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Issued on 20 October 1939, about seven months after Pius XII was elected pope and less than two months after Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland ignited World War II, that encyclical underscored the unity of the human race and outlined a position of resistance to Hitler to which Pius XII remained true throughout the war; (2) believing that Nazi Germany's onslaught against the European Jews would only be worsened by outspoken papal protests, Pius XII intervened in other ways to protect and shelter Jews whenever he could; (3) these interventions resulted in the rescue of hundreds of thousands of Jews; and (4) critics who dispute or reject Rychlak's account distort or ignore the evidence. If Benedict XVI, the German pope whose biography includes service in Hitler's army, does not preside over that action, one of his twenty-first century successors will.