Washington - British intelligence knew in advance about the Nazis' 1943 plan to deport Italian Jews to Auschwitz and Winston Churchill's government could have prevented their deaths, according to US documents declassified yesterday.
The British knew the day to day plans of the SS and German intelligence from radio intercepts deciphered by experts at the British decoding centre north of London at Bletchley Park. US historians who have studied the newly available documents said it was clear that the fate of the Jews was not a high priority for British intelligence (MI6) or the British government and nothing was said.