Holocaust, the 153 Cremation ovens at Buchenwald, 1945 Despite efforts to destroy or conceal evidence of the mass murder of millions of European Jews, crematoria such as the above were discovered by Allied troops as they marched toward Berlin most avoided the issue, and a few helped Jews In Germany, devout Christians, lay and clerical, Catholic and Protestant, engaged in acts of protest and resistance There and in occupied nations, individuals hid Jews, provided false papers, and proffered food Many a Jew with false papers in occupied Europe was vouched for to Nazi police and paramilitaries as a long-time neighbor by total strangers Others escaped in priests’ robes, although the Vatican made no overt statement At war’s end, a startling number of Jews emerged from hiding in Berlin’s workingclass districts Jewish leaders outside occupied Europe sought the bombing of Auschwitz’s gas chambers By mid-1944 this was possible, if difficult, from Italy Churchill and Eden ordered it, but Foreign Office and Air Ministry officials delayed and obstructed Equally, in the United States, the War Department (then home of the air force) opposed diversion of resources, though the United States bombed Auschwitz’s factories repeatedly Thus, nothing was done to prevent extermination, and Jewish representatives were told that a speedy military victory was their best hope of deliverance