For some strange reasons, some people continue to vilify Italy, despite all the evidence to the contrary of Italy's extremely compassionate dealings toward the Jewish Community in Italy during WWII.

NO Italian Jews, either before or after Italy was "Occupied" by the Nazis, were transported to Death Camps in German areas. Only Jews who were claimed by the Nazis to be "Refugees" from Eastern Europe were transported back.[1]

Those attesting to the Compassion and Heroism of the Italians were:

Walter Wolf, and his book, "Bad Times, Good People";
Rabbi Harold Schulweis, founding Chair of The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, "In Praise of Italy: In Gratitude and Appreciation";
Mary Felstiner, Simon Wiesenthal Center,Refuge... in Italy, 1933-1945,
Dr.Monte Finkelstein: "Italy's Attempt to Prevent Jewish Extermination",
Yad Vashem, 165 Italians named as "Righteous", Museum of Tolerance,
"A Debt to Honor"; Anti-Defamation League (ADL) The Foundation for Moral Courage Herzer, Ivo, ed. "The Italian Refuge: Rescue of Jews During the Holocaust".
Martin Gilbert "The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust"
Italy-The Righteous Enemy - B'nai B'rith; Rochlitz- Nat'l Center for Jewish Film
...and others

Those attesting to the Compassion and Heroism of the Pope and Catholic Church:

Golda Meir cabled Rome on Pius XII's death in 1958,
Chief Rabbi of Palestine- Isaac Herzog in 1945
Chief Rabbi of Bucharest, Alexander Safron
Chief Rabbi of Rome: Israel Eugenio Zolli
Jewish Historian Pinchas Lapide-Catholics saved 850,000 Jews
Jewish Historian Michael Tagliacozzo
Dr. Joseph L. Lichten-A Question of Judgment:
Jewish Virtual Library-860,000 lives Saved - The truth about Pius XII and the Jews
Decency in Italy helped Jews- J, the Jewish News Weekly-- Barry Lank
Catholic Heroes of the Holocaust-Elizabeth Altham &Jeffrey Rubin
Pope Pius XII and the Jews-Rabbi David G. Dalin
The Goldhagen Thesis and Historical Truth-Norman G. Finkelstein
...and others

This is just a small body of evidence that shows up the Goldhagen, Cromwell, Kertzer, etc sensationalist drivel up as......opportunistic distorted propaganda.

ITALIAN DOCTOR WHO FOOLED NAZIS

BBC News
December 12, 2003

A retired Italian doctor has revealed for the first time how he invented a fictitious disease which fooled the Nazis during World War II.

The trick of prescribing Jews with a mysterious illness terrified the Nazis and saved 45 Roman Jews.

Dr Vittorio Sacerdoti has told his remarkable tale on the 60th anniversary of liberation of Rome.

He worked from a small and ancient hospital based on an island in the River Tiber.

>From his flat where he still lives, he told the BBC's Guto Harri in Rome that he still remembers the day the Nazis turned up at the ghetto to take away his fellow Jews.

Just 28 years old at the time, he used courage and ingenuity to save 45 people from certain death.

As other Jews were being rounded up, Dr Sacerdoti admitted anyone who could reach the hospital as patients - and diagnosed them with a dangerous disease.

"We would write on their medical forms that the patient was suffering from K Syndrome," he said.

"We called it K after the German commander Kesserling - the Nazis thought it was cancer or tuberculosis, and they fled like rabbits."

"The day the Nazis came to the hospital, someone came to our room and said: 'You have to cough, you have to cough a lot because they are afraid of the coughing, they don't want to catch an awful disease and they won't enter'."

A detailed testimony has now been taken by the Shoah foundation belonging to American film director Steven Spielberg.

As Tulia Zevi told our correspondent: "We are also what we remember. We are made of our memories.

"A person who lives only in the present and has not a full consciousness of what lies behind his back is not fully human."

[RAA: Is that a statement every American of Italian Ancestry should take to heart?!!!]

BBC NEWS | Europe | Italian doctor who fooled Nazis
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-
/2/hi/europe/4066105.stm

The variance may be attributed to the different phraseology that is used, and some figures including non Jews, deportees, converts, emigration, etc.

6,815 Jews were deported from Italy, of whom only 799 survived.
by Mary Felstiner, Simon Wiesenthal Center at FN # 186

A total of 2,091 Jews are sent to concentration camps; almost all of them die in Auschwitz. --- http://www.sidic.org/english/dossier/ghettojewishit.htm

In contrast, it is estimated 75,000 Jews were "transported" from France.