In 1938, the Italian Racial Laws and Manifesto of Race were promulgated by the fascist regime, enforced to both outlaw and persecute Italian Jews[12] and Protestant Christians,[2][13][14][15] especially Evangelicals and Pentecostals.[13][14][15] Thousands of Italian Jews and a small number of Protestants died in the Nazi concentration camps.[12][15] In Jan. 1939, The Jewish National Monthly reports "the only bright spot in Italy has been the Vatican, where fine humanitarian statements by the Pope have been issuing regularly". When Mussolini's anti-Semitic decrees began depriving Jews of employment in Italy, Pius XI, on his own initiative, admitted Professor Vito Volterra, a famous Italian Jewish mathematician, into the Pontifical Academy of Science.[16]