Madam, Ned Monaghan (Letters, January 20th) refers to a plaque he saw in Rome commemorating the 1,000 Jews rounded up by the Germans and sent to Auschwitz.
This tragic figure is quite correct. But if Mr Monaghan had done some further research, he might have learned why only 1,000 of Rome’s 8,000 Jews were transported.
Nicholas Kunkel, a German army officer in Rome in 1943, has stated that German forces in Rome were ordered to round up the city’s Jews, but that only 1,000 were actually arrested, more than 7,000 having taken refuge in the Vatican, where German soldiers were not free to pursue them. Many were later hidden in Catholic monasteries, convents and schools.
As for Pius Xll not making a public protest against Hitler’s treatment of the Jews, secrecy was of the essence in saving the lives of 860,000 Jewish refugees in Europe. – Yours, etc,