Remembering the Glorious Humanity of Giorgio Perlasca
Early in the morning of May 15th, 1944, SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann oversaw the first mass transportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz.
Over the course of just seven weeks, nearly 440,000 were transported to their deaths, thus leaving fewer than 300,000 alive in and around Budapest.
While Eichmann and his Hungarian partners prepared to deport the remaining 300,000, Italian-born Giorgio Perlasca embarked upon a lifesaving mission to rescue them.
As a man who once fought in the name of Fascism, Giorgio’s early life gave no clues as to the good and noble path he chose to follow…
Indeed, as a teenager, Giorgio was so enthused by Benito Mussolini, he not only enlisted to fight in “Il Duce’s” wars of East African conquest but, he went on to volunteer for the Fascist cause in civil war Spain.
Upon returning to Italy, however, in the spring of 1939, Giorgio found a country that was quite different to the one he’d left behind…
Appalled by the introduction of anti-Semitic laws and decrees, he was equally repulsed by the abuse and violence suffered by his Jewish comrades.
Owing to his vocal criticism, he was later deployed to Yugoslavia, where, working as a procurement agent for the Royal Italian Army, he was then told that he was being transferred to Hungary…
Although, initially, he was able to live quite freely in Budapest, that all changed in September 1943 when, after the Italians surrendered to the Allies, Giorgio was arrested for refusing to pledge allegiance to Mussolini in exile.
Ultimately escaping to the Spanish Embassy, it was there, he was greeted by its Charge d’Affaires – Ángel Sanz-Briz – who, the moment he learned of Giorgio’s prior service with the Francoists, bestowed him the security of Spanish citizenship.
Shortly thereafter, the Italian-turned-Spaniard uncovered that he wasn’t the only person Ángel was protecting…
Discovering that he'd long been issuing “letters of protection” to Jewish Budapestians, Giorgio was so “inspired by Ángel’s courage”, he decided to emulate him.
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Braving the ever-present danger of the authorities, he didn’t just become Ángel’s undercover courier, smuggling the letters to Jews in hiding; but, when the diplomat was unexpectedly recalled to Madrid, Giorgio became his unofficial successor…
Appointing himself “First Secretary” of the Spanish Embassy, Giorgio used his new-found diplomatic powers first, to dramatically increase the production of “protective letters”, and then, by procuring several properties he transformed into Jewish safehouses.
In so doing, he saved no fewer than 5,500 Jews from being sent to the gas chambers; and yet, when he was honored as a Righteous Gentile, on this day in 1988, Giorgio told Yad Vashem:
“My actions were anything but courageous…”
"From an early age," he expressed, "I learned that we're all equal in God's eyes..."
“For that reason,” Giorgio added, “I couldn't stand idle, while Godless men orchestrated a genocide."
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Addendum 1: -
SS-Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel) Adolf Eichmann.
Deployed to Hungary in March 1944, Eichmann was dispatched for one specific reason:
To organize and supervise the genocidal deportation of its surviving Jewish population.
Woking in conjunction with Hungarian ministers, Andor Jaros, László Baky, and László Endre, Eichmann initiated the first mass transportation on May 14th, 1944.
In the weeks that followed, more than 150 transports would leave Hungary for Auschwitz, where, by the time Eichmann was ordered to halt the deportations, in July 1944, nearly 450,000 Jewish men, women, and children were murdered.
Although captured by American forces at the war’s end, Eichmann was presumed dead when he managed to escape…
Finding his way to Buenos Aires, Argentia, under a false name, it was there, on May 16th, 1960, “Adolf Eckmann” was recaptured by an elite team of Israeli Mossad and Shin Bet agents, who, in turn, smuggled him to Israel to stand trial.
Ultimately sentenced to death by hanging, on December 15th, 1961, Eichmann was led to the gallows shortly after midnight on June 1st, 1962.
His last words, according to the then-Israeli spymaster, Rafi Eitan, were:
“Long live Germany. I hope you all follow me.”
Addendum 2: -
A detailed map illustrating Eichmann’s scheduled deportations of Hungary’s surviving Jewish population. All told, more than 560,000 were murdered during the Holocaust.
Addendum 3: -
Jews being lined up for deportation in Budapest.
Time and again, Giorgio used his “letters of protection” to save Jews from the deportation lines.
On one occasion, however, while attempting to rescue Jewish orphans, he was stopped by an SS-Sturmbannführer (Major) who, unbelieving of Giorgio, threatened to shoot him if he didn’t leave the orphans in line.
Standing his ground, Giorgio almost certainly would’ve been shot, had it not been for his fellow savior, Raoul Wallenberg…
Having observed the confrontation from afar, the Swedish diplomat rushed to the scene and, placing himself between Giorgio and the Sturmbannführer, told the latter:
“You can’t treat a Spanish representative in this manner. Spain is a neutral country, and your behavior – Sturmbannführer – is a brazen act of aggression.”
