The Vatican, trying to counter charges that Pope Pius XII did too little to stop the Holocaust, said today it would over the next few years open secret archives for the period before, during and after World War Two.
A lengthy Vatican statement said selected archives for the period leading up to 1939, when the future pontiff was Vatican ambassador in Germany, would be opened to scholars at the start of 2003. The documents deal with relations between the Vatican and Nazi Germany from 1922 to 1939.
In about three years, the archives will be opened for documents relating to relations between the Vatican and Germany for the period when Pius XII was Pope, from 1939 to 1958.
Scholars around the world, particularly Jewish groups, have asked the Vatican to open the archives relating to Pius XII before and during his pontificate, some accusing him of inaction during the Holocaust, in which millions of Jews were killed.
Vatican scholars have contested this, saying he worked to help Jews behind the scenes and did not speak out more forcefully for fear of prompting reprisals in countries occupied by the Nazis during the war.