Giorgio Perlasca
Encyclopedia
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
who posed as the Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
consul-general
Consul (representative)
The political title Consul is used for the official representatives of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, and to facilitate trade and friendship between the peoples of the two countries...
to Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
in the winter of 1944, and saved thousands of Jews from Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
and the Holocaust.
Early life
Perlasca was born in ComoComo
Como is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy.It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como....
and grew up in Maserà
Maserà di Padova
Maserà di Padova is a comune in the Province of Padua in the Italian region of Veneto, located about 40 km southwest of Venice and about 11 km south of Padua...
, province of Padua
Province of Padua
The Province of Padua is a province in the Veneto region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Padua.-History and territory:...
. During the 1920s, he became a supporter of Fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
, fighting in East Africa
Italian East Africa
Italian East Africa was an Italian colonial administrative subdivision established in 1936, resulting from the merger of the Ethiopian Empire with the old colonies of Italian Somaliland and Italian Eritrea. In August 1940, British Somaliland was conquered and annexed to Italian East Africa...
during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War
Second Italo-Abyssinian War
The Second Italo–Abyssinian War was a colonial war that started in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war was fought between the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy and the armed forces of the Ethiopian Empire...
, and in the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
(Corpo Truppe Volontari), where he received a gratitude safe conduct for Spanish embassies
Diplomatic mission
A diplomatic mission is a group of people from one state or an international inter-governmental organisation present in another state to represent the sending state/organisation in the receiving state...
from Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
. He grew disillusioned with Fascism, in particular due to the alliance with Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
and the anti-Semitic
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
laws that had come into force in 1938.
In World War II
During World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Perlasca worked at procuring supplies for the Italian Army
Italian Army
The Italian Army is the ground defence force of the Italian Armed Forces. It is all-volunteer force of active-duty personnel, numbering 108,355 in 2010. Its best-known combat vehicles are the Dardo infantry fighting vehicle, the Centauro tank destroyer and the Ariete tank, and among its aircraft...
in the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
. In the autumn of 1943, he was appointed as an official delegate of the Italian government with diplomatic status and sent to Eastern Europe with the mission of buying meat for the Italian army. On September 8, the American general Dwight Eisenhower announced the unconditional surrender of Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
to the allied forces. Fully disillusioned with Fascism, Perlasca made public his oath to the Italian monarch, costing him his freedom. The Hungarian government, threatened by Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, took him as a prisoner, confining him in a castle reserved for diplomats. After a few months, he took advantage of a medical pass that allowed him to travel within Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
to get away and request political asylum at the Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
Embassy, due to his status as a veteran of the Spanish war. Suddenly Giorgio became "Jorge" with the same rights as a Spanish citizen. He worked with the Spanish Chargé d'Affaires, Ángel Sanz Briz
Ángel Sanz Briz
Ángel Sanz Briz was a Spanish diplomat during World War II who helped save many Hungarian Jews from Nazi persecution.After studying law, his first diplomatic posting was to Cairo...
, and other diplomats of neutral
Neutral country
A neutral power in a particular war is a sovereign state which declares itself to be neutral towards the belligerents. A non-belligerent state does not need to be neutral. The rights and duties of a neutral power are defined in Sections 5 and 13 of the Hague Convention of 1907...
states in smuggling Jews out of the country. The system he devised consisted of furnishing 'protection cards' which placed Jews under the guardianship of various neutral states, and of creating protected houses in mansions governed by extraterrorial conventions, thereby guaranteeing asylum for persecuted Jews.
When Sanz Briz was removed from Hungary to Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
in November 1944, he invited Perlasca to join him in safety. However Perlasca chose to stay on. The Hungarian government ordered the Spanish Embassy building and the extraterritorial houses where the Jews took refuge cleared out. Perlasca immediately gave the false announcement that Sanz Briz was due to return from a short leave, and that he had been appointed a substitute.
Throughout the winter, Perlasca was active in hiding, shielding and feeding thousands of Jews in Budapest, and to issue them with safe conduct passes on the basis of a Spanish law passed in 1924 that grants citizenship to Jews of Sephardi origin.
In December 1944, Perlasca audaciously rescued two boys from being herded onto a freight train in defiance of a German lieutenant colonel on the scene. Swedish diplomat/rescuer Raoul Wallenberg
Raoul Wallenberg
Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish businessman, diplomat and humanitarian. He is widely celebrated for his successful efforts to rescue thousands of Jews in Nazi-occupied Hungary from the Holocaust, during the later stages of World War II...
, also present, later informed Perlasca that the officer who had challenged him was none other than Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Eichmann
Adolf Otto Eichmann was a German Nazi and SS-Obersturmbannführer and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust...
. In a period of some 45 days, from December the 1st 1944 to the 16 of January 1945, he saved thousands of Jews by his own initiative.
After the war, Perlasca returned to Italy, and didn't reveal his actions to anyone, including his family, until he was found again in 1987 by a group of Hungarian Jews. A best-selling narrative of his remarkable single-handed valour was written by Enrico Deaglio, entitled, the 'Banality of Goodness', and was turned into a film by the RAI
RAI
RAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...
national television corporation.
Giorgio Perlasca died of a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
in 1992, having received decorations from the Italian, Hungarian and Spanish governments and is considered by the State of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
as one of the Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous among the Nations of the world's nations"), also translated as Righteous Gentiles is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis....
. His deeds were the subject of an Italian film, Perlasca, un Eroe Italiano.
Decorations
- Medal of the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) – Jerusalem, 1989
- Star of Merit – Hungary, 1989
- Town Seal of Padova – Padova, 1989
- Medal of the Holocaust Museum – United States, 1990
- Grande Ufficiale della Repubblica – Italy, 1990
- Medal Raoul Wallenberg – United States, 1990
- Ordine di Isabelle La Cattolica – Spain, 1991
- Gold Medal for Civil Bravery – Italy, 1992
Places
- inside Raoul Wallenberg Memorial Garden (Dohàny street 2)
- Giorgio Perlasca Kereskedelmi, Vengéglátóipari Szaközépsikola és Szakiskola (Giorgio Perlasca Highschool)
External links
- http://www.giorgioperlasca.it/ (RAIRAIRAI — Radiotelevisione italiana S.p.A. known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane, is the Italian state owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Economic Development. Rai is the biggest television company in Italy...
. Contains PDFPortable Document FormatPortable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
versions of original documents; in English and Italian) - Perlasca. Un eroe italiano at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
- An article from Commonweal on Perlasca's encounter with Eichmann
- "Giorgio Perlasca" song lyrics by Sandy Cash