Three Righteous Men: Fry, Perlasca, and Sugihara—Part II

Peter Egill Brownfeld

      Peter Egill Brownfeld works in the Communications Department of the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. The first part of this article appeared in the October issue of the SCR.

Giorgio Perlasca

      The third heroic figure that this article highlights, Giorgio Perlasca, has perhaps the most incredible story, one that includes his disguised identity, his enormous bluffs, and daring actions to save Budapest’s Jews. Fry was sent by a relief organization. Sugihara worked for the Japanese government. In contrast, Perlasca was just an Italian businessman. Additionally, he was a fascist and a veteran of two of Mussolini’s wars.

      Perlasca worked for an Italian livestock importing company that was shipping meat for the Italian armed forces. He was living in Budapest when the Germans occupied the city in March 1944. With the Italians having abandoned their German allies, Budapest became an uncomfortable place for an Italian citizen. Perlasca was interned with the other Italian nationals at a camp called Kekes. The Italians feared that they would be deported to Germany as many Italian soldiers were after the announcement of the September 8, 1943, armistice. When Perlasca was released for a fifteen-day stay in Budapest, he went to the Spanish embassy and presented a document he received from the Spanish government as a result of his service in the Spanish Civil War. Perlasca’s paper said: “Dear Brother-in-Arms, no matter where you are in the world, you can turn to Spain.” Perlasca talked Spanish ambassador Angel Sanz Briz into issuing him a passport. Sanz Briz then asked Perlasca to stay on at the embassy and help out with its effort to save Jews.

Spanish Embassy’s Role

      While Budapest was becoming an increasingly dangerous place for Jews, the delegations of several countries established safe houses in an “international ghetto” in which some of the Jews were protected. In the Spanish embassy, Perlasca and his colleagues decided to issue letters of protection to anyone requesting them, regardless of social status, connections, or friendships. Because Hungarian racial laws denied Jews their rights as citizens, the Spanish embassy assumed the right to grant them citizenship in unlimited numbers. The letters were all to be backdated to the day before the fascist Szalasi government came to power and would all follow the same formula:

The X family has requested permission to move to Spain. . . . While awaiting departure, the family shall be under the protection of the Spanish government.

      However, the Hungarian government wanted concessions from Spain if Spain were to be allowed to interfere in Budapest’s anti-Semitic policies. On November 28, 1944, the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Sanz Briz to a meeting. The Hungarian government wanted Spanish recognition, used by Sanz Briz as a bargaining chip, to attain some level of international legitimacy. In this meeting, Sanz Briz feared he could not delay the Hungarians any longer and would have to admit that Spain would not recognize the government. Instead, he chose to leave under cover. In this way, diplomatic relations would not be interrupted, and the embassy could remain open. Sanz Briz said to Perlasca:

 

Listen to me, Perlasca. You have been invaluable, and I appreciate everything you’ve done. I’ve been able to get you a German visa. You can leave too. . . . Believe me, unfortunately, there’s nothing more we can do here.

Perlasca’s Choice

      The next day Perlasca went to visit the safe houses that the Spanish embassy was using to house “Spanish” Jews. Knowing that Sanz Briz had already left, the residents crowded around Perlasca and made him swear he would not leave. “I was really confused that morning,” Perlasca remembered.

But if I had to say what it was that convinced me to stay, then I’d guess it was probably that request that I swear not to leave. Yes, because I had solemnly sworn that I would stay. And at that point, you understand, I couldn’t do anything but stay.

When Perlasca visited another Spanish safe house he found members of the Arrow Cross, the Hungarian fascists, and discovered that the Hungarian government, having heard of Sanz Briz’s departure, interpreted it as the official interruption of diplomatic relations between Hungary and Spain. The minister of internal affairs had therefore ordered the evacuation of the houses. Perlasca protested:

Hold everything! You’re making a mistake. Sanz Briz has not fled. He has simply gone to Bern in order to communicate more easily with Madrid, seeing as it’s no longer possible to communicate from here. You’re making a very serious mistake.

He continued,

Please inform yourselves at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sanz Briz left a specific note naming me as his replacement during his absence! You are speaking with the official representative of Spain!

Perlasca’s plan worked. The Foreign Ministry ordered the evacuation of the safe houses to be suspended. This oration was the beginning of an Italian businessman’s role as “the official representative of Spain.”

      In meetings with officials of the Hungarian government Perlasca used the same tool as Sanz Briz, the possibility of Spanish recognition. Perlasca used other diplomatic weapons as well. He wrote in his diary about a meeting on December 3rd with the vice foreign minister. While discussing the Spanish protectees, Perlasca wrote,

I reminded him that there are thousands of Hungarian citizens living peacefully in Spain, but if, for any reason whatsoever, the Spanish embassy and the Hungarian government were to fail to reach a satisfactory solution concerning conditions for the Jews under Spanish protection, then the Spanish government, albeit with great regret, would have to put its relations with Hungary under review.

Another Bluff

      In another bluff, Perlasca wrote to the minister of the interior,

In my last letter I stated clearly that the Spanish government will be forced to take retaliatory measures if our protectees should become victims of your cruel treatment. If, by January 10, the Spanish government has not received a reassuring communication from me, the retaliation will begin. You should know that there are 3,000 Hungarian citizens living in Spain and that the government has decided to intern them and confiscate their property in the event its protectees here in Budapest are mistreated. The same measure is ready to be applied to all those Hungarians who wish to go to Paraguay and for whom 150 provisional passports have been issued here in Budapest.

