Following up on your "intermarium" question. I don't know where my head was yesterday, that I forgot to direct you to the dialogue between the Holy See and the Regent of Hungary, Admiral Nicolas Horthy. (I don't know for a fact that Horthy was Catholic, but it seems a reasonable supposition.) Until he was shoved aside by the Nazis in their March, 1944 invasion, Horthy seems to have done a decent job of impeding deportations of Jews to the death camps. I'm sure the constant prodding in this direction at the hands of the Holy See, its nuncio Archbishop Angelo Rotta, and the Hungarian conference of bishops, all helped put steel in his spine.
Here are some links to the relevant chapters of Robert A. Graham's book, Pius XII and the Holocaust: A Reader (A Catholic League Publication)
Hungary
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- More Jewish Appeals
Msgr. Rotta Rebuffed
The Pope's Telegram
- Hungary after Horthy
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- Papal Address
Intermarium was more than a region, as you know.
Even the Italians were not that cooperative with the Germans around when it came to deporting gli ebreici italiani. The Germans had such a low opinion of the Italians that they didn't realize that the constant SNAFUs were intentional.