Eugenio Pacelli was elected to succeed Pope Pius XI at the March 1939 papal conclave. Taking the name of his predecessor as a sign of continuity, he became Pope Pius XII and tried to broker peace during the run-up to the war. As the Holy See had done during the pontificate of Pope Benedict XV (1914–1922) during World War I, the Vatican under Pius XII pursued a policy of diplomatic neutrality throughout World War II; Pius, like Benedict, described Vatican neutrality as "impartiality". He did not identify the Nazis in his wartime condemnations of racism and genocide; although he was praised by world leaders and Jewish groups after his death in 1958 for saving the lives of thousands of Jews, the fact that he did not specifically condemn what was later called the Holocaust has tarnished his legacy.