The Vatican posted online Thursday, June 23, thousands of letters addressed to Pope Pius XII (1939-1958) by European Jews asking for help in the face of Nazi persecution during World War II.
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In total, some 40,000 digitized files divided into 170 funds will be available for consultation on the site of the Holy See, the majority of which were published on Thursday.
In March 2020, the Vatican had already opened to researchers 120 funds and series of historical archives on Pius XII, accused by some of having remained silent during the extermination of six million Jews.
This new publication, wanted by Pope Francis, will allow the descendants of the senders "
to find traces of their relatives in any part of the world
", explained Bishop Paul Gallagher, in charge of relations with the States, in an article. published by L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican daily.
Decades of pressure
The requests, coming from all over Europe, are aimed at obtaining visas or passports, finding asylum, helping to reunite families or seeking information on people who have already been deported.
Some call for help to be freed from concentration camps.
But in most cases, the fate of those asking for help remains unknown, the Vatican said.
In a letter written in 1942, a 23-year-old German student explained that he was trying to escape a concentration camp in Spain.
“
There is little hope for those who have no outside help
,” he writes.
The archives reveal no further information about him, but according to research by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, he was released a year after his letter and eventually settled in California, the Vatican said.
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The publication, which comes a day after the pope's audience with an international Jewish organization, follows decades of pressure from scholars and historians divided over the role of the Italian pope during the Holocaust.
The Vatican defends Pius XII, saying he saved many Jews by hiding them in religious institutions and that his silence was intended not to worsen their situation.