A joint press release by the Pontifical Biblical Institute, the Jewish Community of Rome, and Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, published on 7 September, offered details of the discovery.

The historic find consists of a list of 100 women’s and 55 men’s religious congregations which provided refuge, along with the precise numbers of people accommodated within these institutions.

“The list of 100 women’s and 55 men’s religious congregations that offered hospitality, together with the numbers of the persons who were accommodated by them, had already been published by the historian Renzo de Felice in 1961, but the complete documentation had been considered lost,” according to the press release.

However, the newly-rediscovered documents reveal the stories of more than 4,300 individuals, with 3,600 of them identified by name.

[It’s an interesting post-script to the war, and very relevant to recent efforts to paint the Holy See as collaborationist rather than resistance-oriented in the Nazi-dominated era. The partnership with Yad Vashem lends much-needed credibility to this effort. — Ed]