A letter in the Vatican archives discovered by one of the Vatican’s archivists suggests that Pope Pius XII may have known about the Holocaust well before previously thought, contradicting the Holy See’s position at the time that the Catholic Church’s knowledge of Nazi death camps was vague and unconfirmed. Holy See officials encouraged the new breakthrough being made public. The 1942 letter was addressed to the Pope’s secretary, Father Robert Leiber, from Father Lother Koenig, an anti-Nazi Jesuit based in Germany. The document confirmed that Polish and Jewish people were being killed in furnaces at the Belzec camp. The letter also referenced Auschwitz and Dachau, possibly indicating other letters between the men discussing the Holocaust. “The newness and importance of this document derives from a fact: now we have the certainty that the Catholic Church in Germany sent Pius XII exact and detailed news about the crimes that were being perpetrated against the Jews,” Vatican archivist Giovanni Coco said.