobiographical account of his friendship with Karol Wojtyla, who grew up to become Pope John Paul II. Kluger begins in the mid-1920s in Wadowice, Poland, when the two were schoolchildren, setting the backdrop for how Jews and Catholics interacted in Poland and how hatred, fear, and misconceptions about Jews were widespread throughout Europe in the prewar period. Kluger details how he and his father, separated from their family, served in the military during World War II while many loved ones were forced to live in ghettos and were then killed in German camps. He goes on to discuss how Wojtyla and he were reunited many years later in Rome when Kluger worked there as an engineer and Wojtyla was the archbishop of Kraków participating in Vatican II. Kluger, with di Simone, seamlessly weaves together personal recollections and the concurrent history of Jewish-Christian relations. He demonstrates how both men were affected by their friendship over the years and closes with the end of their long relationship when John Paul II, affectionately known as Lolek, died in 2005.