Wartime Pope Pius XII knew details about the Nazi attempt to exterminate Jews in the Holocaust as early as 1942, according to a letter found in the Vatican archives that conflicts with the Holy See¡¯s official position at the time that the information it had was vague and unverified.
The yellowed, typewritten letter, reproduced in Italy¡¯s Corriere della Sera on Sunday, is highly significant because it was discovered by an in-house Vatican archivist and made public with the encouragement of Holy See officials.
The letter, dated Dec. 14, 1942, was written by Father Lother Koenig, a Jesuit who was in the anti-Nazi resistance in Germany, and addressed to the pope¡¯s personal secretary at the Vatican, Father Robert Leiber, also a German.
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