Vatican City - The Vatican agreed yesterday to allow a group of Catholic and Jewish scholars to review 11 volumes from its archives on the church's role during the second World War.
Jewish leaders hailed the agreement as a first step towards shedding light on allegations that the Vatican fuelled anti-Semitism during the war and implicitly supported Hitler's genocide of Jews.
Under the agreement, "11 volumes of Vatican archival material, published between 1965 and 1981, that relate to the church's role during World War II will be examined by a joint team of three Jewish and three Catholic scholars," a Vatican statement said.