Moments later, an SS-Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel) arrived to ascertain what all the “fuss” was about…
Upon hearing Giorgio explain the orphans were “Spanish”, the Obersturmbannführer ordered his subordinate to lower his sidearm, and to “let the Spaniard have the Sephardim”.
Telling Giorgio, the orphans would be “taken sooner or later”, neither he nor Raoul was to know, the Obersturmbannführer was none other than Adolf Eichmann.
Addendum 4: -
In addition to saving Jews from the deportation lines, Giorgio is also credited with saving Budapest’s Jewish ghetto from being razed.
Seen here shortly after its creation, in November 1944, the ghetto housed more than 80,000 Jews in an area that spanned less than 0.1 square miles.
By early January 1945, over 20,000 of its inhabitants had been dragged to the Danube, where militiamen of the Hungarian Arrow Cross movement massacred them.
At around the same time, Giorgio learned that the Arrow Cross intended to burn the ghetto to the ground, with its surviving occupants inside; and so, rather than leave them to die, sprang into action to save them from the planned fire.
To that end, he demanded a meeting with the one man he knew had the power to revoke the plans – Hungarian Interior Gábor Vajna.
Although, initially, Vajna refused to cancel the "liquidation", he soon changed his tune when, after Giorgio threatened him with fictitious “repercussions for Hungarian nationals” in Spain if he didn't, he reluctantly acquiesced.
Addendum 5: -
Government ministers of the Fascist Hungarian Arrow Cross movement.
Founded by Austro-Hungarian-born Ferenc Szálasi (seen sitting, front row, centre) in 1935, the Arrow Cross party assumed the reins of power in the aftermath of “Unternehmen Panzerfaust” – the German-led coup d’etat that, in October 1944, deposed and prevented Hungary’s regent, Admiral Miklós Horthy, from signing an armistice with the Allies.
Shortly thereafter, Szálasi not only reversed Horthy’s decision to halt the deportation of Jews to the gas chambers but, in his aim to expedite the “liquidation” of Budapest’s Jewish community, he authorized his paramilitary to massacre them by shooting.
By the time the Russian Red Army reached the outskirts of the city, in December 1944, Szálasi’s militia had murdered nearly 40,000 Jewish Budapestians – thus leaving fewer than 40,000 clinging to life.
Although he and his cabinet fled Hungary before its liberation, in February 1945, both Szálasi and almost all his ministers were captured by American forces, who, in turn, returned them to be tried by the Russians.
Ultimately found guilty of high treason and Judeocide, the “Hungarian Hitler” was led to the gallows on March 12th, 1946, wholly unrepentant of his crimes.
Addendum 6: -
Szálasi’s Arrow Cross Paramilitary men massacring Jews on the banks of the Danube, in Budapest. All told, more than 20,000 Jewish men, women, and children were murdered there.
Addendum 7: -
Hungarian Jews await “selektion” on the so-called “Judenrampe” at Auschwitz II-Birkenau in late May 1944.
Upon arrival, Jews were divided into two columns:
One for men and older boys, and another for women, the elderly, and young children.
Then, SS doctors and other medical functionaries would begin the selection process, sending those deemed “fit” to be worked to death as slave labor to the right, and those to be murdered in the gas chambers to the left.
According to the detailed statistics recorded by the SS, more than 80% of Jewish arrivals were ordered to the left.
Addendum 8: -
Hungarian Jewish families moments before being marched to their deaths in the gas chambers of Auschwitz. The toddler in the centre of the photograph is trying to gift her older brother a flower.
Addendum 9: -
Hungarian Jewish children with their mothers being led to the “Umkleideraum” at Auschwitz.
Upon entering the “Dressing Room”, they were told to undress for the “Desinfektionsraum”.
Then driven into the “Disinfection Room”, it was there, they were murdered in their masses with Zyklon-B pellets of hydrogen cyanide.
Addendum 10: -
Spanish Charge d’Affaires – Ángel Sanz-Briz.
Upon learning of the planned “resettlement” of Hungary’s Jewish citizens, in late March 1944, Ángel devised a lifesaving plan to rescue as many as he could…
Mindful of a 1924 Royal Decree granting Spanish citizenship to Jews of Spanish origin, he thus used the expired law as a legal basis to issue passports to Hungarian Jews who, he claimed, were Sephardim.
When Ángel realized he’d “never be able to issue” enough, he then began drafting his “letters of protection” that, unlike the passports, which only guaranteed the safety of one person, protected entire families.
Ordered to “vacate” his position after the pro-German “Arrow Cross” Party deposed the Hungarian Government of Admiral Miklós Horthy, Ángel left Budapest for Switzerland, where he remained until the war’s end.
Although deservedly honored as a Righteous Gentile by Yad Vashem, Spain’s Socialist-dominated senate has rejected Conservative proposals to commemorate the “Angel of Budapest".
Arguing that “Sanz-Brinz was a representative of Fascist Spain”, the Socialists have and continue to assert that his commemoration would “whitewash Franco’s regime”.
