Vatican's WW II files to be released on CD

Almost 3.5 million files on Second World War prisoners will be made public by the Vatican in January as part of a promised release of documents intended to counter criticism of the papacy during the Holocaust.

Cardinal Jorge Maria Mejia, the Vatican’s librarian, said the POW files will be available on CD-ROM on the Vatican’s web site. The Vatican will also release documents relating to its diplomacy in Germany from 1922 to the outbreak of World War II in 1939.