European Catholics (like most Europeans) were anti-Semitic for any number of reasons, not least because of the charge that Jews had killed the Son of God. NOSTRA AETATE of Vatican II, which called for a recognition of Judaism and rejection of all forms of anti-Semitism, changed all that, long after Maximillian Kolbe volunteered his life in a concentration camp to save the life of another inmate. Polish/European anti-Semitism, however, shouldn't nullify the fact that Poles suffered terribly at the hands of the Nazis (and Russian Communists): one fifth of the Polish Catholic clergy died and six million Polish citizens -- half of them Catholic and half of them Jews. At 220 wartime deaths per 1,000, this was proportionally a greater loss than any other country in WWII.