Pavestolens pressetalsmann om åpning av Vatikanets arkiver

Press office on opening of Vatican archives

VATICAN CITY, DEC 3, 1998 (VIS) - Holy See Press Office Director Joaquin Navarro-Valls made the following declaration this morning with regard to accusations that the Holy See has not opened its archives from the period of the Holocaust:

"Concerning this matter, I must once again repeat that the Holy See made public years ago 11 volumes of documents from the Vatican Archives which cover the period from March 1939 to May 1945. This monumental work has been universally recognized by historians as a fundamental contribution to studies of that period. In addition, another volume of documents on 'Pius XII and the Second World War according to the Vatican Archives' was made public.

"The exhaustive scrutiny of documents of the Vatican Archives allows us to state that there is nothing - I repeat, nothing - to add to what has already been published.

"As to the gold stolen by the Nazis - in Croatia, for example - research done in the Vatican Archives confirms the nonexistence of documents relative to such a matter, and thus repudiates any alleged transaction whatsoever by the Vatican. In addition, last year the Holy See took part, with a delegation of observers, in the London Conference on Nazi Gold.

"Whoever makes insinuations contrary to what the Holy See has repeatedly stated, should produce concrete evidence. This has, naturally, never happened."

OP/ARCHIVES:HOLOCAUST/NAVARRO-VALLS VIS 981203 (230)