No 'smoking gun' in wartime archives of Pius XII on Holocaust, Vatican says

Artefacts from wartime archives on Pope Pius XII, who reigned from 1939-1958, are displayed ahead of the full opening of the secret archives to scholars on March 2, in this still image taken from video released on February 20, 2020, at the Vatican. Vatican Media/Handout via REUTERS

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican will on March 2 open up its archives on the wartime pontificate of Pius XII to allow scholars to probe accusations that he turned a blind eye to the Holocaust, but they will find he helped Jews behind the scenes, Holy See officials say.

"I don't think you will find a smoking gun," Father Norbert Hofmann, the top Vatican official in charge of religious relations with Jews, told Reuters in an interview in his office.