Editing Giorgio Perlasca

{{short description|Italian businessman (1910–1992)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Giorgio Perlasca
| image              = Photo of Giorgio Perlasca.jpg
| caption            = 
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|1910|01|31|df=y}}
| birth_place        = [[Como, Italy|Como]], Italy
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|1992|08|15|1910|01|31|df=y}}
| death_place        = [[Padua]], Italy
| occupation         = Businessman, diplomat
| known_for          = Saving 5,218 Jews from deportation during the Holocaust
| awards             = {{Unbulleted list
|[[Righteous Among the Nations]] (1989)
|[[Order of Merit of the Italian Republic]] (1991)
}}
}}

'''Giorgio Perlasca''' (31 January 1910 – 15 August 1992) was an Italian businessman. With the collaboration of official diplomats, he posed as the Spanish [[Consul (representative)|consul-general]] to Hungary in the winter of 1944, and saved 5,218 [[Jews]] from deportation to [[Nazi extermination camps]] in eastern Europe. In 1989, Perlasca was designated by Israel as a [[Righteous Among the Nations]].

==Early life==
Perlasca was born in [[Como]] and grew up in [[Maserà di Padova|Maserà]], [[province of Padua]], Italy. During the 1920s, he became a supporter of [[Italian Fascism]], fighting in [[Italian East Africa|East Africa]] during the [[Second Italo-Abyssinian War]], and in the [[Spanish Civil War]] for the Nationalist ''[[Corpo Truppe Volontarie]]''. As a gratitude [[safe conduct]] for his service in Spain, he was awarded a diplomatic [[embassies|mission]] from [[Francisco Franco]].

Perlasca grew disillusioned with fascism, in particular, due to [[Benito Mussolini]]'s alliance with [[Nazism]] and adoption of [[Italian racial laws]] that came into force in 1938.

==In World War II==
During the initial phase of [[World War II]], he worked at procuring supplies for the [[Italian Army]] in the [[Balkans]]. He was later 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 fighting on the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Russian front]]. On 8 September 1943, [[Badoglio Proclamation|Italy surrendered to the Allies]]. Italians had to choose whether to join Mussolini's newly formed [[Italian Social Republic]], which was [[fascist]], or stay loyal to the King and join the Allied side. Perlasca chose the latter.

In Budapest, he was arrested and confined to a castle reserved for diplomats. After a few months, he used a medical pass that allowed him to travel within Hungary and requested political asylum at the Spanish Embassy. He took advantage of his status as a veteran of the Spanish war, adopted the first name of "Jorge" and, since Spain was neutral in the war, he became a free man.<ref>{{cite web |title=Perlasca, the great pretender |author=Baruch Tenembaum|url=http://www.raoulwallenberg.net/?en/saviors/others/perlasca-great-pretender.5011015.htm|publisher=The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation |access-date=25 August 2014}}</ref>

Perlasca worked with the Spanish Chargé d'Affaires, [[Ángel Sanz Briz]], and other diplomats of [[Neutral country|neutral states]] to smuggle Jews out of Hungary. The system he devised consisted of furnishing "protection cards" which placed Jews under the guardianship of various neutral states. He helped Jews find refuge in protected houses under the control of various embassies, which had extraterritorial conventions that gave them an equivalent to sovereignty. They could provide asylum for Jews.<ref name="Yad Vashem">[http://db.yadvashem.org/righteous/family.html?language=en&itemId=4016851 "Giorgio Perlasca"]. [[Yad Vashem]].</ref><ref name="Mixer Italia" />

When Sanz Briz left Hungary at night in November 1944, he did not tell Perlasca that he was going to leave,<ref name="ushm">[https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn504674 "Oral history interview with Giorgio Perlasca"]. [[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]]. 5 September 1990.</ref> and Perlasca chose to remain in Hungary. The Hungarian government ordered the Spanish Embassy building and the extraterritorial houses where the Jews took refuge to be cleared out. Perlasca immediately made the false announcement that Sanz Briz was due to return from a short leave, and that he had been appointed as [[chargé d'affaires]] for the meantime.<ref name="Yad Vashem" /> Throughout the winter, Perlasca was active in hiding, shielding and feeding thousands of Jews in Budapest. He continued issuing safe conduct passes as initiated by Spanish government, on the basis of a Spanish decree passed 20 December 1924 that granted citizenship to Jews of [[Sephardic]] origin (descendants of Iberian Jews expelled from Spain in the late 15th century), but it had been canceled in 1930, a fact the Hungarian authorities were not aware of.<ref name="Mixer Italia" />[[File:Giorgio Perlasca szobra.jpg|thumb|Perlasca bust in Budapest|left]]

