Pope Pius "This letter clearly shows that Pope Pius XII and his staff knew what was happening"says Vatican correspondent Andrea Vreede.

The controversial Pope Pius XII was probably informed of the seriousness of the Holocaust at the end of 1942. This is evident from a letter found in the Vatican archives. The find was made public with the approval of Holy See officials.

The Vatican’s official position is that it was unaware that Jews were being murdered on a large scale during World War II. But the letter that has emerged, dated December 14, 1942, states that up to 6,000 Poles and Jews were killed per day and ended up in the ovens of the Belzec extermination camp in Poland.

‘Pius XII knew about it’

The document, addressed to the Pope’s personal assistant, was written by a German Jesuit who was in the resistance in Nazi Germany. According to Vatican archivist Giovanni Coco, who found the letter, the document has enormous value. “Pope Pius

The article does not explicitly state whether the Pope read the letter himself. But according to the author, it will be impossible for the Vatican to maintain that Pius XII was insufficiently informed about the Nazi genocide.

For several years now, the Vatican Archives have been opened to a group of scholars to investigate the tenure of Pius XII (1939-1958). The investigation should provide clarity about the Pope’s actions in wartime.

Critics argue that Pius XII deliberately closed his eyes to the Holocaust by not speaking out openly about it. The author John Cornwell of the book Hitler’s Pope (1999) even posits that Pius XII was an anti-Semite. The Vatican denies these accusations and says the Pope was not sufficiently informed about what was going on in the concentration camps.

Thousands of Jews go into hiding

Behind the scenes, Pius XII worked to protect Jews, his supporters say. Recent research supports the view that the Roman Catholic Church has provided help. At least 3,200 Jews were housed in Catholic monasteries in Rome, or with Catholic citizens. This was concluded by researchers about the period between 1943 and June 1944, when Rome was liberated.

Supporters of Pius XII started a process to have him beatified in the 1960s. But that procedure quickly came to a standstill due to the many controversy surrounding him.