Editing Giorgio Perlasca (section)

== After the war==
After the war, Perlasca managed to return to Italy only in August 1945. On 5 June 1945, while still in [[Istanbul]], he delivered a first brief report on his activity to the Spanish consul general in Turkey, in order to prevent any legal charges for his actions on behalf of the Spanish embassy.<ref name="Zerbini 2006">Sira Zerbini. "La documentazione spagnola su Giorgio Perlasca e la sua opera umanitaria in favore degli ebrei". ''Spagna contemporanea''. nn. 30. 21 December 2006.</ref><ref name="Ciavatta 1944">Stefano Ciavatta (1944). "l'impossibile si poteva fare. Ad esempio, Perlasca, Il Riformista". 2010.</ref> Back home, Perlasca drew up a detailed memorandum of the events, dated 13 October 1945, and sent it to the Spanish foreign minister in [[Madrid]] and to the Italian government, keeping a copy for himself.<ref name="Zerbini 2006" /><ref name="Carducci">Lucia Bianchini. [http://www.estense.com/?p=356485 "Il liceo 'Carducci' ricorda Giorgio Perlasca"]. estense.com.</ref> He also wrote to Sanz Briz, the ambassador who he had replaced in Budapest, who laconically replied, warning Perlasca not to expect recognition for his work.<ref name="Ciavatta 1944" />

Perlasca didn't tell his story publicly or even to his family, but rather turned to those he considered might be the only appropriate recipients. The few institutional bodies to which he wrote, however, ignored him for diplomatic and political reasons or due to a simple lack of interest.<ref name="Zerbini 2006" /><ref name="Mixer Italia" /> Even the Jewish historian [[Jenő Lévai]], who asked for a copy of the Perlasca's memorandum in 1946 and then contributed to spread his name,<ref name="Ciavatta 1944" /> omitted to tell Perlasca's story in his ''Black Book'', presumably for political reasons.<ref>Michele Mancino. "Gli uomini giusti muoiono di sabato", ''VareseNews''.</ref> Back home, Perlasca was also asked to pay with his own money for an expensive car (a [[Fiat 500 "Topolino"]]) which he had rented during the rescue of the Jews and had been destroyed in the Soviet siege of Budapest; Perlasca later struggled to make ends meet.<ref name="Zerbini 2006" />

Only in 1961, on the occasion of the media clamor around the [[Eichmann trial]], did the [[Resto del Carlino]] newspaper publish a first article by Giuseppe Cerato that told Perlasca's story, without resonance; the same happened with an article by [[Furio Colombo]] published in the end of the 1960s on [[La Stampa]].<ref name="Dissegna 2015">Mara Dissegna (2015), "Giorgio Perlasca", ''Dizionario biografico degli italiani'', vol. 82. Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana.</ref><ref>"L'ideologia non conta nulla di fronte alla sofferenza umana". ''VareseNews''. 31 January 2010.</ref><ref name="Ciavatta 1944" />

Perlasca never yearned for fame or explicitly hid his story; he simply told it to those he thought might be the appropriate recipient, and then lived his life.<ref name="Zerbini 2006" />{{Tone inline|date=February 2023}} Only in 1980 did Perlasca's family learn of the memorandum he drafted, after Perlasca had a stroke,<ref name="Dissegna 2015" /> when he decided to talk about it to his closest relatives, but he continued to keep it private once he recovered. The family eventually learned of the contents of the memorandum in 1987, when the story became public.<ref name="Carducci" />

In 1987, a group of Hungarian Jews whom Perlasca had saved finally found him after searching for him for 42 years in Spain. There was wide publicity at the time over the event, and Perlasca became noted for his heroic deeds. [[Enrico Deaglio]] wrote an account of his remarkable heroism, ''Banality of Goodness'' (2002), which became a bestseller.<ref>{{cite book |author=Enrico Deaglio |title=La banalità del bene |publisher=Feltrinelli |location=Milan |year=2013 |isbn=978-8807883071}}</ref> The book was adapted as a made-for-TV film, ''[[Perlasca – Un eroe Italiano]]'' (2005), by the [[RAI]] national television corporation, not to be confused with the 1993 movie ''Perlasca''. In 1989, Perlasca was awarded by the Hungarian parliament in its [[plenary session]] with the highest national honor.<ref name="Mixer Italia" /> The following year Perlasca received acclaim in the United States and was welcomed by dozens of journalists and some survivors ([[Eva Lang (writer)|Eva Lang]], Avrham Ronai) in Washington, when the Holocaust Museum awarded him as Righteous Among the Nations.<ref>Fondazione Giorgio Perlasca, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XLph90eyQw 1990, Giorgio Perlasca negli Stati Uniti]</ref><ref>[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-11-22-vw-6726-story.html "Hero Refused to Turn Away From Persecuted : Holocaust: After more than four decades of obscurity, Giorgio Perlasca has been honored for protecting thousands of Jews in Budapest"]. ''Los Angeles Times''. 1990.</ref>

In October 1991, Perlasca was awarded the title Grand Ufficiale of the [[Italian Republic]]; the Senate approved the grant of a life pension for notable Italian senior citizens in financial difficulty (via the {{ill|Bacchelli law|it|Legge Bacchelli}}), but Perlasca declined the grant.<ref name="Dissegna 2015" />

Perlasca died of a [[myocardial infarction|heart attack]] in [[Padua]] on 15 August 1992.