In December 1944, Perlasca rescued two boys from being herded onto a freight train in defiance of a German lieutenant colonel on the scene. The Swedish diplomat-rescuer [[Raoul Wallenberg]], also present there, later told Perlasca that the officer who had challenged him was [[Adolf Eichmann]]. Over 45 days, from 1 December 1944 to 16 January 1945, Perlasca helped save more than 5,000 Jews.<ref name="Times of Israel" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Green |first=David B. |date=15 August  2013 |title=This Day in Jewish History {{!}} 1992: A Fake Diplomat Who Saved 5,200 Jews Dies |url=https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/2013-08-15/ty-article/.premium/1992-fake-diplomat-who-saved-5-200-jews-dies/0000017f-df2e-d856-a37f-ffee7b890000 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220814005842/https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/2013-08-15/ty-article/.premium/1992-fake-diplomat-who-saved-5-200-jews-dies/0000017f-df2e-d856-a37f-ffee7b890000 |archive-date=14 August 2022 |access-date=16 February 2024 |work=[[Haaretz]]}}</ref>

According to Perlasca, he also prevented the execution of a plan to raze the [[Budapest Ghetto]] with around 60,000 people in it, as the Nazis had done in Warsaw.<ref name="Varese News 2010-05-22">[http://www.varesenews.it/2010/05/gli-uomini-giusti-muoiono-di-sabato/147029/ "Gli uomini giusti muoiono di sabato"]. ''VareseNews''. 22 May 2010.</ref><ref name="Mixer israeliano">Interview by Enrico Deaglio to Giorgio Perlasca, from: Fondazione Giorgio Perlasca, ''Giorgio Perlasca - il mixer israeliano in ebraico'', 1990</ref><ref name="Mixer Italia">Interview by Enrico Deaglio to Giorgio Perlasca. from Mixer. ''Giorgio Perlasca''. [[Giovanni Minoli]]. Rai. 1990.</ref><ref name="ushm" /> While Perlasca was posing as the Spanish consul-general, he learned of the intentions of the [[SS]] and the far-right Hungarian [[Arrow Cross Party|Arrow Cross]] to destroy the ghetto. He asked for a direct hearing with the Hungarian interior minister, [[Gábor Vajna]], and threatened him with legal and economic measures against the "3,000 Hungarian citizens" (in fact, a much smaller number) declared by Perlasca as residents of Spain, unless Vajna withdrew the plan. After this episode, the plan to raze the Budapest Ghetto was cancelled.<ref name="ushm" />

== 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.

==Decorations and honors==
{{Righteous Among the Nations}}
[[File:StelePerlascaYadVashem.jpg|thumb|Stele dedicated to Giorgio Perlasca at [[Yad Vashem#Museum|Yad Vashem Museum]] in [[Jerusalem]].]]
*In 1987 Perlasca was made an [[honorary citizen]] of Israel and was honored by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum with a [[stele]] and a 10,000 tree forest.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/08/22/obituaries/giorgio-perlasca-82-helped-jews-flee-nazis.html|title=Giorgio Perlasca, 82; Helped Jews Flee Nazis|newspaper=The New York Times|date=22 August 1992}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.jpost.com/Green-Israel/People-and-The-Environment/Perlasca-Forest-Remembering-the-Righteous-of-the-Nations|title=Perlasca Forest: Remembering the Righteous of the Nations|website=The Jerusalem Post}}</ref>
*Perlasca was designated by Yad Vashem as [[Righteous Among the Nations]] in 1989
*Star of Merit, Hungary, 1989
*Knesset Medal, Israel, 1989
* Town Seal of Padova, Italy, 1989
*[[Wallenberg Medal]], United States, 1990
*Medal of Remembrance of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, USA, 1990
*Invitation to lay the first stone of the Holocaust Museum in Washington, USA, 1990
*[[Order of Isabella the Catholic|Knight Grand Cross]], Spain, 1991
*1st Class, [[Order of Merit of the Italian Republic|Knight Grand Cross]] (Italy), 1991
*Gold Medal for Civil Bravery (Italy), 1992
*A bust of Perlasca was created in Budapest.<ref name="APAV">{{cite web |work=jhungary.com |title=Giorgio Perlasca (1910–1992) |location=[[Budapest]], Hungary |url=http://jhungary.com/Giorgio_Perlasca |access-date=25 February 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110619004125/http://jhungary.com/Giorgio_Perlasca |archive-date=19 June 2011}}</ref>
* As part of its Righteous Among the Nations project, the Raanana Symphonette Orchestra commissioned an original orchestral piece, "His Finest Hour", from composer Moshe Zorman in tribute to Perlasca. The piece premiered 10 December 2014 in Raanana in the presence of Perlasca's son Franco and daughter-in-law Luciana Amadia.<ref name="Times of Israel">{{cite news |url=http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-orchestra-honors-italian-who-saved-5000-jews-from-nazis/ |title=Israeli orchestra honors Italian who saved 5,000 Jews from Nazis|website=The Times of Israel}}</ref>

