The Vatican on Monday opened
up its archives on Pius XII and an expert said the documents
show that World War II pontiff acted to help Jews during the
Holocaust.
Pius XII, who was the head of the Catholic Church from 1939
to 1958, has been accused of failing to try to stop Nazi Germany
murdering Jews.
Johan Ickx, the director of the historical archive of the
Section for Relations with States of the Holy See's Secretariat
of State, said the Church's role under Pius XII is shown by a
folders with requests for help from around 4,000 people.
He said the documents included evidence of Vatican officials
providing false documents to Jews and taking in persecuted
people in extraterritorial Vatican buildings.
Rome's Chief Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, however, said that he
does not think the archives will show the World War II pope was
actually working behind the scenes to help Jews.
"This sensationalism is highly suspicious, with files that
are ready and easy conclusions laid out on a tray," Di Segni
told ANSA.
"But it does not take much to realise that the scarcity of
revelations will become a boomerang for the apologists at all
costs.
"It can be clearly seen that there was no desire to stop the
train of October 16 (1943 that took Jews detained in Rome to
Nazi death camps) and that the help was targeted to protect
people who'd been baptized."
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