Robert Maryks writes in the introduction to his work:

Father Tacchi Venturi, a Jesuit, was the only man in the Holy See who had a continuous and uninterrupted relationship with Mussolini, from the day that he seized power to the fall of Fascism, and this cannot be considered a secondary detail, much less a simple coincidence. Tacchi Venturi was one of the most powerful men of the Holy See but we know very little about him. The Vatican documents recently made public (Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Pio xi's files; Archivium Romanum Societatis Iesu) show that the influence of the Church on the regime's ideological actions was very powerful. Ideas about the family, the roles of men and women, education, the importance of marriage, demographic policies and legislation encouraging a high birth rate are only a few of the many religious concerns that were frequently intertwined with political aims in a structural relationship so organic that it is hard to distinguish to what degree a certain action undertaken by the government was Fascist, and to what degree it was the result of pressure exerted by the Vatican upon the Fascist establishment.

The introduction of anti-Jewish legislation in Italy (1938) and the intransigent attitude expressed by Mussolini in response to proposals for a solution to the issue of mixed marriages appeared in the eyes of the elderly Pope Pius xi (Achille Ratti) as a worrisome signal, but only in connection with the danger represented, in his view, by a totalitarian shift in the regime, one that would move it closer to the position of National Socialism, with all the attendant consequences. What worried the elderly pontiff was the idea that Fascism had headed down a path that would lead it to attempt to take exclusive control of areas such as the education of the young, and of morality, just as had happened in Germany. It is no accident that all of these issues were part of the tensions that marked the uneven and frequently changing relations between the Holy See and the Fascist government in the preceding years, which seemed on the verge of coming dramatically to the fore. Pius xi's misgivings should be understood in this sense and not as an expression of a hostile attitude toward the regime or toward the antisemitic shift in direction that culminated with the laws of 1938. His concerns, it should be made very clear, were not shared by the rest of the Vatican's leadership.

Through unpublished documents Maryks allows us to see, from a different point of view, the events relating to the fate of the Jews during World War II. In particular, by focusing on the key figure of Tacchi Venturi we now have a new perspective on things. Of course there is still much work to be done but the book is a good starting point to better understand the background to the attitude of the Church of Rome in the terrible years of war. It is through documents of this kind that we should consider the events of World War II and other subsequent events related to the issues of racism and antisemitism and treat the topic from a new standpoint.