Records relating to the investigation of Giorgio Perlasca by the United States Holocaust Memorial Council

Giorgio Perlasca (1910-1992) was born on Jan. 31, 1910, in Italy, the son of an Italian government official in Padua. He fought for some time in the Spanish Civil War and later took a position in an Italian trade firm. He later worked in other cities in Eastern Europe after Italy entered World War II in 1940. He maintained an official position with the Italian Trade Commission, living in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (Serbia) for a year in 1941 and in 1942. Perlasca continued his work for the Italian government largely unimpeded until the fall of the Hungarian regent, Admiral Miklos Horthy, in 1944. Perlasca was interned by the Hungarian government from April to October 1944 after the Germans took control of Hungary. He escaped from internment on falsified papers provided by a member of the Swiss Diplomatic Corps. Using his status as a veteran of the Spanish Civil War, Perlasca adopted Spanish nationality and began work at the Spanish Legation shortly thereafter, where he posed as the Spanish Charge d'Affaires after the flight of the appointed Charge d'Affaires for Spain, in December 1944. During this time, he worked for the establishment of several safehouses in Budapest for sheltering Jews under Spanish protection. He also coordinated efforts with representatives of other neutral nations, including Raoul Wallenberg of Sweden, and the representatives of the Vatican, Portugal and Switzerland, to shelter and save Jews from deportation. Upon the liberation of by the Soviet Red Army in February 1945, Perlasca returned to Italy and raised his family. In 1987 he was honored for his wartime actions as a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, and was simillary honored with the Medal of Remembrance by the United States Holocaust Memorial Council in 1990.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

The materials in the collection were collected by the United States Holocaust Memorial Council during an investigation of Giorgio Perlasca's assistance to Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust. The information was received from Yad Vashem and various sources in Hungary and Italy. Before transfer to United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives, a file concerning the controversy of Lazlo Szamosi was added to the collection by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Campaign Office.