What role did German-dominated governments play in the murder of Jews?What role did German-dominated governments play in the murder of Jews?
As a rule, the greater the independence a state had, the more likely were the Jews to survive. Conversely, the Jews of countries ruled directly or almost directly by Germany (Soviet Union, Poland, Serbia, the Netherlands) had only the slimmest chances of survival. As long as Italy remained a full-fledged ally of Germany (until September 1943), the Jews there were not only untouched but, in Italian-occupied territories, were also protected. Romanian military forces murdered great numbers of Jews at the frontiers of their territories, but the government refused to hand over Jews in their core territories to the Germans. The Hungarian government did not accede to Nazi pressure to deport Hungarian Jewry until the Germans occupied Hungary in March 1944. During the occupation, however, Hungarian forces played a major role in the deportation. The Bulgarian regime protected the Jews in its traditional territories, but those of the annexed areas of Macedonia and Thrace were deported to their de
