Germany's+Allies

During the Holocaust, Germany had allied itself with two nations-- Japan and Italy. These three nations have been labeled the "bad guys" in the war, but Germany was the only one that participated in the active persecution of Jews. The other two refused to take part in the "Final Solution" for almost the entire war. Both nations even went as far as to protect their Jews and other refugees from deportation to the camps. Mussolini's government, for example, totally refused to persecute the native Jews; in the areas they occupied in France, Greece, and Yugoslavia, they hid the Jews from the German deportations. This worked for a long time until Italy's government was overthrown by the Nazis. After that all of the Jews in Italy and the conquered lands were subject to the Final Solution. Japan was similar in that they offered safety to Jewish refugees in both their land and the places they captured in China. Even when the Jews were forced into the Hongkew ghetto in 1943, "While conditions were hardly satisfactory, they were far superior to those in the ghettos under German control" (Wiesenthal).

To find out more about the Jews in Japan, click [|here].

By Mimi Wack