Pope Pius XII receiving Lieutenant-Colonel MacKenzie, Commanding Officer of the 2nd Battalion, The Lancashire Fusiliers, 1944

Photograph, World War Two, Italy (1943-1945), 1944.

Pius XII was a controversial figure. Some historians claim he kept silent during the Holocaust and was sympathetic to Fascism, while others have argued that he saved the lives of many Jews and faced a difficult balancing act in trying to preserve the independence of the Papacy while speaking out against Fascist and Nazi repression.

From a collection of British official war photographs relating to the 78th Division.