ordinary stories of italian diplomats who rescued jews

Ordinary Stories of Italian

Diplomats who rescued Jews

By Stefano Baldi

Italian Diplomats who rescued Jews 2

Two of many

Guelfo Zamboni (1897 – 1994)Consul General of Italy in Thessaloniki (Greece) in 1942-43

Giorgio Perlasca (1910 - 1992)“Jorge” Perlasca(fake) Consul of Spain in Budapest (Hungary) in 1944-45


Common paths• Ordinary heroes• More persons involved• Use of imposture for a good cause• Stories unknown for many years (role of books and

TV)

• In 1989 the State of Israel awarded Giorgio Perlasca with the title of Righteous among the Nations

• In 1992 the State of Israel awarded Guelfo Zamboni with the title of Righteous among the Nations.


Guelfo Zamboni• 1942 - Zamboni appointed Consul General for

Italy in Thessaloniki, a town occupied by Nazi Germany.

• Thessaloniki hosted the world's largest community (56,000) of Sephardic Jews, many of Italian descent.

• March - August 1943 - Germans deported nearly all of Thessaloniki's Jewish population to concentration and death camps.

• 1943 – Zamboni (with the help of Captain Lucillo Merci and having informed Pellegrino Ghigi in Athens) began to issue “Provisional Certificates of Italian nationality”… which allowed Italian Jews to avoid deportation.


Provisional!

4 June 1943 - Temporary Certificate of Italian Nationality

Signed by Guelfo Zamboni

“I know they were false papers, but I marked them with the writing «provisional» waiting for a confirmation!”G. Zamboni


Giuseppe Castruccio• 18 June 1943 - Zamboni left

Thessaloniki to return to Rome. His work in rescuing Jews was continued by his successor, Giuseppe Castruccio.

• 14 July 1943 - Castruccio organized a «rescue train» that transported Jews with Italian passports to Athens (at that time under Italian occupation).

• 113 Jews and 323 Italians (or presumed Italians…) were saved.


Sense of Duty

Guelfo Zamboni never told what he had done in those days.He remained quite unknown in Italy until the eve of his 95 birthday (1992), when he gave his first interview after being awarded the title of "Righteous among the Nations".

“I have only done my duty”


Books and other workson Guelfo Zamboni

• Daniel Carpi, “A New Approach to Some Episodes in the History of the Jews in Salonika during the Holocaust. Memory, Myth, Documentation”, in the II volume of “The Last Ottoman Century and Beyond: The Jews in Turkey and the Balkans 1808-1945” edited by Minna Rozen, The Aviv University

• Antonio Ferrari, Alessandra, and Jannis Chrisafis (edts.),“Ebrei di Salonicco 1943, i documenti dell'umanità italiana” (Italian Embassy in Tel Aviv, 2008)

• Luigi Ballerini, “Hanna non chiude mai gli occhi”, Edizioni San Paolo, 2015

• Theatrical work “Salonicco '43” by Ferdinando Ceriani, Gian Paolo Cavarai and Antonio Ferrari


Giorgio Perlasca• November 1943 - Giorgio Perlasca’s

native Italy unconditionally surrendered to the Allied forces while he was working in Hungary at procuring supplies for the Italian army in the Balkans.

• 13 October 1944 - Using a fake medical he escaped his internment, traveled to the Spanish embassy in Budapest and obtained a Spanish passport.

• Giorgio became “Jorge” and started to collaborate with with the rescue actions of Jews that carried out Angel Sanz Briz, the Spanish Consul in charge of the legation.


The Heroic Impostor• 30 November 1944 - Ángel Sans Briz and other

officials received orders to vacate. • Giorgio Perlasca stayed and gave the false

announcement that Sanz Brinz was about to return and had appointed him as the Consul of Spain.

• He helped organize the hiding (in safe houses), feeding and transport of thousands of Jews.

• Teamed up with other diplomats, including Raoul Wallenberg, in combined efforts to bring Jews to safety.

• May 1945 – Perlasca returns to Italy after the Russian occupation of Budapest

• Perlasca helped save more than 5,000 Jews


Safe-conducts

”The relatives of all Spaniards in Hungary require their presence in Spain. Until we are able to reestablish communications and the journey back is possible, they will remain here under the protection of the government of Spain.”

Issued fake safe-conduct passes claiming that the Hungarian Jews were Spanish born Jews. The passes read:


Family Safe-conduct


What we have to do“I couldn’t stand the sight of people being branded like animals . . . I couldn’t stand seeing children being killed. I did what I had to do.”

• Giorgio Perlasca returned to his family in Italy and lived quietly.

• That was until 1987 when a group of rescued Hungarian Jews finally found Giorgio and began telling others of his heroic actions.


Books on Giorgio Perlasca

• Enrico Deaglio, La banalità del bene. Storia di Giorgio Perlasca, Feltrinelli, !991

• Giorgio Perlasca, L’impostore. Le memorie dello Schindler italiano. Il Mulino, 2007.

• Dalbert Hallenstein – Carlotta Zavattiero, Giorgio Perlasca. Un italiano scomodo, Chiarelettere, 2010

• Marco Sonseri and Ennio Bufi, Giorgio Perlasca. Un uomo comune. Renoir Comics, 2011


Other workson Giorgio Perlasca

• Film - Perlasca, The Courage of a Just Man, RAI TV, 2002

• Theatrical work, Il magnifico impostore by Alessandro Domeneghini

• Theatrical Work, Il coraggio di dire no by Alessandro Albertin, 2016


Other Italian diplomats

that rescued Jews• Alberto Calisse – 1942-1943 – Consul General in Nice.

Opposed the decisions of French authorities who wanted to deport the Jews

• Vittorio Zoppi (1942 – Consul General in Vichy), and Gustavo Orlandini in France;

• Vittorio Castellani (First Secretary) in Croatia (1942-43). Opposed the handing over of the Jews and “assigned” the Italian citizenships to the highest possible number of Jewish refugees. nearly 3,000 Croatian Jews and other foreign Jews were saved

• Luca Pietromarchi, Luigi Vidau, and Roberto Ducci in Rome, with their work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

• Mario Di Stefano (First Secretary), Giovanni Soro (Second Secretary), in Poland (1939 – 1940). Conceded, between September 1939 and April 1940, an indefinite number of repatriation documents to Jews who, not being Italian, would have no rights to it.

Vittorio Castellani

Alberto Calisse


Giorgio Perlasca (1910-1992) - Italy, Aristides de Sousa Mendes (1885-1954) - Portugal, Carl Lutz (1895-1975) - Switzerland, Sempo Sugihara (1900-1986) – Japan, Selahattin Ulkumen (1914-2002) – Turkey

Israeli stamp – 27 April 1998

ordinary stories of italian diplomats who rescued jews

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