Pope Francis intends to open part of the secret archives of the Vatican during the Holocaust in order to find out what role the Catholic Church played in the mass destruction of an entire nation.
According to the American publication The Sunday Times, such information was provided to reporters by a close friend of the Pope, Argentine rabbi Abraham Skorka. Most likely, Francis was particularly interested in the activities of one of the former heads of the church, and in particular Pius XII, deeds which, according to the pontiff, it is difficult to give any assessment.
The head of the Vatican's press service, Federico Lambardi, noted that he found nothing surprising in the decision of the Pope. Lambarty added that the Vatican has long been planning to release some of the secret information regarding the Holocaust. The thing is that recently the head of the Catholic Church, his advisers, as well as other clergymen are seriously considering whether to canonize Pius.
Lambarti suggested that classified data could shed light on the activities of the aforementioned pontiff and allow the current Pope to make the right decision.
Recently, the actions of the deceased back in 1958, Pius XII repeatedly criticized and condemned by the Jewish people and various organizations. 
They claimed that Pope Pius, who was the head of the Catholic Church from 1939 to 1958, did not condemn the fact of the Holocaust, sympathized with the Nazis, and also did not provide any help and support to the persecuted people. The opinion that Pius XII “dishonored the whole church” with his improper behavior arose in the mid-60s after the German writer Rolf Hokhut published his work “Representative”, in which he described how the pontiff was silent while observing the mass extermination of persecuted Jews.
Six years ago, the official Vatican confirmed its intention to elevate Pius XII to the rank of saints, despite the fact that this decision caused a storm of discontent from Israel.
The persecuted people claimed that the Pope did not react when the terrible news of the Holocaust came to him, and also did not take any action when the Roman Jews were taken to concentration camps. However, there is another version of the events, according to which Pius XII took an active part in protecting and helping the victims of the Holocaust. So, in 1944, the High Rabbi of Rome publicly thanked the pontiff for his work, and in particular for his help in sheltering refugees.
In 1955, Jewish organizations also expressed their gratitude to the Pope and provided 20 thousand dollars for the needs of the Vatican.
Francis's predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, who abdicated last year, was the first pontiff to launch the process of canonization of Pius.
In his appeals and speeches, Benedict more than once tried to justify the actions of the former head of the church, claiming that he followed the teachings of Jesus, showing sympathy and support to those in need, as well as to those persecuted during the Holocaust, but due to insurmountable circumstances, he was forced to do it secretly.
Benedict’s words were confirmed a couple of years ago when a diary of a nun who led him during the Second World War was discovered. According to records made by a woman 60 years ago, Pope Pius personally ordered that the persecuted Jews be taken to shelter in one of the Roman monasteries.
The decision of Pope Francis was released a few days before the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. This date is celebrated every year, January 27th, by decision of the UN General Assembly since 2006. The United Nations chose this day precisely because On January 27, 1945, the largest Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in the Polish city of Auschwitz was liberated. According to various sources, from 1941 to 1945 there were killed 1.4 million peopleincluding 1 million Jews.
