Book Five THE INNOCENCE OF THE JUST The Holocaust in Hungary and Slovakia during World War II In 1944, Hitler refuses to abandon his plans to deport the last remaining, huge concentration of Jews in Europe. Over one million Jews live relatively untouched in Hungary. He calls for the renovation and enlargement of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. It's only at this time that Roosevelt and the rest of the world learn the truth about Auschwitz and the extermination camps of Poland. To bomb the camps then becomes a grave issue. Discovering also from these covert reports that Heinrich Himmler, Hitlers second-in-command and head of the SS, is willing to secretly negotiate with Roosevelt to end the war, Roosevelt sees the opportunity to preserve even more of the Jews in Europe. He decides to use them as his bargaining chip and sole condition for opening negotiations with Himmler. In the meantime, under the guise of needing a hundred thousand able-bodied Hungarian laborers and their families for the war effort back in Germany, Hitler hoodwinks the elderly Regent of Hungary, Miklos Horthy, and overseas a swift occupation of Hungary in March of 1944 by his Wehrmacht. Over four hundred thousand Jews are deported to Auschwitz in less than two months time by Adolf Eichmann's SS and the newly-installed, pro-Nazi and pro-German quisling Hungarian government and its thousands of rightist police. When Horthy learns the truth about Auschwitz and receives pressure from Roosevelt and the Vatican, he re-exerts his authority and halts the deportations. After an assassination attempt on Hitler in July of 1944, Himmler is encouraged by his associates to also exert his authority and approach Roosevelt's representatives in Switzerland to initiate serious negotiations to bring about a separate peace and an end to the persecution of the Jews. ; Leo V. Kanawada, Jr.