Jan. 22 – In the frantic days of 1944 in Budapest, a young Italian became impostor, risking his own life to save thousands of Jews from deportation and death: this is the story of Giorgio Perlasca – a meat dealer from Padua – reinterpreted by Luca Zingaretti in the successful Rai1 miniseries. The movie version of the series, directed by Alberto Negrin with music by Ennio Morricone, will be projected on the International Holocaust Remembrance Day at the Italian Cultural Institute in Beijing: the appointment is set for Tuesday, January 27th at 7:30oom at the ICI Theatre. Perlasca is the Italian “Schindler,” who for 40 years lived in anonymity, ignored by the institutions, even suffering periods of severe economic hardship. He had been a convinced nationalist fascist, so much so that he fought for Franco in the Spanish Civil War. For the September 8 Armistice, he was in Hungary, where he was working, and where he did not know how to escape from the house; he was hunted by the police and SS. The terrible sight of the persecuted Jews in Budapest, however, convinced him to give up the run and exploit in a completely unexpected way a certificate of merit issued to him years before by Franco. He went to the Embassy of Spain, and in a situation of chaos managed to convince the officials to accept and endorse his status as a diplomat. With their help and with the cover of the true ambassador, who had retired in Switzerland, with humanity and extraordinary resourcefulness, constantly risking his own life, Perlasca managed to protect thousands of Jews in the houses of the Embassy, saving them from immediate executions and death trains. When peace came, Perlasca returned home, in Padua, and his story sank in one dazed silence for nearly half a century, until in 1987 he was found by a group of survivors and the world learnt of his deeds and courage. The first country to pay tribute to him was Hungary, conferring him in 1988 the Order of the Gold Star. A year later, Israel granted him honorary citizenship and named him “Righteous Among the Nations”. The recognition of the Italian State arrived in 1992. (Gil)
