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Vatican’s Pius XII archives begin to shed light on WWII pope

FILE - Brown University professor David I. Kertzer holds his book "The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe" in his office, Monday, April 20, 2015, in Providence, R.I. The Vatican has long defended its World War II-era pope, Pius XII, against criticism that he remained silent as the Holocaust unfolded, insisting that he worked quietly behind the scenes to save lives. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Kertzer’s new book “The Pope at War,” which comes out Tuesday, June 7, 2022 in the United States, citing recently opened Vatican archives, suggests the lives the Vatican worked hardest to save were Jews who had converted to Catholicism or were children of Catholic-Jewish “mixed marriages.” (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

FILE - President Truman's envoy to the Vatican, Myron C. Taylor, left, has an audience with Pope Pius XII at Castelgandolfo near Rome, on Aug. 26, 1947. The Vatican has long defended its World War II-era pope, Pius XII, against criticism that he remained silent as the Holocaust unfolded, insisting that he worked quietly behind the scenes to save lives. Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Kertzer’s “The Pope at War,” which comes out Tuesday, June 7, 2022 in the United States, citing recently opened Vatican archives, suggests the lives the Vatican worked hardest to save were Jews who had converted to Catholicism or were children of Catholic-Jewish “mixed marriages.” (AP Photo/Luigi Felici, File)

Vatican’s Pius XII archives begin to shed light on WWII pope