 Pinchas Lapide , a Jewish theologian and Israeli diplomat to Milan in the 1960s , estimated controversially in Three Popes and the Jews that Pius " was instrumental in saving at least 700 @,@ 000 but probably as many as 860 @,@ 000 Jews from certain death at Nazi hands . " Some historians have questioned this often cited number , which Lapide reached by " deducting all reasonable claims of rescue " by non @-@ Catholics from the total number of European Jews surviving the Holocaust . A Roman Catholic scholar , Kevin Madigan , has interpreted this and other praise from prominent Jewish leaders , including Golda Meir , as less than sincere , an attempt to secure Vatican recognition of the State of Israel . 