===Places===
* Inside Raoul Wallenberg Memorial Garden (Dohàny street 2)
* Giorgio Perlasca Kereskedelmi, Vendéglátóipari Szakközépiskola és Szakiskola (Giorgio Perlasca Highschool)

===Movies===
* ''[[Perlasca – Un eroe Italiano]]'' (2005)
* ''[[El ángel de Budapest]]''

===Songs===
*  Sandy Cash: ''Giorgio Perlasca''<ref>{{cite AV media |url-status=live |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211205/fwSlS6B6ssY |archive-date=5 December 2021 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5HUE-yr6rA |title=Sandy Cash: Giorgio ("Jorje") Perlasca |via=[[YouTube]]}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
* David Ben Reuven: ''The Rescuers''<ref>{{cite AV media |url-status=live |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/uv5Lv2dvr5w |archive-date=16 February 2024 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv5Lv2dvr5w |title=David Ben Reuven: The Rescuer  |via=[[YouTube]]}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

===Stamps===
* Italian stamp of 2010
* Israeli stamp of 1998

===Books===
* Silvia del Francia & Luca Cognolato, ''L'eroe invisible'', {{ISBN|978-958-30-6345-9}} 
* Giorgio Perlasca, ''L'impostore'', 2007, Il Mulino. {{ISBN|9788815060891}} (Perlasca's memorial, published posthumously)
* Enrico Deaglio, ''La banalità del bene. Storia di Giorgio Perlasca'', 1991, Feltrinelli. {{ISBN|9788807070242}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.giorgioperlasca.it/] ([[RAI]] Contains [[Portable Document Format|PDF]] versions of original documents; in English and Italian)
* [https://www.giorgioperlasca.it/la-fondazione/lo-statuto/] Giorgio Perlasca Foundation
* [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0278017/ Perlasca. Un eroe italiano] at the [[Internet Movie Database]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070831062242/http://www.sandycash.com/ATSR_lyrics.html#Giorgio "Giorgio Perlasca"] song lyrics by Sandy Cash
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120105151744/http://budapestvacationservice.com/holocaust_heroes_budapest.html Giorgio Perlasca, Hero of the Hungarian Holocaust]
* [http://db.yadvashem.org/righteous/family.html?language=en&itemId=4016851 Giorgio Perlasca] – his activity to save Jews' lives during the [[Holocaust]], at [[Yad Vashem]] website
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perlasca, Giorgio}}
[[Category:1910 births]]
[[Category:1992 deaths]]
[[Category:Italian people of World War II]]
[[Category:Italian fascists]]
[[Category:Corpo Truppe Volontarie personnel]]
[[Category:Budapest in World War II]]
[[Category:Jewish Hungarian history]]
[[Category:Italian Righteous Among the Nations]]
[[Category:Catholic Righteous Among the Nations]]
[[Category:Italian expatriates in Hungary]]
[[Category:People from the Province of Como]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from the Province of Mantua]]
[[Category:Italian exiles]]