Addendum 11: -
An example of one of the countless “protective passes” Ángel drafted and Giorgio delivered to Hungary’s beleaguered Jewish citizens.
Addendum 12: -
Giorgio in civil war Spain.
As an early volunteer of Mussolini’s “Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale”, Giorgio was among the first “Black Shirts” to be deployed in support of “il Duce’s” 1935 conquest of Ethiopia.
There, he fought for the duration of the campaign, before enlisting with the “Corpo Truppe Volontarie” to fight in civil war Spain.
Assigned to an artillery unit, he served with the latter from late December 1936, through to Generalissimo Franco's victory in April 1939.
Shortly thereafter, Giorgio returned to Italy where, despite being hailed a hero, and bestowed a slew of medals for his "conspicuous gallantry", he questioned “who and what” he’d been fighting for…
Not only was he disgusted with Mussolini’s alignment with Hitler’s Germany – a “Godless country” – but, he was equally revolted by the adoption of Nazi-inspired anti-Semitic laws and decrees.
Appalled at how the legislation was “destroying the lives” of his former Jewish comrades, he thus applied for “indefinite military leave”, which, although rejected initially, was finally granted in November 1940.
Addendum 13: -
A proof of life photograph Giorgio sent his beloved wife-to-be, Romilda, proving that, despite reports stating he’d been killed during the 1937 Battle of Málaga in civil war Spain, he’d survived miraculously unscathed.
Addendum 14: -
Upon finally being granted “indefinite military leave”, in November 1940, Giorgio soon found employment with the “Società Anonima Importa Bovinia” – a Trieste-based company, specializing in the supply of meat for the Royal Italian Army.
Seen here with his beloved Romilda while working as a procurement agent for the “SAIB”, Giorgio’s superiors grew concerned that his vocal criticism of Mussolini’s anti-Semitic legislation would “attract unwanted attention”; and so, “thought it best” to attach him to the Italian Army…
Swiftly deployed to Yugoslavia, it was there, he not only learned of the Holocaust that was being waged by Italy’s German allies but, it was also where he bore witness to the genocide.
In Croatia, he saw the Germans and their Croatian partners – the Ustaše – massacre Jews and Serbs in their thousands; in Serbia proper, he saw the same; and, when later attached to the Italian Expeditionary Corps in Russia, he saw just as many murdered in Ukraine.
By the time he arrived in Hungary, in late 1942, he’d seen “so much in the way of killing”, Giorgio was resolute that he’d “do something to save more from dying…”
Thus, when the opportunity arrived at the Spanish embassy, “naturally”, he “grasped it without thinking.”
Addendum 15: -
Giorgio with his beloved wife, Romilda, and their cherished son, Franco, in post-war Italy.
Addendum 16: -
Giorgio with his beloved wife, Romilda, their cherished son, Franco, their dearest daughter-in-law, Luciana, and their treasured grandson.
Addendum 17: -
For the duration Giorgio served as “First Secretary” of the Spanish embassy, he worked in collaboration with a small group of diplomats who, like him, used their diplomatic powers to save Hungarian Jewry.
Indeed, by working with Carl Lutz and Friedrich Born of Switzerland, Father Angelo Rotta of the Vatican, and Raoul Wallenberg of Sweden, he gained access to lifesaving funds and resources that, as a fictitious diplomat, he would never otherwise have had.
Unlike Carl, Friedrich, Father Rotta, and Giorgio, however, who all lived to be honored as Righteous Gentiles, sadly, Raoul had to be recognized posthumously.
Taken into “protective custody” by the Soviet NKVD, in mid-January, 1945, Raoul’s fate remained a mystery until February 6th, 1957, when the Soviet Government of Nikita Khrushchev released a statement saying:
“The prisoner Wallenberg died suddenly” ten years earlier on July 17th,1947.
Nearly four decades after his brutal murder, Raoul’s former university – the University of Michigan – created the “Wallenberg Medal” in his blessed memory.
Awarded to “outstanding humanitarians whose actions… reflect” Raoul’s “heroic commitment and sacrifice”, Giorgio, as can be seen in this photo, was bestowed his medal in 1990.
Addendum 18: -
Giorgio being presented with his richly-deserved Righteous Among the Nations certificate in Jerusalem, Eretz Israel.
Addendum 19: -
Giorgio during his Righteous Among the Nations ceremony in Eretz Israel. There, he wasn’t just honored as a Righteous Gentile but, was also made an honorary citizen of the Jewish State.
Addendum 20: -
A memorial bust in Giorgio’s blessed memory at the Italian Institute of Culture in Budapest, Hungary.
Addendum 21: -
Giorgio with his beloved wife, Romilda, shortly before his passing, aged 82, on August 15th, 1992.
When Romilda was asked on the eve of her passing, aged 99, in August 2010, “What was it like to have a hero for a husband”, she smiled, and said:
“To everyone, he’s a hero. To me, he’s just Giorgio; my husband; my only love.”