Perlasca wrote in his diary:

All of this was a colossal bluff. I believe there are no more than 300 Hungarians in Spain.

Perlasca and the other diplomatic representatives of neutral nations went to the freight stations that were used for deportations to see if they could save anybody. On one of these occasions, Perlasca saw an old man who had pinned on his chest, next to the yellow star, his World War I medals. Perlasca walked up to him, took him away from the station, and helped him into his car. A German officer signaled one of the Hungarian policemen to investigate. After showing him his passport and the letter certifying that he was on the staff of the Spanish embassy, he was allowed to take the man away.

      On other occasions it was more difficult. Perlasca recalled an incident one morning at the station:

The line was moving forward, and I saw these two boys in the middle of it. They must have been twelve or thirteen years old, and they were identical. A couple of twins, all alone. I had the Buick from the consulate parked right there beside the platform with the Spanish flag on the fender. I really don’t know why, but those two boys really struck me. They had dark complexions and curly brown hair. To me they looked like the same person, multiplied by two. As they passed in front of me, I reached out and grabbed them, pulled them out of line, and threw them into the car. I yelled out, “These two people are under the protection of the Spanish government!” A German major came over and wanted to take them back. I stepped in front of him and said, “You have no right to take them! This car is Spanish national territory. This is an international zone!” The German major pulled out his gun, and we got into a shoving match. The driver and I were holding the door closed and he was trying to pull it open. Raoul Wallenberg was standing nearby. He turned to the major and said, in a very decisive tone, “You don’t realize what you’re doing! You are committing an act of aggression against the territory of a neutral country! You’d better think very carefully about the consequences of your actions!”. . .

 

Then a colonel came over to us. The major put his gun away and explained the situation to him. I gave my explanation too. I repeated once again that the two boys were under the protection of the Spanish government and that the embassy car was an extra-territorial zone. The colonel gestured with his hand to the major, indicating that he should desist. Then he turned to me and said, very calmly, “You keep them. Their time will come. It will come for them too.”

So we kept them. We’d done it. After the Germans walked away, Wallenberg said to me, under his breath, “You realize who that was, don’t you?” “No,” I said. “That was Eichmann.”

      The situation in Budapest was terrible for the Jews, but the interference of foreign embassies was still effective. On December 11, Perlasca wrote in his diary:

Thousands of Jews are living in the most unthinkable hiding places. Arrow Cross groups go searching for them and when they find them, they shoot them on sight. That’s why I’m trying to get as many of them as possible into our houses.

      Perlasca kept the Spanish legation open and functioning for 48 days. Over this period the embassy issued thousands of safe conduct letters to Hungarian Jews and also found food and money for them. Mordecai Paldiel, director of the section on Righteous Gentiles at Yad Vashem, credits Perlasca with saving up to 1,000 Jewish lives.

Commendations

      The Acting Executive Committee of the Hungarian Jewish Association recognized Perlasca’s work immediately after Budapest was liberated:

We take great pleasure in certifying that, during the Szalasi government, you helped us on many occasions and that, in those days, you risked everything to help the Jews through your contacts and your own personal efforts. In those hard and critical times, you were always at the side of those people who found themselves in serious difficulty, and now, we are happy that the moment has come in which we can express our gratitude for your constant commitment and for your noble human sentiments. According to our information, your activity on behalf of Israelite Jewish citizens made it possible for several thousand of them to save their lives and overcome the period of the siege of Budapest as well as the well-known political difficulties.

As he was leaving Budapest, with the Soviets in control of the city, a delegation from one of the safe houses presented Perlasca with this certificate:

We are sorry to learn that you are leaving Hungary in the direction of your native land, Italy. On this occasion we wish to express to you the affection and gratitude of the several thousand Jews who survived, thanks to your protection. There are no words to praise the tenderness with which you fed us and with which you cared for the old and the sick. You gave us courage when we were on the verge of desperation and your name will never be missing from our prayers. May Almighty God reward you.

Of all the commemorative plaques Perlasca received, his favorite was one given to him from the children of the elementary school near the home in which he later lived in Italy. It said: “To a man we would like to be like.”

Why He Did It

      Perlasca explained the reason for his actions:

Because I couldn’t stand the sight of people being branded like animals. Because I couldn’t stand seeing children being killed. That’s what I think it was; I don’t think I was a hero. When it comes right down to it, I had an opportunity and I took advantage of it. We have an old proverb that says that it’s the opportunity that makes a man a thief. Well, it made me something else. All of a sudden I found that I had become a diplomat, with a lot of people who were depending on me. What do you think I should have done? As it turned out, I think being a fake diplomat was a big help, because I could do things that a real diplomat couldn’t do. I mean. . . . diplomats are a strange breed. They’re not exactly free to do what they want to do. There’s etiquette, there are formalities, hierarchies, people to answer to, your career. A lot of things, a lot of constraints that I didn’t have.

      Perlasca humbly said:

I had the possibility to do something, and I did what I could. Anyone, in my place, would have done what I did.

Conclusion

      As we remember the horrors of the Holocaust and the destructive impact it had on European and world Jewry, let us not forget men like Fry, Perlasca, and Sugihara. These three each saved thousands of Jews. And there were others like them. There were individuals in every nation under Nazi control who opened their doors to the persecuted and they deserve to be remembered and honored. We should renew our vows to never forget the evil of that period, but we should also never forget the power of humanity and the preservation of compassion in a time when it seemed to have died.     Ω