Righteous among the Peoples
June 29, 2008 3:59 PM 
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In March 1944, Nazi Germany occupied its ally Hungary and immediately began preparing the
extermination of Hungary's Jews.
A small band of diplomats from neutral countries and the Red Cross put their lives at risk to try to smuggle as many Jews as possible out of Hungary from under
Adolf Eichmann's nose. While
Raoul Wallenberg remains the best known of these
"Righteous among the Nations", there's no doubt that the most intriguing character was
Giorgio "Jorge" Perlasca.
A fugitive himself, as an Italian national who had refused his allegiance to Mussolini's puppet
Salò Republic, Perlasca had found refuge at the Spanish embassy, where he immediately received a Spanish passport as a veteran from the Italian Francoist volunteers of the
CTV in the Spanish Civil War, and joined the Spanish chargé d'affaires,
Ángel Sanz Briz, in protecting as many Sephardic (and not-so-Sephardic) Jews as possible under a
1924 Spanish decree granting citizenship to these descendants of the Jews expelled from Spain in 1492. When the Spanish diplomats were withdrawn to Switzerland, Perlasca
appointed himself Spanish ambassador and
continued Sanz Briz' efforts at enormous personal risk. After the war, he proceeded to retreat into obscurity until rediscovered forty years later.
posted by semmi at 4:10 PM on June 29, 2008