Perlasca refused to believe this horrific plan would be put into effect until he saw Jews from the Portuguese-protected apartments being marched to the ghetto. Rushing to the Minister of the Interior, he begged him to stop the plans, but his humanitarian and religious arguments had no effect.
Perlasca then switched to threats, warning that if the Spanish government was not assured within 48 hours that the Jews under its protection would be safe, all Hungarians in Spain would be imprisoned and their property confiscated. He further added that the Brazilian and Uruguayan governments would be urged to follow suit. The Minister of the Interior decided to abandon his vicious plan.
When Soviet troops entered Budapest in January 1945, the Jews were finally able to leave the apartments. However, the Russians forced Perlasca to work as a street cleaner.
After a few weeks he was able to leave for Istanbul and eventually returned to Italy. There few people would believe his story. “My wife didn’t say outright that she didn’t believe me,” he recalled. “But I was sure she was not convinced.”
So Perlasca ceased speaking about his exploits in Budapest and lived in relative anonymity.
The full facts of his extraordinary story did not emerge until the late 1980s when some Hungarian Jews recalled the events of wartime Budapest at a family gathering.
“Do you remember that Spanish Consul?” someone asked.
Several did, and they placed a notice in Budapest’s Jewish newspaper asking for other testimonies. Gradually Perlasca’s story emerged and the tributes finally began to flow.
In 1989, the Hungarian Parliament awarded him its highest honor and a statue was dedicated to him in Budapest. Israel accorded him honorary citizenship and dedicated a tree to him at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.
As part of its Righteous Among the Nations project, the Raanana Symphonette Orchestra in Israel commissioned an original orchestral piece, “His Finest Hour,” from composer Moshe Zorman in tribute to Perlasca. The piece had its debut at a concert attended by Perlasca’s son Franco and daughter-in-law Luciana Amadia.
In 1990 he was honored in New York by the Raoul Wallenberg Committee. The Spanish king awarded him the Order of Isabella and a pension.
In Italy he became the subject of a book and a feature film. However, unlike Oskar Schindler, Perlasca did not achieve the same degree of fame as Schindler and Wallenberg.
Like many Holocaust heroes, he downplayed his valor to the end. Deploring the fuss, he asked, “Wouldn’t you have done the same? If you had seen Jewish children being shot in the streets?”
Giorgio Perlasca died of a heart attack in 1992 at the age of 82.
Dr. Hugo Dukesz, one of the Jews saved by Perlasca, wrote this tribute to him: “We want to express the affection and gratitude of the several thousand Jews who survived, thanks to your protection. There are not enough words to praise the tenderness with which you fed us and with which you cared for the old and the sick among us. You encouraged us when we were close to despair, and your name will never be omitted from our prayers. May the Almighty grant you your reward.”