 On 26 September 1943 , following the German occupation of northern Italy , Nazi officials gave Jewish leaders in Rome 36 hours to produce 50 kilograms ( 110 lb ) of gold ( or the equivalent ) threatening to take 300 hostages . Then Chief Rabbi of Rome Israel <unk> recounts in his memoir that he was selected to go to the Vatican and seek help . The Vatican offered to loan 15 kilos , but the offer proved unnecessary when the Jews received an extension . Soon afterward , when deportations from Italy were imminent , 477 Jews were hidden in the Vatican itself and another 4 @,@ 238 were protected in Roman monasteries and convents . Eighty percent of Roman Jews were saved from deportation . Phayer argues that the German diplomats in Rome were the " initiators of the effort to save the city 's Jews " , but holds that Pius XII " cooperated in this attempt at rescue " , while agreeing with Zuccotti that the pope " did not give orders " for any Roman Catholic institution to hide Jews . 
