massacre, and early on that the Ustaše state was sending Jews, Serbs and others to concentration camps. Initially, Stepinac did not oppose these deportations of Jews and others to concentration camps as a matter of principle, but pleaded they be carried out "humanely", by proposing to Pavelić, on 21 July 1941, the introduction of "some particulars to mitigate the procedure: a) for people to be sent to camp in such a way to allow them to prepare what would be the most essential, to allow them to arrange their most urgent obligations both to their families and their jobs; b) for transport not to be in crowded sealed railway cars, especially to distant places; c) to give internees enough food; d) to provide those who are ill with medical treatment; e) to allow the most necessary food to be sent to them, and enable them to correspond with their families.". After the release of left-wing activist Ante Ciliga from Jasenovac in January 1943, Stepinac requested a meeting with him to learn about what was occurring at the camp. After seven Slovene priests were killed at Jasenovac, Stepinac wrote to Pavelić on 24 February 1943, saying: This is a shameful blot and crime which cries to heaven for revenge, as the whole Jasenovac camp is a shameful fault for the Independent State of Croatia ... the entire public, and especially the relatives of the killed priests, ask for compensation and satisfaction and ask that the killers, who are the greatest misfortune for Croatia, be brought before a court of justice. These were still private protest letters. Although later in 1942 and 1943, Stepinac started to speak out more openly against the Ustaše genocides, this was after most of the genocides were already committed, and it became increasingly clear the Nazis and Ustaše will be defeated. Additionally, Stepinac never publicly condemned the numerically greatest Ustaše genocide, that against the Serbs, and Stepinac continued to support until the very end the Ustaše state that had committed these crimes. Addressing defenders of Stepinac's more private approach, Ivo Goldstein notes that "relatively more persecuted Jews were saved when high church dignitaries openly, energetically and in a principled manner opposed this persecution – as in France (especially the Archbishops of Toulouse and Lyon), the Netherlands, Italy and Denmark, and for a time even in Germany itself. Catholic bishops in Slovakia strongly opposed Nazi demands for radical