Investigate the Holocaust In October 1999 Marrus was one of three Jewish scholars appointed to the International Catholic-Jewish Historical Commission to investigate the role of the Pope Pius XII during the Holocaust. The commission was supposed to review and discuss the previously published Vatican records pertaining to the World War II period and report on their assessment. In October 2000 the commission issued a preliminary report with 47 questions about the Vatican's response to the Holocaust. Thereupon, in 2001, the Vatican rebuffed the commission's efforts to access Vatican archives of the Pontificate of Pius XII and the wartime period, and it subsequently disbanded amid controversy. In an interview in the Jerusalem Post Marrus expressed regret that the commission had run "up against a brick wall" on the question of opening Vatican archives. Massey College controversy On September 26, 2017, at a lunch at Massey College, Hugh Segal, who then had the title of Master of Massey College, joined Marrus and other students at the table, including a black student. Marrus then remarked, "You know this is your 'Master,' eh? Do you feel the lash?" Marrus apologized for the comment and resigned from his position as a Senior Fellow of the college on October 1, 2017, in a letter to Segal, the head of the college, stating his "deepest regrets to all whom I may have harmed." He added, "I am so sorry for what I said, in a poor effort at jocular humour... I want to assure those who heard me … that while I had no ill-intent whatsoever I can appreciate how those at the table and those who have learned about it could take offence at what I said." Personal life In 1971, Marrus married Randi Greenstein; the couple has three children. Honors and awards Marrus' books have received many prizes and distinctions, including the 1982 National Jewish Book Award in the Holocaust category for Vichy France and the Jews and more recently, a Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Lessons of the Holocaust. He has been a research fellow or has taught at St. Antony's College, Oxford, at Israel Institute for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, at UCLA, and at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Royal Historical Society. In 2008 he became a member of the Order of Canada. Selected works